Doug Polk is $109K from Winning His $100K Heads-Up Poker Challenge After Four Days
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Doug Polk had an easier time playing heads-up poker against Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu than he's been having this week versus "Birdman23" and all the "vlog watchers" on ClubWPT Gold.
The Upswing Poker founder is four days into a $100,000 "Code Doug" heads-up challenge on the new social poker site. To sum up how it's been going for Polk, he was closer to reaching his goal before the first card was dealt on Tuesday.
A New Online Poker Challenge
Polk has taken on many online poker challenges, his most notable one a $1.2 million win over Negreanu in 2020/2021. He's won most, including a $100 to $10,000 bankroll challenge, and he could end up winning his current battle. But the first four days have not gone his way.
The action for 30 days is taking place on ClubWPT Gold, a sweepstakes-based online poker platform, and Polk is livestreaming it all on his YouTube channel. He's taking on numerous opponents, but he's mostly seeking those who are "very bad" and "play fast."
The goal for the co-owner of The Lodge Card Club near Austin, Texas is to profit $100,000 in one month on ClubWPT Gold to prove the online poker dream is still alive. But he's down $9,231 four sessions into the challenge playing Sweeps Coin (SC) 3/6 heads-up no-limit hold'em, the sweepstakes poker equivalent of $3/$6.
Rough Start
Polk started off strong on Day 1 with a $3,870 profit. He won a number of large pots against multiple opponents, including a SC 3,130 pot against a player named "Apple Fritter" in which Kx9x turned two pair against AxKx two pair.
The hands haven't all gone against Polk, but many of the largest pots have been shipped to his opponents. Day 2 started off with Polk down almost five buy-ins before rallying only to end up losing $2,640
Day 3 was a bit of a frustrating one for the heads-up specialist as he not only had his worst session, booking a $10,473 loss, but also got reprimanded by the ClubWPT Gold X account for making "disparaging jokes about our ambassadors and players" during livestreams, to which he responded with a sarcastic video.
Polk referred to players on ClubWPT Gold as "vlog watchers" and trashed their poker skills. He would, however, bounce back a bit on Day 4 to book a tiny $92 win. The three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner has just 26 days to win a little over $109,000, all of which he's vowed to give back to his fans.
Polk lost big to "Birdman23" on Day 3, but then got some revenge against the same player the following day. Much of his frustration against this opponent came in a hand where he lost with pocket aces to a rivered set of 3's.
The Texas poker club owner turned off his computer on Friday to head over to The Lodge Card Club where he faced popular poker content creator Frank Cucchiara ("Frankie C") for some livestream live heads-up poker.
Frankie C won just over $1,700 in nearly four hours playing $10/$20 stakes. Polk will be back in action Saturday morning on ClubWPT Gold, a World Poker Tour (WPT) partnered site.
