Player of the Week: Doug Polk Beasts Everything
It was an exciting first week at the World Series of Poker with nine of the 74 scheduled tournaments coming to completion. Daniel Negreanu reached two final tables on his quest for three bracelets, poker's power couple Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov claimed their first bracelet together in the $10K Tag Team event, and the opening of Kings Casino Lounge has been attracting the highest-stakes cash games into the Pavilion room.
With all the happenings, it wasn't easy picking just one player for the honor of Global Poker Player of the Week. But choose one we did. We went with the winner of the highest WSOP buy-in this summer, Event #6: High Roller for One Drop - $111,111 No-Limit Hold'em, Doug Polk.
Polk bested a field of 130 of the game's best and brightest to claim his third bracelet and stake claim to over $3.6 million.
He started the final table in the sixth position, and there was a super talented field of players standing between Polk and victory. It wasn't an easy road to the win, but patience, good decisions, and a little luck propelled Polk to the finish line.
Usually, it's the first bracelet in a poker player's career that is cherished, but Polk admits winning this bracelet "feels much better" than his previous two.
"To win that much money against tough people in a world-class event, it's way different," Polk had to say when asked what winning this tournament meant.
Besides playing poker, Polk has been spending his time producing his popular vlog and growing his brand. Phil Hellmuth thinks Polk has what it takes to bring new fans to poker and grow the sport. On the PokerGo Live Stream, he said, "having Doug Polk win this is great for poker."
One way Polk plans on attracting new fans to poker is by giving away 2% of his WSOP profits. With such a big win early on, you can bet people will be flocking to sign up.
Whoops, forgot something. I'm giving away 2% of my WSOP profit, including One Drop.
— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker)
Poker success, as most players know, comes with peaks and valleys. And ten years ago, Polk wrote this on a popular poker forum:
"I am starting to feel like I am stuck in a hopeless situation. Every time I begin to do well, I have a huge roller coaster ride and end up broke again, ending up having to reload. Again I am down to my last 30$, and I just don't even know what to say. It's not like I'm out of money, but if I can't get my bankroll going, and I continue to be a marginal losing player, what's the point?"
Polk did the one thing most players have trouble doing, he admitted to being a moderately losing player. He also asked for help because he truly wanted to know what it would take to get better. He committed himself to the game, put in the time and is now reaping the rewards.
So what does someone do after they win $3.6 million? They go Lamborghini shopping, of course.
The Lamborghini might not be in Polk's immediate future, but player of the year might be a nice consolation prize. It's early yet, but Polk is sitting on top of the World Series of Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard. Here's how the top ten is shaping up as of Wednesday.
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doug Polk | 275.69 |
| 2 | Mark Scacewater | 267.51 |
| 3 | Benjamin Zamani | 220.08 |
| 4 | Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier | 189.67 |
| 5 | Joe Mitchell | 188.31 |
| 6 | Aron Dermer | 184.56 |
| 7 | Jesse Martin | 184.01 |
| 8 | Ryan Hughes | 180.63 |
| 9 | Dario Sammartino | 168.87 |
| 10 | James Obst | 166.20 |
And, in case you were wondering how good Doug Polk is:
Always smiling and joking with his opponents and the rail, Polk is definitely a player to keep an eye on this summer. Chances are he's not done "beasting everything" quite yet.
