Doug Polk Bankroll Challenge Up To $3,320 Following Second Straight Win

Doug Polk is one of poker’s more colorful characters, and over the years has regularly entertained and informed the poker community either as a poker player, trainer and commentator, or by airing his views on cryptocurrencies and mainstream news via his various social media channels. Recently, he even did his first stand-up gig and in June launched a new comedy news channel on YouTube.

Needless to say, the Las Vegas based pro enjoys having his fingers in many pies, and two years ago decided to attempt a $100-to-$10,000 Bankroll Challenge on Nevada’s only viable online poker site WSOP.com. The 29 year-old has subsequently managed to put in 56 sessions over that time, and up until 8th August had just $1,336.34 to show for his efforts. Perhaps motivated by some of the scathing reports recently published on the two year anniversary of his challenge, Polk has subsequently bounced back hard and over the past few days managed to increase his winnings to $3,320.

Following in Jesus’ Footsteps

In 2006, Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson started the first bankroll challenge after setting out to turn $0 into $10,000 by initially playing freerolls and adhering to strict bankroll management rules. Ferguson had hoped to accomplish the feat within a year, but despite playing for 10 hours a week eventually took an additional six months to complete the task.

Keen to show that it was still possible for players in today’s environment to pull off a similarly impressive achievement, Doug Polk launched his own version of the challenge on 7th August 2016. After moving from $1,585 on Day 29 to a peak of $3,585 on Day 30, however, Polk’s bankroll then took a massive nosedive. By Day 36, it had subsequently plummeted to just $927, albeit with a seven month gap between Day 34 and Day 35 which resumed on 15th November 2017.

Accomplished Pro

Doug Polk is amongst poker’s most accomplished pros, and has won $9,454,008 and 3-WSOP bracelets throughout his live tournament career, including taking down last year’s WSOP $111,111 High Roller for One Drop for $3,686,865. In addition, he has amassed more than $2 million playing cash games online under the screen name WCGRider.

Competing at micro-stakes cash games, however, comes with a whole new set of challenges of its own, not least subtle moves often proving ineffectual against non-experienced players, who are more inclined to call their opponents bets, in the process leading to more tough beats in the games. Furthermore, Polk has had to balance his challenge with his numerous other commitments, as well as dealing with his own motivations for playing.

Bankroll Challenge Latest

On May 4th, Polk returned to his challenge for the first time this year (Day 42), with his end of session bankroll then fluctuating between $1,334 and $921, with the low point coinciding with a tweet he posted on May 31st stating:

“Not planning on playing much, if any, poker this summer. Haven’t been enjoying playing lately. Most of the poker I’ve played recently I played because I felt I ‘should’ play, or I don’t want to let down my fans that want to see me play, but at the moment I dont feel like playing.”

On 12th August (Day 55), however, Doug won a tournament for $436, and used his improved bankroll to take another shot at NL100 and PLO20, which had previously contributed to some of his bankroll declines. This time around he managed to boost his bankroll to $2,303.05, and two days later Polk felt motivated enough to spend 10 hours playing 100NL cash game, at the end of which he booked yet another $1k winning day. As a result, he has now boosted his winnings so far to $3,320.

Poker is a game of ups and downs, and the players who succeed are often those with more resilience and patience to deal with the game’s constant frustrations, and the ability to ride out its rough or even non eventful patches. Now that Polk has started to get back into the swing of things, few would bet against the pro finding a way to eventually win his challenge, no longer how long that may take.