Doug Polk's experimental marathon attempt to win $100,000 in a month of heads-up play has come to an end. The first half was pretty intense: Doug didn't hold back on streams, managed to argue with the room owners and promised to shave his head if he ended up in the red. After two weeks, he was down $29,409.
Despite the negative figure, Doug mentioned he'd been really enjoying streaming and making people laugh the last couple of weeks. Win or lose, he was excited to get through the second half of the challenge—regardless of the outcome.
The first session after the break didn't go well right away: Polk defended in the big blind and flopped top two pair . After check-checking, Doug bet 66% of the pot on the turn. and block bet nine, but was immediately raised. Doug shoved two pair and looked at trips of threes.
At the end of the day, at -$6,890, Doug addressed his followers:
– That's why we're here at ClubWPT Gold. To hold your hand and we'll go through misadventures together, whether it's not getting an auto rebuy or only playing at one table. It doesn't really matter what table you're at, you'll still feel frustrated and angry. Join me as we go through this madness together.
The next broadcast lasted only an hour and a half and was not without accidents either. Polk went all-in preflop with aces against queens for 250 blinds. Things got alarming on the flop:
What happened next was more like a campfire: Doug sat out, picked up a ukulele and started… singing. In two verses, he wrote a poem about bad software, the lousy play of opponents, the ban on poker players from Idaho, and, of course, managed to advertise the DOUG code.
ClubWPT gave him a chance to fight back by adding $25/$50 heads-up tables the next day. Doug took the chance and streamed for seven hours the next day, riding the variance swings to his heart's content – at one point his session loss exceeded $25,000.
The Lodge's new shareholder, Ethan "Rampage" Yau, helped to improve the situation, but the day still ended with a five-digit minus.
Yau's example was followed by others. Phil Ivey announced on Twitter that he would be sitting down at the ClubWPT tables with Jean-Robert Bellande and the most popular poker YouTuber Alexander Wolfgang.
At a full table, Polk was doing better. At one point, he managed to get all-in against Phil and Alexander in a triple all-in and hold on with against And .
The session with Ivy seemed to flip a switch: the next few days were in godmod, and the chart began to gradually go up. The mood changed too: “The task of breaking even has never seemed so easy.”
The turning point came on the last day of March. Polk got it all in preflop with kings and got called by . The ace-high flop was already followed by cries of "Fuck you," but a moment later anger gave way to joy – the king on the turn brought $2,800 and the first positive outcome in two weeks.
After 143 hours of streaming, Doug finally started winning. His profit grew to $521, meaning $3.64 per hour, which Doug called a productive use of time.
Polk soon played one of the biggest pots of the challenge, betting two barrels with aces on the board . By the river The opponent made a $3,000 donk block bet for $16,000, Doug called and beat an unexpected set of nines.
On April 1, ClubWPT management held an emergency meeting to try to decide how to respond to a streamer who, instead of advertising, was tearing the room apart. The proposal to fix bugs and update functionality did not find much of a response, and instead Doug himself was called to the carpet.
The humorous video ends with an unexpected and at the same time quite logical turn – Polk officially becomes the ambassador of the room. And no, this is not an April Fool's joke.
Soon, Eric Persson became active again on Twitter, clearly not having any peace from the marathon. A new portion of mutual trash talk ended with a challenge to a duel at the $50/$100 tables on the last day of the challenge. It didn’t take long for Eric to respond:
"I don't even have a mouse, why am I agreeing to this? I thought he meant a Krav Maga fight ( Ed. – a hand-to-hand combat system developed in Israel ) or a friendly match of beer pong..."
Before the match, Polk calculated the profit of the entire marathon - $18,121. In the event of losing a larger amount in the match with Persson, he would have to shave his head.
Within 10 minutes, the opponents were playing for a $37,000 pot. After Eric limped from the button, Polk raised with , continued with a small continuation bet on the flop , check-raised on the turn and quickly called Eric's donk all-in on the river .
A few minutes later, there was a five-figure pot on the line again. Polk three-bet preflop with , by flop continued with a continuation bet of half the pot and shipped another third on the terrible turn . Persson simply called on the river. played check-check.
After the first hour, Eric had the advantage. With $1,500 left of the total monthly profit, Polk ended the match: "I think I'll call it a day. I want to keep my hair. GG!"
Later, Doug summed it up briefly:
"The Code Doug Challenge has officially come to an end.
I played 160 hours and won $1,421.
Not quite the results I wanted but I had a lot of fun and now I get to keep my hair.
Will be doing a potential 30-hour stream Tuesday at 3PM CT before all Code Doug sign ups / depositors get paid on April 9."
Commentators on social networks did not forget to exercise their wit.
"Doug Polk working for minimum wage.. didn’t have that on my 2025 bingo card that’s for sure lol."
"13 year old Doug would of been pumped with 9 dollars a hour playing poker."
The most profitable “player”, as is usually the case, turned out to be the room. Doug noted that he'd paid around $18k in rake throughout the challenge.
