DISCUSS NOW: This Week on 2+2 with Doug Polk
Doug Polk started his Twitch stream admitting that yesterday he took some hits, taking some time to tell us what he learned from his past session. “It was funny walking away from the computer thinking ‘Wow that was a brutal session,” Doug Polk said with half a smile. “Then reminding myself I lost $17.” Still, he admitted that his own competitive nature made the bad session sting harder than its monetary value would allow. “I want to give it everything I got to get there at the end of the challenge.” Later, Doug talked about the ramifications of losing 17% of his poker bankroll in the past session. “We are nowhere near short stacking territory,” he told Twitch live viewers — “but if shit goes down and we have 20 bucks, I want you to know that I’m willing to just play with $1 at $0.01/$0.02.” After registering in as many freerolls as he could, he considered breaking his own rule and going big by entering a $2 tournament, but the stakes were just too high. After much consideration, Doug went back to the good ol’ $1 Heads Up Sit and Go tables. “I hope [my current opponent] doesn’t throw a Bazam at me,” he said, afraid to be sniped by people watching the stream. A problem which he suspects kept him from having a winning session the day before. His fear sounded a bit paranoid, until just a few hands later, when his first opponent Bumpnuglys showed a river bluff…
After a short break, it was finally time for the Doug Polk Q&A Strategy portion of the stream — featuring questions taken from viewer feedback on Twitter. Here are some of the highlights.
https://twitter.com/danicol7/status/762821151856918528
Summary of Doug’s answer: Poker Tracking software. The ability to go back and see what you did right or wrong in a session is very important in poker if you want to get better.
https://twitter.com/Audaciter504/status/762822244162637824
Summary of Doug’s answer: Pot Limit Omaha is a lot more volatile than No Limit Hold’em. In NLHE you are likely to win if you have a good hand, in PLO that’s simply not the case. However, any sample that’s between 10k and 20k hands is a good indicator of whether or not you’re winning, though this will not represent your true win-rate. Remember to tweet your poker strategy questions to @DougPolkPoker as soon as the Twitter Strategy Segment is announced if you want to receive an answer. Halfway through the Strategy discussion, Doug realized that his 3-handed tournament was now Heads-Up, so he focused on that until he won second place for a whopping profit of $0.09. He then entered a $1 PLO Sit and go soon after.
This is why we wear the Make Money shirts, people!
After a rough start, Doug experienced his first big victory in the Challenge — winning a PLO8 Sit & Go for about $3.50 — a couple of hours into the cast. Doug decided to focus, once again on $0.01/$0.02 ring games along with a $1 tournament knowing that his bankroll had recovered to $89.92. Responding to comments telling the two-time WSOP bracelet winner that he will never complete his challenge playing $1 SNGs, Doug replied, “You are not going to get there fast, but you will get there. I’m trying to show you that you can still get there, even if the games these days are a lot tougher.” After suffering a sick bad beat with pocket Queens in the $1 tournament, Doug took the time to remind us of his friend in need, Tom Dwan.
Soon after that heartfelt PSA, Doug received another beat. This time in the form of his Aces going against a straight. He lost all of his profits for the day, with his bankroll now at $78.43. Doug took a moment to hopelessly ask his Aces why they would do such a thing, before shaking it off. “We can still do this #GrindNation!” Three hours later, at the sixth hour mark, Doug nonchalantly announced that he now had $102. Finally in the green, Doug seemed more relaxed, talking about Starcraft and Duke Nukem with the chat while the four-tabling grind continued for another hour.
During the last hour of the stream Doug was asked what he thinks of 2016 One Drop Extravaganza being strictly for recreational players. “I think it’s okay. Everybody should have their tournament. Obviously it’s not good for me, but whatevs, man. Whatever is best for poker.” For more of his opinions on the subject, check out our written transcript of Doug’s Polker News July 13th, 2016 episode (8:27 TIMESTAMP). After seven hours, the session ended with Doug catching a set of Sevens in the river.
Sevens are good!
After that win, Doug thanked his audience for being part of the challenge and gave us the final bankroll tally for the day, $97.04. That’s a $2 hourly rate which Doug says he will take over the -$2 wage he had on his first day.
(If you’re interested in improving your poker game, check out the Upswing Lab! Doug Polk and Ryan Fee collaborated on this A to Z training course and the great reviews keep rolling in! Check out our Upswing Lab testimonials page here)
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