The TwoPlusTwo NVG forum community was once again alight this week as Upswing Poker featured pro Doug Polk took to the YouTube airwaves to relay his thoughts on current events in the industry. The August 4th “Polker News” episode covered the following topics which are currently being discussed on the TwoPlusTwo boards. Doug Wins $60,000 on Upswing Poker Twitch Live Stream Breakout Gaming Wants More Money Whales on a Heater Tom Dwan Scam
Doug Polk $60k Cash Game Win on Twitch Poker
This past Saturday, “WCGRider” began playing $25/$50 Pot Limit Omaha cash games on-stream via Americas Cardroom when a familiar villain sent Polk a direct tweet on Twitter. 2016 TonyBet Poker Winter Poker Open final table participant Maxime Lejeune Hebert (aka “pokerplayer117” on ACR) was seated and ready to go, so this year’s WSOP Tag Team Co-Champion obliged and began playing heads-up. Within 90 minutes, Doug Polk was on the ropes — down to his remaining $4,000 Cashier dollars and facing what appeared to be an imminent reload. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbhC-biy9PU Yet in typical Upswing fashion, the Claudico Killer turned things around and ended the cast up $60,000. The mark could be a Twitch Poker single-day cash game earnings record and is now among Polk’s Top 7 All-Time Twitch Streams.
Welcome Back Breakout Gaming?
Just in case you haven’t been lurking the 2+2 boards this week, the fine folks at Breakout Gaming are back with yet another “investment opportunity” for poker fans! Nearly two years after securing an undisclosed amount of Bitcoins from investors and then implementing a “silent treatment” communication strategy, someone within the company has gone on a GoDaddy shopping spree and released Development Milestones in a new attempt to create buzz and attract more money-givers. On the surface, it’s the greatest combo-business idea since James Gregory’s Tax Service & Lawn Mower Repair skit, but unfortunately the ambitious Milestones are already behind schedule. Poker enthusiasts have yet to sample the greatness of Breakout’s eSports platform (whatever that is) but at least we have an Online Storefront, Lottery, Fantasy Sports and Skill Gaming to look forward to by December. Polk gave viewers his thoughts on Breakout’s pros, calling them a “who’s who of has-been poker players” then pointed out how the lineup lacks representatives who are currently active within the community and attracting new players to the game. The two-time WSOP bracelet winner ended the segment saying that he has “low expectations” for the brand — an opinion you can cross-reference with this FlushDraw.net article by Haley Hintze.
Fish on a Heater
TwoPlusTwo NVG forum poster and Politics Unchained contributor Lilu7 ruffled a few feathers last week when he called out former superstars Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom as Whales on a Heater Who Finally Got Cooked. Polk informed viewers how certain high stakes cash game players once-upon-a-time managed to achieve success and notoriety by plucking expectation from One Drop founder and billionaire Guy Laliberté on the now-defunct Full Tilt Poker “Rail Heaven” $500/$1k NLHE table.
A few hours following the release of Thursday’s Polker News segment, “WCGRider” informed TwoPlusTwo readers that many pros were actually chomping at the bit to battle against Dwan during this time.
Tom Dwan Scam
This past May, Tom Dwan (aka “Durrrr”) was in New Jersey. Last week he was in Las Vegas. Due to community interest in the Tom Dwan situation, the following are direct quotes from the August 4th Polker News episode — beginning at the (12:13) mark of the video. Doug Polk: “I actually find it a little bit strange that I get asked specifically, ‘So what’s Durrrr up to?’ like we’re friends. I don’t really know Durrrr at all and I want to talk a little bit about what Durrrr has done because frankly, in my opinion, this could be one of the largest scams in poker history.” “What happened with Tom Dwan and Jungleman [Dan Cates] was a scam in my opinion because if you look at what happened, Dwan and Jungleman were both supposed to escrow to Phil Ivey for the Durrrr Challenge.” “For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Durrrr Challenge I believe was 50k hands to be played between two players where Durrrr would lay 3-to-1 to anyone in the world except Phil Galfond. The 3-to-1 was going to be side-bet with Phil Ivey… his $1.5 million to Jungleman’s $500k. Jungleman escrowed to Phil Ivey, and Tom Dwan did not — despite saying that he did.” “So now, Phil Ivey only has Jungleman’s money and Tom Dwan’s money is not really in escrow. They play $200/$400 Heads-Up No Limit, and Jungleman got out to something along the lines of a $1.2 million lead. At this point it was 2011, but before [Black Friday] happened they stopped playing. In fact Tom Dwan stopped playing for a decent amount of time — at least a month or two I think — before Full Tilt went down. After that, there have just been a slew of excuses as to why he can’t play, or Full Tilt did something wrong, or something happened and it has been indefinitely postponed. I think at this point it’s pretty fair to say that it’s unlikely to ever resume.” “However, the winner of the Challenge is supposed to win the side bet and that money is supposed to be escrowed to Phil Ivey. Well that money is not escrowed. So Tom Dwan is avoiding playing this Challenge, essentially (you know, when you look at his chance to win the side bet, it’s extremely low given that he’s already down 30 buy-ins in the Challenge). And this money is really Jungleman’s money. In fact for me personally, I have a lot of friends who have action on Jungleman’s side and there are tons of side bets on the Internet as to who would win this Challenge. And now Tom Dwan has conveniently gone missing, avoided the subject, not played any hands and he’s just off the grid on money that he said was supposed to be escrowed. That is fucked up! And that should not be tolerated by the poker community.” (14:40) “The point is this. If you have a Challenge that you’re laying The World, and then you don’t escrow the money and don’t back that up with the play that’s required, you are scamming your opponent.” “This money disappearing and not being paid to Jungleman is in my personal opinion THE BIGGEST SCAM that has ever happened for an individual in poker. Now, of course there’s also Full Tilt Poker… it’s a company not an individual and if you want to call that a scam or not I really don’t know. I’m not sure what’s correct [in that case]. What happened there was also a big problem but in terms of one individual doing this to another person… I don’t understand how there are people within the community that are even willing to tolerate this. It’s absurd to me.”
Polker News YouTube Ratings
Polker News: August 4, 2016 5,580 Views — 237 Likes, 7 Dislikes Polker News: July 28, 2016 22,981 Views — 689 Likes, 21 Dislikes Polker News: July 13, 2016 14,484 Views — 383 Likes, 2 Dislikes Polker News: July 6, 2016 15,288 Views — 204 Likes, 2 Dislikes Polker News: July 1, 2016 7,910 Views — 112 Likes, 4 Dislikes Doug Polk Twitter: @DougPolkPoker Doug Polk YouTube Channel Doug Polk Snapchat: WCGRider Polker News Producer: Thomas Keeling @SrslySirius
Vintage Bonus Cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HWHzYQ495Q “I go to Wakefield” — Doug Polk, November 2006
(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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