After spending time as a poker player, a poker podcaster, a cryptocurrency podcaster and a mainstream news podcaster, Doug Polk has determined what he wants to be—retired. The three-time WSOP champ revealed during a recent YouTube podcast that he believes it’s time to hang up his hat and put poker in his rear-view mirror.
The news doesn’t come as a complete surprise to anyone in the poker community. He recently—and finally—completed his $100-to-$10,000 poker challenge after it began two years ago and said that “poker is boring to me now.” This, coupled with the fact that he hasn’t been active at the felt lately made it almost certain that he was ready to step away.
As the poker world has seen with other players, such as Vanessa Selbst and Fedor Holz, retirement doesn’t always mean retirement. Selbst announced her retirement on New Year’s Eve in 2017, but has been back at the felt on a number of occasions. Holz reportedly retired in 2016, but has gone on to win serious cash in a number of high-stakes games since then.
Polk gave himself an out, as well. He confirmed on the 2+2 poker forum that he doesn’t enjoy playing anymore, but that he wasn’t quite ready to call it a retirement. He added that “poker is pretty easy to get back into if I ever change my mind.”
Polk has been one of poker’s most colorful figures. He was a serious threat at the felt for a number of years before switching on the camera for his podcast. Since then, he traded card battles for vocal battles, getting involved repeatedly in arguments with Kid Poker Daniel Negreanu and “JNandez” Fernando Habegger. The latter even resulted in a boxing match challenge between the two, which Polk never accepted.
It’s hard to imagine that Polk will stay away for too long. He has poker in his blood, as he has admitted, having first found the game as a teenager. After somewhere around 14-15 years at the tables, it has been a main part of his life and it undoubtedly won’t be easy to step away. Even Texas Dolly, who is more deserving of a respectable retirement than anyone, hasn’t been able to walk away after more than six decades.
