Streaming online poker on Twitch has become very popular hobby of small time grinders and high stakes sharks alike. One of the pros with real inkling for Twitch streaming is Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk, who created his own live WCOOP Super High Roller stream, running concurrently with the official one.
Polk was at it again yesterday, when he decided to stream the $10,300 8-max WCOOP High Roller and then went on to make the final table, which culminated in a three way deal, with ‘WCGRider’ pocketing $455,000 even. With this, he smashed the previous Twitch record for the biggest amount won on stream, held by ‘SolidPenis’.
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Twitch record win in a tough tournament
While the Russian binked his score in a lucky Spin & Go event (not that there is anything wrong with that, more power to him), Polk was actually streaming one of the toughest online tournaments one can find these days. A $10k buy-in for an online event is no laughing matter, and the tournament was riddled with pros.
The tournament attracted a total of field of 356 entries, with 278 unique players and 78 re-entries, creating a prize pool in excess of $3.5 million. This 2-day event thus offered a lot to fight for and players were more than serious in their approach to the play, looking at the first place of $650k+.
By the end of the Day 1, 56 were still in the running, and some of the names in the field, besides Polk who ended bagging the chip lead, included the likes of Mikael ‘ChaoRen160’ Thuritz, Steve O’Dwyer, Chance Kornuth, Nick Schulman and Andras Nemeth. All of them, apart from Doug, did not live to see take the final table seat.
If it’s a deal, does it still count as a Twitch record?
When the final table was eventually formed, it was a kind of setup no pro player would ever wish for himself, with ‘WCGRider’, Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen, Keven Stammen, and the eventual official winner Phillip ‘Grindation’ McAlister in the crowd.
Stammen was the first to leave, when he lost the flip to the player going under the alias ‘€urope€an’. Chris Hunichen went in a similar fashion, when his pocket pair could not hold up against Ace King of Alexandros ‘mexican222’ Kolonias.
All the while, Polk was celebrating with his Twitch audience, as he broke his personal record, beating his best finish in this event from the last year. At that point, he was still not sure he was going to break the Twitch record in terms of the amount won.
But, ‘WCGRider’s’ clashes with ‘€urop€an’ ended favorably for the high stakes young gun, and he managed to surge ahead, seizing the chip lead. The lead wouldn’t last, however, as he entered a big three way all-in, putting two players at risk. His 10s failed to hold against McAlister’s AK, as a king spiked on the turn.
That same hand saw the player ‘ShefanHilaly‘ leave the tournament stage in sixth.
The next one to go was ‘LLinusLLove‘, who fell at the hands of non other than ‘WCGRider’, bringing the play to four handed, and bringing Polk back to black, as his losses during this year’s WCOOP were now a thing of the past. He was now playing for the profit on the series.
Broke the twitch cash record yest and managed to negotiate an additional 2,400 buyins for $1 sngs in my bankroll challenge #WCOOP2016
— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) September 20, 2016
After Alexandros ‘mexican222’ Kolonias was eliminated by ‘Grindation’ in fourth, earning $263k for his efforts, three remaining players took a brief break from playing to talk numbers. At that point, McAlister was holding nearly 2 to 1 chip lead over the second place ‘€urop€an’, while Polk was in third, but not that far behind at all.
It’s a deal!
An interesting tidbit in this story is the fact that ‘€urop€an’ has managed to establish himself as somewhat of a deal-making legend, after he succeeded take home a prize bigger than the announced first place in a WCOOP Event #35 he won just a few days ago.
It didn’t take them long to agree, as ICM numbers were close to satisfactory. Doug wanted an extra $2.4k, and both players agreed, even though ‘€urop€an’ was a bit relucatant at first. So, the final payouts came out to be:
- McAlister – $513,200
- ‘€urop€an’ – $459, 529
- Polk, $455,000
The deal left $71,200 to play for, so the tournament was not over just yet. In the end, it was McAlister who claimed the WCOOP title and that extra $71k after he first eliminated ‘€urop€an’ and then proceeded to beat Polk in the heads up. Thus, ‘Grindation’ took home a grand total of $584k and change.
As for Polk, he managed to break the Twitch record for the biggest poker win and his own personal record for the event, earning almost half a million in the process.
Taken from my Snapchat story (wcgrider). Twitch chat was absolutely out of hand yesterday. pic.twitter.com/wrDwq7x4XW
— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) September 20, 2016
Not a bad day at the office would be an understatement of the year.
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Bethany has been working in online gambling for over 13 years. She got her start in the industry as her first job after graduating from the Professional Writing Program at York University. Having written for many online gaming publications and worked with top casino operators, she has unique insight into the gambling market. Bethany maintains a personal interest in iGaming as she continues to play poker online as a hobby.