Doug Polk, the man who was once the absolute king of high-stakes heads up poker is back in action, taking on Terrance Reid this Friday (Jan 24).
The two will clash in a live $25/$50 match at the Lodge Card Club, and everything will be streamed live, with a bit of standard delay to protect the integrity of the game.
Polk has appeared regularly in ring games at his Texas-based poker club, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen him play his bread-and-butter format, so this one should be a lot of fun.
Doing Some Preparatory Work
Ahead of his match with Reid, Polk has been doing some work behind the scenes to refresh his memory and get back in the zone.
Yesterday, he decided to share some of that process with the general public, hopping on a YouTube live stream, where he played through some scenarios on Lucid Poker. Lucid is a GTO trainer developed by Upswing Poker, one of the largest poker training sites out there owned by Polk himself.
Before jumping into it, Doug provided some insights into how he approaches live heads-up games and what are some of the main differences between live and online play, particularly in terms of randomization and frequencies.
Polk spent a solid two hours going through a number of hands, sharing his thoughts and insights, but also casually engaging with the chat and having fun.
This was also a good opportunity to promote Lucid Poker, and Doug isn’t the one to pass on these opportunities. To be fair, though, it is a good tool, and Polk knows how to keep things light and entertaining even when selling stuff.
The main goal of this little exercise was to determine if Doug Polk was still good at poker, and the results, like many solver solutions, were mixed.
Fun Poker Weekend Ahead
The match between Polk and Reid will kick off at the Lodge at 12:00 pm CT and you can tune into the venue’s official YouTube channel to enjoy the action.
We don’t have many details about the game other than the fact the stakes will be $25/$50. There is no mention about how deep they’ll be, is there some sort of time or hand limit, or anything of sorts, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Following the heads-up clash, there will be a ring game on Sunday featuring some of the usual suspects like Taras, so expect some fireworks.
As for Polk’s Friday opponent, Reid is a poker player and journalist with some decent results under his belt. With $450,000 in live tournament winnings and fair bit of experience in ring games, he won’t be a pushover.
Tune in on Friday to see Doug Polk in his natural habitat, and let’s hope this is just the first of many such matches we’ll see in 2025.
