Doug Polk is taking on selected opponents in heads-up matches on the Winning Poker Network throughout August. In preparation for his upcoming heads-up challenge against Daniel Negreanu, Polk is out of retirement and playing poker for the first time since the 2019 World Series of poker.
Landon Tice, one of poker's brightest rising stars, takes on Polk heads-up on August 19. The match between the 21-year-old Tice and the poker legend Polk goes live on stream at 11 am on the Solve 4 Why YouTube channel.
Poker.org recently caught up with Tice via Twitter for a quick interview about his upcoming heads-up match against Polk:
Doug is definitely someone that influenced me in poker to an extent when I was grinding micros. I'd watch some of his YT videos for fun, and try to take away something of value from every one I watched.
Where does playing Doug Polk heads-up rank on your list of poker dreams/accomplishments?
I never really thought about it as an "accomplishment" or something I necessarily "dreamed of doing," but I do want to improve my own HU game, and playing against the world's best at affordable stakes is definitely a great way to improve and learn.
Are you excited about streaming this match?
It'll be a lot of fun to stream it on YouTube. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'll be using Solve 4 Why's YT channel to stream it I think.
Who’s going to win, you or Doug?
It's a pretty small sample of not that many hands overall, but I'm definitely not concerned with winning/losing the match either way. I just want to reevaluate my game after the match is over to see where I can improve or how comfortable I am in spots.
Who’s your pick in the Polk/Negreanu heads-up challenge?
Doug, for sure. He's putting in the work to improve his game and being the HUNL end boss for a long time, he should be able to pick it up rather easily again.
Tice's star rising in the poker world
The 21-year-old Tice stormed on to the poker scene in early 2020, with his Twitter handle, blog, and Twitch channel gaining traction as Tice detailed his journey to what he hopes is a career as a high-stakes cash game regular.
Tice's Twitter and blog posts include graphs like the one below, with a red line (non-showdown winnings metric) that truly stands out as poker cash game graphs go:
Tice's poker journey included a trip to Las Vegas over the summer, where Tice grinded through the WSOP Online Series tournament schedule. He also caught up with fellow players like Joey Ingram to take a shot at the live cash game scene on The Strip.
Tice, a six-max cash game specialist, will take his ultra-aggressive style to the heads-up streets against Polk, known as one of the world's top heads-up players before retiring from poker in 2019.
Polk returns to poker
The recent series of matches on WPN feature Polk's return to poker. Polk's opponents so far have included 'venividi1993', Twitch streamer and cash game specialist 'codychale', and Marty 'forrestranfar' Mathis, who's fresh off a $1.28 million payday in the WPN Venom.
Polk continues to take on challengers in $1/$2 and $2/$4 heads-up games on WPN. Those games can be watched live by logging into WPN and checking out the "Doug Polk Challenge" listing in the cash game lobby.
