Doug Polk Throws the Gauntlet, Issues Bracelet Bet Challenge to Tom Dwan

Doug Polk has never been one to shy away from a good poker challenge or getting into confrontations with popular personalities in the poker world and his recent heads-up challenge against Daniel Negreanu certainly proved that.

To stir the pot once more, Doug issued a $1 million challenge to poker legend Tom Dwan via a Twitter post, inviting Tom to a bracelet bet at this year’s WSOP.

Bracelet bets have been a thing for quite a while, with Tom Dwan famously already participating in such bets in the past, with little success.

Polk has not been very active in the tournament circuit as of late and is unlikely to play many events that the 2022 WSOP, but may end up being forced to do so if “durrrr” decides to take him up on his most recent challenge.

What Triggered Doug?

Doug’s days of actively playing poker at the highest levels are behind him (for the time being), but he has been known to come back and take on a poker challenge when properly incentivized.

Polk has been in the YouTube content game for a while now and one of his most recent projects on there has been a collective effort with the poker community to name the all-time GOAT’s in the poker world.

After his initial presentation of many of the world’s most famous players, the votes came in, and one of the names in the top 20 was Tom Dwan.

Player images courtesy of PokerGO

Tom came up back in the Full Tilt Poker days and made a name for himself by taking some unorthodox lines that happened to work out quite a few times in some key spots.

This clearly ticked off Polk, who went as far as to say that the poker community should be ashamed of itself for picking Tom as one of the top 20 and brought up quite a few valid arguments to support this claim.

Never one to shy away from a challenge and putting his money where his mouth is, Doug issued the bracelet bet shortly after the podcast went live.

As we have seen in the past, Doug would certainly go through with the challenge should Tom accept it, although he thinks there is 0% chance that Tom will actually go for it.

The challenge was, in part, prompted by Shaun Deeb’s tweet, claiming he would gladly bet his bankroll on Tom and that Polk was way too harsh in his assessment of the situation.

What I wouldn’t give for a @TomDwan vs @DougPolkVids Wsop poy/bracelet bet this year I’d bet my roll on Tom. Think Doug was way too harsh on Tom I’ve been very impressed in multiple games by Tom’s skill and logic over the years

— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) March 17, 2022

In all likelihood, this bet is not going to go down, as neither Tom nor Doug Polk have been very active in the tournament circuit as of late.

But there is still a tingle of hope that the challenge will be accepted and will become one of the big stories of the first WSOP to be played in the new Horseshoe and Paris this year.

Does Tom Stand a Chance?

In his analysis of Tom Dwan as one of the top 20 best players of all-time, Polk compared Tom’s poker achievements to the other greats out there and drew quite a few interesting conclusions.

According to Polk, Tom has lost money in heads-up games online (which seems to hold true), and made a few million dollars in ring games that had Guy Laliberte playing in them, making them extremely soft for high-stakes games.

What’s even more, Tom’s tournament achievements are certainly not spectacular. Much of his $5 million in winnings came from high-roller events in which he probably hasn’t made a profit.

Both Doug and Kane Kalas agreed that Tom was not the best poker player or heads-up player even back in his prime and that the vast majority of the high-stakes community consider him a relative spot at the table.

Zero chance he says yes but im willing to bet a million dollars at even money on a 2022 bracelet vs @TomDwan

Maybe Tom can bet 500k and the fans or rich Asian businessmen can finance the rest.#DrawingDead https://t.co/J4oAYg01Sk

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) March 20, 2022

While Tom Dwan has certainly gained a ton of popularity in the poker world over the years and has probably made a lot of money playing in very soft games in Asia, it is hard to imagine him winning against the best in the world playing the loosey-goosey style of poker we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him.

Yet, poker tournaments are very volatile and despite Doug’s unquestionable edge in the format over Dwan, there is plenty of chance that a good run at the 2022 WSOP could see Tom win a bracelet and Doug not win one.

With the Series just around the corner, we’ll make sure to stay tuned and keep refreshing both players’ Twitter feeds for any indication of news regarding the potential challenge that could be one of the most entertaining we’ve seen yet.

Article by

Zvonimir Potocki

Zvonimir has played poker for well over a decade and shared his knowledge with his fans and followers on various sites. He will help you master anything from basic strategies to advanced topics, so you will not go wrong with his articles. He also loves watching poker on TV and shares his insights about poker celebrities. You can connect with Ivan via his LinkedIn profiile.