Doug Polk believes he’s the best Heads Up No Limit Hold’em player in the world – and now he’s willing to teach everybody else how to be better (WPT photo)

The man once known only as ‘WCGRider’ has been a busy guy of late. Not only has Doug Polk managed to create a YouTube channel with close to 70,000 followers that’s jam-packed with original content; he’s also found the time to get back to his roots of Heads Up No Limit Hold’em cash games. However, he hasn’t been playing. Now he’s turned his attention to teaching.

Polk happily calls his Upswing Poker Advanced Heads-up Mastery the “best heads-up course of all time” and thinks players will learn a great deal from this course.

“I have been spending more or less my entire last year building my audience, and creating content for Upswing Poker,” Polk says. “[But] we knew from the get go that this was ultimately a course we wanted to offer.”

As Polk is based in Las Vegas, he’s unable to play the highest online stakes. He instead turned his attention to having fun, streaming bankroll challenges and grinding micro stakes.

“When we started Upswing, we thought it was important to start off with offering material to the widest number of people, which meant a focus on smaller stakes play,” he explains.

“Heads Up No Limit has been my bread and butter for the past six years. I reached an established number position in the game type for about three years, and then my students came up and became top 5-10 players as well. I am the most qualified person in the world to teach this course, and was happy to get the chance to create it.”

There’s no denying Polk’s credentials as one of the most successful heads-up specialists in the game. But what exactly does this course involve? Well, one of the main areas Polk focuses on is how to “correctly navigate the branches of the game tree”.

“[This] has been an important part of poker for years, players just didn’t realize it.” he says. “In Heads Up poker variants, you will consistently see certain situations over and over again. This means – if you are making mistakes in them – it will compound and your opponent will get a good opportunity to make money off of you.

“Playing the game tree is important, but you have to know what you are looking for to begin with. You should be striving to hit certain frequencies for all of your actions, and learning how to balance out those ranges correctly. I think in today’s game, we just know much more specifically what that looks like.”

Sign up for the UpswingPoker Lab here and use the coupon code ‘pocket5s’ at checkout and you’ll get $20 off your purchase.

There are already plenty of options out there for online learning in poker, so aside from Polk’s excellent credentials, what else makes this course unique.

“I don’t think I’m stretching by saying nothing like this has ever been released to the public,” Polk says. “I am in every moment of the video, and it walks you through how to play all parts of the game tree. This is done in a structured way, with sample analysis and examples.

“There is simply nothing else like this out there on the market if you are trying to take your game to the next level.”

While Polk doesn’t play as much online these days, he hasn’t slowed down in his attempts to get better.

“I still enjoy playing the game of poker, but time is a commodity I don’t have as much of anymore,” he says. “I think it is important to still try to learn about the game of poker, and playing in tough environments helps you do that. You don’t want to end up falling behind the curve.

“It is unlikely we will see too much of [me playing online high stakes]in the future, although I am known to get in the mix from time to time. I am planning on doing some streaming during the Spring Championship Of Online Poker, so I should be putting at least some volume in during that period of time.”

And finally, what’s next for Upswing Poker?

“This course is already live, and we are excited by the launch,” Polk says. “I have received so much positive feedback from everyone who has made the purchase, I can’t say how good that feels about the months spent putting it together.

“Next up we are going to spend time bolstering the lab with quality content. It is essential to Upswing to make sure that the Lab remains a top focus, and it is the best destination for smaller stakes players looking to up their game.

“After that, we might have a little PLO in the works, but I will leave that story to be told by our newest member of Upswing, Jnandez.”

To purchase the Doug Polk Heads Up Mastery Course – click here.