Two days after challenging the world to a $100,000 high-stakes heads-up competition, Doug Polk found his first opponent — Bill Perkins — and he lost.
The $200/$400 no-limit Texas hold’em game took place Sunday on live-stream at The Lodge Card Club in Texas, the poker room co-owned by Polk. For nearly six hours, the good friends battled for some huge pots.
Last month, the competitors wrapped up a year-long prop bet in which Polk wagered $200,000 that he could drop 50% of his body fat within 365 days. He came up just short and had to pay up that bet. For the second time this year against the same poker player, he took a loss, this one for about $30,000.
Doug Polk Narrowly Loses $200K Body Fat Loss Prop Bet to Bill Perkins
How it Began
Both players initially began the heads-up poker match with $100,000, but that was just a starting point. As each player’s stack dwindled down, they added on. By the end of the session, there was $700,000 on the table.
Early on in the match, Polk caught a lucky river card with 
on a board of 
, hitting the nut straight. It was a sick river card because his opponent had 
, meaning the only card Polk could hit on the river to win the hand was the ace because the nine would have given Perkins a full house.
With about $26,000 in the pot, Polk bet $18,000 on the river and received a call, which helped him jump out to an early lead. Not long after, however, the tables were turned.
Perkins opened from the button to $1,000 with 
, a standard play in heads-up no-limit hold’em. With 
in the big blind, his opponent also made a standard decision in this format and just called.
The flop came out 
, a little something enticing for both players. The preflop raiser would bet $700 this time and again receive a call. When the 
appeared on the turn, things got even more interesting. Perkins continued his aggression and went for a large wager of $5,500. Two pair wasn’t folding, of course.
But the 
completed the flush and brought four cards to a straight on the board, although neither player had a nine. After Perkins bet his flush, Polk would jam all in and get snap-called to lose a $149,000 pot, which set him back early on.
Poker Hand of the Day
The biggest pot in the history of The Lodge transpired during this entertaining heads-up match, and it was also the Hand of the Day. Action began with the card room owner opening to $1,100 on the button with 
before his opponent, sitting on 
, three-bet it to $3,800.
That wasn’t enough to convince Polk to slow down, so he bumped it up to $13,000. This time, pocket queens just called and took a flop of 
and action checked to the player on the button who down-sized his bet to $8,500.
Perkins came along for the ride to see a turn card of 
, pairing the board. Polk was done making small bets and ripped off a massive wager of $52,000 with ace-high, more than the size of the pot, and again received a call from the wealthy hedge fund manager. After the 
came on the river, it again checked over to Polk. With the in his hand, he knew he wasn’t up against the nut flush, so he used that card to bluff and did so with an all in bet, and he had Perkins’ stack of $160,000 behind covered.
“Doug looks really f*****g serious here,” Perkins said as he pondered his move.
Perkins would inevitably make the call with the over pair and scooped a pot of over $400,000. Polk, considered to be one of the best heads-up no-limit hold’em players of all-time, would battle back despite the huge setback. When the stream concluded, he was down just $29,900, not exactly what he was hoping for before the match began, but it could have been worse.
Polk and Perkins are done competing for now, but the Upswing Poker founder already has a new challenger. That individual’s name hasn’t been publicly released, although The Lodge announced that it will take place on live-stream Wednesday and Thursday of this week.