Mar 26, 2018
Doug Polk: From High Stakes Poker to Cryptocurrency Star
By RTR Dennis
Doug Polk made his fame through poker as one of the best high stakes players in the world. He's earned over $2 million in online cash profits along with another $9.5 million in live tournament winnings.
Polk has also created a successful YouTube poker channel, with hundreds of videos and 180,000 subscribers. But as successful as he's been in poker, Polk switched his focus to cryptocurrencies in December 2017. The result is nothing short of a success, because he's already one of the biggest cryptocurrency YouTubers.
One reason why Polk has done so well with cryptocurrencies is because much of his poker following joined Doug Polk Crypto. But another big reason is that he's never afraid to take on the biggest personalities and scammers in the space.
That said, I'm going to cover some of the big moments that have already happened in Polk's short crypto career.
Polk Goes After Craig Grant, CryptoNick & Trevon James
Polk initially began his cryptocurrency YouTube channel by discussing some of his favorite coins. These videos each earned tens of thousands of views thanks to his solid poker following. But Polk's first major crypto video involved helping to expose Bitconnect affiliates CryptoNick, Craig Grant and Trevon James.
Bitconnect claimed to have a trading bot that could properly measure Bitcoin volatility and make perfect trades. Customers would invest their money into the company and share in the alleged gains made by the trading bot.
The platform guaranteed 40% monthly returns at one point. And they also used an aggressive affiliate marketing scheme to recruit customers.
CryptoNick, Grant, and Trevon James were a few of the biggest affiliates, with each making upwards of $1 million through their commissions. The trio continued promoting the company long after it was rumored to be a Ponzi scheme.
Polk's January 2 video explained why Bitconnect seemed too good to be true. He also warned people about joining the site through links provided by CryptoNick, James, and Grant. Polk noted that the company’s affiliate marketing model amounted to a pyramid scheme.
Bitconnect was essentially exposed as a scam just weeks later. Investors collectively lost millions of dollars, because they couldn’t withdraw their money from the site. The Bitconnect token was worth over $120 at its all-time high, with a total market cap of $770 million.
Craig Grant, Trevon James, and CryptoNick are currently named in multiple lawsuits by Bitconnect investors who are trying to recoup their money.
Tai Lopez Becomes a Target
Tai Lopez is a well-known marketer who's famous for his YouTube ads, where he walks around his mansion showing off Lamborghinis and other luxury items.
Lopez creates courses where he leans heavily on field experts to help him. A couple of Lopez's previous courses deal with real estate investing and social media marketing.
The entrepreneur's latest course is Bitcoin Crypto Mastermind, which dives into subjects like investing in Bitconnect and Ripple. Polk rehashed how Bitconnect is a Ponzi scheme and should be avoided at all costs.
He also poked fun at one of the video’s experts, who discussed how Ripple could be “worth billions” of dollars. It's market cap was already $43 billion at the time of the course.
Bitcoin Crypto Mastermind costs $697, which is an outrageous price considering its questionable content.
Doug Polk Crypto Passes Doug Polk Poker within 2 Months
It didn't take Doug Polk Crypto long to pass the poker channel in views. The crypto channel hit 175,000 followers in late February, which was more than the 174,700 poker followers at the time. The crypto channel currently has 187,000 followers at the time of this post.
The amazing thing is that Polk had only produced 40 cryptocurrency videos by late February. Contrast that to the 353 poker videos that he's made.
Doug Polk vs. Suppoman
Another big YouTuber that Polk took on is Suppoman, who's known for discussing initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Suppoman was already taking heat on Reddit for promising to give his viewers the name of a hot ICO if they bought his $10 educational course. But then he forced his followers to purchase another course for $10 to get the ICO's name (Zelle).
Many also accused Suppoman of shilling ICOs that he was invested in without disclosing the matter. It's not uncommon for YouTubers to push their favorite coins. But as Polk suggested in the video, one should divulge this information before shilling a cryptocurrency.
Polk also bashed Suppoman for some of his previous YouTube and business efforts, including selling a course on "ethical hacking," producing juvenile Minecraft videos, and making unprofessional comments to critics.
This has been Polk's most-controversial video, because Suppoman has many loyal followers. But Polk's own followers turned out in waves to support his criticisms of the ICO shiller.
Polk Asks Viewers to Help Him Buy $100,000 in Cryptocurrencies
Doug Polk has been investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for a few years. And on March 4, he did an interesting video where he asked viewers to help him fix a $100,000 portfolio. Viewers ultimately voted for Cardano, Monero, Litecoin, Nano, and Substratum.
Polk has a lot of interesting content on his YouTube crypto channel already. And if its anything like Doug Polk Poker, he'll continue updating regularly and building the library.
His most-popular content has been videos in which he exposes scammers. But he also puts out good videos in other areas too, including interviews, industry news, and the $100k portfolio. That said, I look for Polk's YouTube channel to remain popular in the industry for years.