In this episode of UpOnly, Doug Polk joins Cobie and Ledger to talk about his many adventures, from becoming a best in class heads up poker player, to long term crypto investing, content creation, and several stories of scams he's run across.
Audio Version
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This episode is presented by FTX (formerly Blockfolio). Trade on an awesome mobile interface fee-free, and still get all the great portfolio tracking features you know and love: https://uponly.tv/ftx
Show Notes
FTX?
– Ledger nailed new intro
– UpOnly sponsored by FTX now!
– Blockfolio is now FTX (as everything soon will be)
– Doug was watching an MLB game and saw FTX on an umpire
– So wild
LEDGER DRINKS EVERY DAY
– *one beer*
– *has cravings if he skips his beer*
– *in a weight-loss competition with Primo to lose 10% of body weight*
– Doug: “That 1 beer per day is costing you 16-17 pounds per year!”
Doug’s Crypto Journey
– 2012-2013ish
– Got in because of poker – online poker caused onboarding
– Doug: “the asset appreciation element kinda made sense to me” lol us too sir
Bitcoin v Banks
– People complain about bank fees and then Bitcoin fees spike lol
– Block time also kind of a hassle
– Cobie: “Nowadays if an Ethereum block takes like a full minute I’m pissed”
– Cobie: “Solana is fast enough and if you use it you can afford to live in New York”
Zoomers & Internet Native Generation
– Ledger: “How many people bought SafeMoon and bridged to BSC? Like how did they do that???”
– Cobie: “We had an interview with Teen Exec and he just understands the internet way better than I do”
– Also have the YouTubers who can show you step by step exactly how to buy the top
– Cobie: “Every time a project comes on UpOnly its the exact top of their thesis”
– Light – super bearish at the bottom
– SCAM and CUMROCKET – top tick on the episode
– Charlie Lee even top ticked Litecoin
Coping
– DOGE founder is coping so hard that he won’t come back
– People would easily donate like millions to this guy
The B Word Conference
– Cobie: “I think Cathie Wood is fking phenomenal”
– “Elon just kept talking about Tesla chargers”
– Doug: “I think Jack needs to have a better idea of how Bitcoin can actually be implemented to fix these issues”
– “Also Elon has a firm belief in ‘Bitcoin has to be 50% renewable’ for someone who’s dad was an emerald miner”
– “His Bitcoin takes felt not extremely researched”
– Ledger: “At some point do you stretch yourself a little too thin if you’re trying to create Mars money and [xyz other stuff]”
Doug’s Challenge
– Poker career focused on 1v1 poker
– Challenged a rival troll guy who was after him to a 1v1 for $1,000,000
– This guy was a major underdog
– He said yes LOL
– $40k buy in, any time you dropped off you bought back in with $40k
– Doug won $1.2M off of this guy lol
– Now they are boys
– Ledger: “you had a lot of reputational tie into this as well – like if you lost it’d be like me losing to Cobie in a trading competition”
– Cobie: “you’ve had some anthropologically bad trades that should be on wikipedia” lmao
Poker & Crypto
– Is it banking the unbanked? Or math, trading, etc. stuff?
– Doug: “Poker guys understand having an edge and are used to losing”
– “Today 200 guys played, 15 paid, so 185 lost” fack
– “Can’t handle losing, can’t do poker”
– “Some edge/ trading aspects, some keeping your money off the books aspects… some of the poker community is DEEP in crypto”
No More Poker 4 Doug
– Basically turned from an art to an exact science that you need to memorize
– Doug: “The reality is the guy who spent 2x the time is going to be better”
– Online vs. in person is the same *at the higher levels*
Doug’s Journey
– Just moved to Austin TX
– Was part of the mass migration
– Left Vegas, “I wanted something idk less stripper-ey” lol
– Nashville would also be great
– Doug: “The ‘Keep Austin Weird’ signs need to come down like that is so far gone, its a tech hub now!”
Ledger’s Fame
– Going to give Doug some Alabama BBQ places off air to not dox his micro location
– Cobie and Doug start laughing at the exact same time
– Cobie: “We have the same joke don’t we”
– Doug: “Ya Ledger you wouldn’t want anyone driving 700 miles out to see you” lmao
– Ledger got recognized 2 weeks ago
Scams
– Doug called BitConnect like a week before it happened
– Everyone knew him as the guy who called it lol
– “Save The Kids Token”
– Fake charity token that was somehow supposed to save the kids
– FaZe & some youtube guy Sam Pepper
– creep
Tether FUD
– Doug: “I actually don’t agree with any of the Tether FUD” YES DOUG
– Doug: “Like pretty much people won’t be happy unless they have $60 Billion in a checking account”
– based
ETH 2.0
– If/ wen ETH2 happens, are people still rushing to send their money through MATIC? prolly not
– Probably won’t be a scaling benefit until sharding
– Cobie – prolly rollup-centric solution to scaling when it all works out
ZK-Rollups
– Created down only tokenomics of ZCash *disclaimer: this is FUD*
– Uses security of L1 w/ cheaper scaling
– Vitalik said it’d take like 5 years of optimistic rollups before ZK rollups but now looking like straight to ZK rollups
– More gigabrain Cobie
Top Scams Ever
– 1. Poker guy knew the guy in god-mode and won legit every tournament
– Won like $250k
– 2. Joshua Tyler – installed a trojan on Doug’s computer and could see his cards
– Got investigated and Doug got his money back!
FINAL ALPHA
– Doug: “In life, you should always bet the biggest on yourself”
– “No one is going to work as hard as you or be as honest as yourself”
– “When you get opportunities to bet big on yourself, take them and you’ll never regret it”
Notes by Kevin
Music by GiovanniPickle