Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk accepts $500K fight with David ‘Doc’ Sands

Pete - Wednesday, August 19, 2015, Written by- Wednesday, August 19, 2015, Live poker

Dan Colman may be making all the immediate headlines at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open festival currently taking place in Florida with his second final table run in two years in its $5K buy-in main event, but it appears as though another big story is brewing behind the scenes.

While Colman was trying to defend his title on the felt (he eventually finished 3rd), Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk and David ‘Doc’ Sands have been busy negotiating the terms of an alleged $500,000 fight against each other:

Today @Doc_Sands asked to fight me for 500k, I said yes. He needs 24 hours to get back to me. Let's see what happens #challengeaccepted — Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) August 19, 2015

He @_tizzle wanted to fight me tonight, my conditioning isn't good enough to say yes. So he offered in 6 months and I said yes — Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) August 19, 2015

Sands, who announced his partial retirement from poker early in 2014, has almost $8 million in live tournament earnings behind him as well as a new job at a hedge fund, if anyone can match the financial depth and performance under pressure levels of the world’s best heads-up No Limit Hold’em player inside the ring, it’s the doctor.

Of course, if the battle was indeed to go ahead, it wouldn’t be the only time the poker community has generated a high stakes fight.

Back in 2009, Danish high rollers Gus Hansen and Theo Jorgensen went to war in the boxing ring live on the Great Dane’s website, then in 2011 Dutch Team PokerStars pro Lex Veldhuis famously knocked out Frenchman Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier in the second round of their kickboxing match.

While both of these fights were certainly interesting - Jorgensen took a ‘mere’ $35,000 from Hansen for his victory and Veldhuis walked away with a rumoured $50,000 for sending ElkY to the canvas - the proposed $500,000 stakes in this alleged Polk vs. Sands fight gives it the potential to take us to a whole new level of entertainment.

Sands allegedly challenged Polk to the fight at this week’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open; his challenge has been accepted, but will the fight go ahead?

**Breaking News** Since this article started Doc Sands has responded, and it looks like there may not be a fight afterall :(

@DougPolkPoker that's not exactly true. I told you I would box last night or in three weeks, but not in 6 months. — David Doc Sands (@Doc_Sands) August 19, 2015

Yeah also fair, I declined this offer @Doc_Sands — Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) August 19, 2015