Should Doug Polk Be Banned from Playing in His Own Tournament?

In the 867th episode of the PokerNews Podcast, sponsored by the free-to-play WSOP App, Chad Holloway, Kyna England, and Mike Holtz are at Level 9 Studio to discuss the "controversy" of Doug Polk making the final table of his own poker tournament down at The Lodge in Austin, Texas. Should a poker operator be allowed to play in their own event? That seemed to be the question of the week in the poker world.

The crew then played "Race the Ace" to determine a winner in our giveaway for a seat into the ClubWPT Gold $5,000,000 Freeroll Invitational (the answer to how many engraved plates are on the WPT Mike Sexton Champion's Cup was 374)! From there, it is a look at Maria Ho winning the Celebrity Poker Tour (CPT) 2024 Championship and Chad getting to meet Impractical Jokers Brian "Q" Quinn and Joe Gatto, Sketch, and Vegas Matt.

Speaking of fun events, find out who won the the Global Poker Table Talk event during Formula 1 featuring Antonio Esfandiari, Michael Phelps, Carlos Sainz Jr, and Charles Leclerc, and then get a behind-the-scenes look at the Big Deal for One Drop, which both Chad and Connor Richards attended. They caught up with Phil Hellmuth and even did an interview with Jennifer Tilly.

Kyna then shares highlights from her trip to England for the PokerStars Women's Winter Festival, and then things wrap with a look at the upcoming Bar Poker Open taking place in Florida from Dec. 6-8 (Norman Chad will be there to do commentary)!

The podcast is sponsored by the #1 free-to-play WSOP app. Remember to use bonus code "POKERNEWS" if you download and play for an extra 1,000,000 in chips!

A new PokerNews Podcast will drop weekly every Friday at 8a PT / 11a ET / 4p UK time. Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you do not miss an episode!

Time Stamps
*Time | Topic*
00:11 | Welcome Kyna England & Mike Holtz
00:20 | Doug Polk makes headlines by making final table of own event
00:50 | Polk’s poll
07:06 | What do the poker masses think?
08:34 | Texas operating in a gray area
10:17 | Sponsor – WSOP Free-to-Play App
10:50 | ClubWPT Gold Invitational $5M Freeroll juiced w/ $750K in added prizes
12:00 | PokerNews Podcast selects winner for seat into $5M Freeroll
13:43 | Race the Ace to determine a winner
16:52 | Recent WPT Freeroll Winners
18:12 | Maria Ho wins Celebrity Poker Tour (CPT) 2024 Championship
19:16 | Chad gets to meet Impractical Jokers, Sketch, and Vegas Matt
21:36 | Global Poker Table Talk during F1 Week 
23:24 | Chad & Connor attend Big Deal for One Drop
25:46 | Guy Laliberte hosts the Big Deal for One Drop; Hellmuth emcees
26:16 | Interview with Jennifer Tilly
28:44 | Derek Adamian wins the Big Deal for One Drop
30:02 | Highlights of Kyna’s trip to the Women’s Winter Festival in England
32:41 | Argentina's Maria Lampropulos wins Women’s Winter Festival Main Event
32:06 | Charlie Waters wins Women’s Winter Festival High Roller title
33:29 | Kyna got to hang out with Spraggy
34:50 | Bar Poker Open running in Florida from Dec. 6-9