Doug Polk to Win $200K If He Halves Body Fat in 6 Months

Poker professional, YouTube personality, and Texas cardroom owner Douglas “WCGRider” Polk has booked an interesting, health-related prop bet. Doug must cut his body fat percentage in half by Oct. 6, 2025 in order to win $200,000. Should he fail in reaching his goal, however, Doug will have to fork over this same sum to high-roller Bill Perkins.

More About the Bet

Doug Polk revealed the existence of a new wager between him and Bill Perkins on April 23 when he told his X followers “Booked a $200,000 health bet vs @bp22 [Bill Perkins].” He then asked, “What do you think my body fat is?” The following day, Doug revealed more about the terms of the bet:

Polk's starting at 22% body fat, and he needs to hit half that figure by Oct. 6 to win. This means that his goal is 11%. He posted a photo of himself at 15% body fat, indicating that this represents his physique at 4% higher than his target.

Polk noted in a follow-up X post that weight loss drugs like Ozempic are not allowed under the terms of the wager, so any weight he loses will have to be the old-fashioned way: using diet and exercise. It's important to realize, though, that this is not a weight loss bet but rather a bet on body fat percentage. Thus, accumulating and preserving muscle mass is a valid strategy in addition to shedding fat.

Not Polk's First Rodeo

This bet is a kind of double-or-nothing opportunity for Doug because he has already lost a similar bet against Perkins for $200,000: the same amount that's at stake again. That earlier bet started in February 2022 and ran an entire year. Polk had to lose 50% of his body fat, and he started at 27.7% body fat, making the key number 13.85% body fat. Unfortunately for Doug, he fell short of this target, coming in at 15.1% in a DEXA scan on Feb. 10, 2023. Therefore, he had to pay Bill $200,000.

In several respects, the re-bet will be harder than the original bet was. Polk has only six months to reduce his body fat as opposed to the one-year timeframe of the original wager. Also, Doug is starting at a lower level than in his previous attempt, meaning that his ultimate goal is proportionately lower as well. As many fitness gurus often note, the easiest body fat to shed is the first with the pounds getting harder and harder to drop at lower weights.

About Doug Polk

Doug Polk, born in 1988 in Pasadena, California, first got into gaming with chess at a very young age and then by becoming a Warcraft 3 player during high school. However, it was action at the virtual card tables that soon caught his attention.

He encountered initial success by playing in the micro-stakes and grinding rakeback. However, in 2011, Polk realized that the future of such a strategy was very limited, so he elected to focus almost exclusively on poker and work on his game. After just a couple of years, he became well-known as a highly skilled heads-up NL Hold'em shark.

Among Polk's poker accomplishments were victories in two highly publicized HU poker challenges. The first was a 15,000-hand match against Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky in 2013 during which Doug won more than $740,000 along with a $100,00 side bet. Then in 2020 - 2021, Polk bested Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu in a similar challenge over the course of 25,000 hands, winning about $1.2 million directly from the tables and another $530,000 in publicly known side bets along with an undisclosed sum from private bets on the result.

Doug “WCGRider” Polk

Doug's not only proficient in cash games but has also make his mark on the world of tournament poker as well. As of May 2025, his total live tourney earnings stand at just over $10.5 million. His biggest cash was a victory in the 2017 World Series of Poker $111,111-buyin High Roller for One Drop for which he earned $3.7 million and picked up one of his three WSOP gold bracelets.

Doug “retired” from poker in 2018 and said in a 2020 video that, “I just don't like poker anymore.” This retirement proved about as long-lasting as the retirements of other prominent poker figures over the years (*cough* Doyle *cough* Vanessa Selbst). Indeed, since his “retirement,” Doug has booked more than a million dollars in live tournament scores (which doesn't even count his HU battle against Negreanu)!

Today, Doug Polk lives in Austin, Texas, and he's co-owner of The Lodge Card Club. Besides appearing in live streams from this cardroom, he also operates his own YouTube channel @DougPolkPoker.

About Bill Perkins

61-year-old Bill Perkins (actually named William Osborne Perkins III) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a defense lawyer, state-level legislator, and college and NFL football running back.

Rather than earning his fortune in poker the way Doug Polk did, Bill graduated from University of Iowa with a B.S. in electrical engineering, which doubtless came in handy when he moved to Houston and started trading derivatives and options related to electricity.

Among his achievements in the corporate sector include making $1 billion in trading profits for Centaurus Energy, founding Hoston-based hedge fund Skylar Capital, and becoming a member of the board of NorthernStar Natural Gas.

Bill Perkins With Wife Lara

Though he considers himself an amateur player, Bill has played high-stakes poker both live and online where he sometimes uses the screenname “gastrader.” Among his $5.4 million in live tourney cashes was a $2.7 million prize that he won for placing sixth in a £1,050,000-buyin event in London at the Triton Million Series in August 2019. He had previously finished third in the 2013 $111,111 One Drop High Roller WSOP tourney for almost $2 million.

Bill Perkins is known for his high-flying lifestyle, traveling to exotic destinations and partying it up with other high-rolling poker players, like Dan Bilzerian. This exemplifies his personal financial philosophy, which emphasizes getting the most out of one's money throughout life rather than letting it accumulate idle. This mindset is explored further in Bill's 2020 book, “Die With Zero.”

Neither Participant a Stranger to Prop Bets

We've already mentioned the previous body fat wager entered into by the two gentlemen. However, this isn't anything out of the ordinary for either of them as they're both prominent in the rarefied world of big-money proposition betting.

Polk, for instance, made a bet with his heads-up opponent in the 2017 High Roller for One Drop tournament, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier whereby the loser would have to copy the haircut of the winner. Doug prevailed, and Elky duly had his hair styled appropriately. In his various heads-up duels also did Doug pick up some extra dough via side bets.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier After Losing a Prop Bet Against Polk

However, Doug's performance in this field hardly compares to some of the outrageous bets arranged by Bill. He once bet $500,000 that Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari could not go a whole year without sex or “release of any kind.” Antonio proved not to be master of his own domain and bought out of the bet nine days later.

“I'm Out!”

In early 2023, Bill famously bet that Shaun Deeb could not reduce his body fat composition from more than 40% down to 17% in 14 months. Deeb risked $100,000, but Bill gave him 10-1 on his money, meaning that Shaun stood to win an even $1 million if he prevailed. After about 11 months, he was able to reduce his body fat to 22%, and Bill agreed to buy out of the bet for $800,000.

Reactions

Doug Polk and Bill Perkins are both popular figures in the world of poker, and this fitness bet has definitely intrigued many onlookers. Below is a selection of their comments regarding this prop bet:

Polk a Winner No Matter What?

Thinking closely about the terms of this prop bet, it seems that Doug Polk has several ways of winning no matter how the bet turns out. Should he succeed in reducing his body fat to 11% or lower, then he will clearly win the $200,000 being wagered.

However, even if he falls short, any significant reduction in body fat percentage will allow him to reap great health benefits. For an individual of Polk's financial means, it might well be worth $200,000 to motivate him toward this goal even if he doesn't make it all the way.

Come to think of it, Bill Perkins is probably happy to see his poker friends improve their lifestyles and health habits. If $200,000 is what it takes to get Doug to commit to a healthier lifestyle, Bill probably thinks of it as money well spent.

The only way for Doug to really lose is if he doesn't take the bet seriously and does nothing to improve his diet and exercise regimen. In that case, he would merely be wasting his time and money along with Bill's. But we've seen how close he came in his previous prop bet with Bill, so this outcome is unlikely.

Play Poker Online Like Polk and Perkins

Though an older generation of poker-playing prop bettors, like Doyle Brunson and Titanic Thompson, learned the game in shady back rooms and private establishments, Polk, Perkins, and newer generations have honed their poker abilities online. Evaluating probabilities and assigning expected values to various actions is important in poker and undoubtedly prepares individuals to make profitable bets away from the tables too.

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May 8, 2025 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief