Tournaments or Cash Games? Doug Polk on How to Make $1 Million Playing Poker

Jon Sofen Senior Editor U.S.

Nov 10, 2025 5 min read Last updated Nov 14, 2025

Where to Play and What to Play
Before You Ever Play a Hand of Poker
Responsible Gaming Advice & Support

Nearly every aspiring pro has dreamed of going from scratch to hitting the seven-figure mark playing poker. But how do you actually achieve that goal in today's competitive game?

Doug Polk, a longtime pro and co-owner of Lucid Poker, knows what it takes to make $1 million playing poker. He's done it before, and he shared a 10-step process, in a Youtube video, that he believes can help those serious about being successful in poker to do the same.

Polk, co-owner of The Lodge Card Club and a three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, gave viewers insight into which games to play, where to play, and some advice about preparation.

Where to Play and What to Play

Polk's video tackled a couple of controversial issues that could spark some debate, the first one on playing live or online, and the other on tournaments versus cash games. If you've followed Polk's career the past decade, you could probably guess his choice for both topics.

"I would prioritize online poker over live poker if you're trying to go on this journey (of making $1 million) because, simply put, you can play much smaller stakes and get a better learning environment for a cheaper price point than if you play live poker," Polk said. "Now, if you're bankrolled for both, I think that live poker is certainly softer. But we're talking about what goes into becoming a great player to win a lot of money, and I would say you want to pick the online formats."

Never chase losses

Always set limits

Take regular breaks

Responsible Gambling

Polk built his way up the stakes playing online, mostly in the heads-up format. Although he has some solid tournament results with over $10.5 million in live tournament cashes, The Hendon Mob database shows, it shouldn't come as a surprise his take on cash games versus tournaments.

"I would also, generally speaking, say you should lean toward cash games over tournaments. You can go either way, right, both of them can make some sense. But, the thing is, if we zoom out and we think long-term, if one day you're trying to play tournaments for a living, that's going to involve a lot of traveling around, different cities, different countries, hotel fees, flights, rides, meals, all this stuff that goes into having to travel around to play in different tournaments and different places. And those expenses certainly add up," Polk said.

Before You Ever Play a Hand of Poker

The 17-minute video titled "How I'd Make $1,000,000 Playing Poker (If I Started Over)" began with an admission about the difficulty of going from zero to hero playing poker as compared to when Polk started playing more than 15 years ago.

"As poker moves along, it gets tougher to be great, tougher to make money because the pools available to improve at the game get better and stronger, and people try harder," Polk explained.

The first step in the process, the video explains, is to choose the right game type, whether it be no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, or some mixed game. Either way, Polk advises players to choose the game(s) they enjoy playing most.

Step 2 is to start watching top players, and he suggests checking out YouTube videos and streams from the best players in the world to "see the things that they do." Step 3 is to study and practice before ever playing a hand of poker for actual money. This step involves downloading poker training software and apps, including Lucid Poker.

Polk recommends new poker players studying and preparing for a few months before ever being dealt a hand. That step leads into the next one, which involves using the training tools repeatedly to improve accuracy over time, and he related this tip to how he prepared for his highly-publicized heads-up match against Daniel Negreanu five years ago.

"When I prepared for my high-stakes match against Daniel Negreanu several years ago, I spent an ungodly number of hours just grinding over and over and over all the same situations to make sure my accuracy was extremely high for all the different hands I could have, because I knew I would play at a high-level in real-time when I actually played," Polk said.

Polk did play at a high-level during that match, as he won $1.2 million over 25,000 hands against the Poker Hall of Famer.

Step 5 is when actually playing poker begins, but Polk recommends only playing "very short sessions" instead of grinding out games all night long, and in Step 6, he discusses the importance of logging results for every session, and not only for tax purposes.

"No serious poker player doesn't track their results. You absolutely have to do so," Polk claims.

Finding a group of peers who can give you feedback on your play is Step 7. The next step, once you've logged enough hours and have been winning at a reasonable rate, it's time to start moving up in stakes and playing more poker.

"You should be looking for spots to be able to take a shot in a higher game when you have the bankroll to do so because that's ultimately the long run end goal here. It's not just pounding out $15 an hour at NL10 or NL20. It's finding a way to one day play higher stakes where your hourly can be extremely good and you can play at a very high level," Polk advises.

Polk's ninth step on the journey to $1 million is to maintain regular poker study, and he concludes the video in Step 10 by informing his audience that players must remain patient and understand that it will take a great amount of time to reach such a lofty goal.