If he fails this challenge (goes busto), or if it takes way longer than most think it should (1 to 2 years), then will that mean online poker isn't profitable?
What would the above statement indicate if someone like Doug isn't successful?
It doesn't mean that online poker isn't profitable, it just means that it's difficult to REALLY grind a micro stake to a big number. If Doug isn't successful, it actually wouldn't surprise me. Even the best players in the world are underdogs to achieve this, just not as big a dog as amateur players. If amateurs were achieving this, we'd hear more about it, but we don't. We see people talk about these types of challenges, but how often are they successful? Does that necessarily mean they're a bad player? Of course not. It just means that it's a VERY ambitious goal that I'd say 98% of people, should they attempt it, would fail.
Doug is an excellent player regardless of whether or not he achieves the goal.
I think that he is only doing this to promote his brand. How many people wouldn't sign up if he makes short work of this? I know that I would sign up. Plus I think he is getting some kickback from WSOP.com (he alluded to this when ask why he is playing on WSOP instead of ACR). He has stated many times that ACR is his fav American site.
This is excellent publicity for his Twitch channel, and it's all about building his brand. Jason Somerville is the most successful poker player on Twitch as of right now. He has obviously learned a LOT from Daniel Negreanu about building your brand. Doug is in the process of doing that as well. Challenges like this are a big part of it.
How do you think Tom Dwan built his reputation? Through the Durrrr challenge even though it didn't really ever amount to a whole lot. Combine that with his appearance on the TV cash games, he turned that into a career as a professional poker player. How profitable is he? We don't really know, but we can speculate. I mean, if he ever decided to go onto Twitch, I'm sure he'd attract a fairly decent audience just on reputation alone. But then he has to put in the work to continue to build his brand on Twitch.