From a network that was once thought to be jumping off the poker bandwagon comes two brand new shows and nine hours of coverage dedicated to the sport. On Thursday, GSN officials announced that the network will air the 2010 Aussie Millions beginning on June 5th and the Full Tilt Poker Doubles Championship beginning on August 14th. Both will occupy the same 9:00pm ET time slot.
Recently wrapping up on GSN was the sixth season of the popular cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker.” The show, which featured players such as Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Dennis Phillips in its most recent incarnation, has aired on GSN ever since its debut in 2006. Gabe Kaplan and A.J. Benza called the action for the first five seasons. For the most recent run, industry veteran and PartyPoker pro Kara Scott replaced Benza and conducted interviews from the “High Stakes Poker” suite.
David Schiff, GSN’s Vice President of Programming and Development, commented in a press release, “High Stakes Poker has been a ratings success on GSN, with Season 6 ratings up dramatically over previous seasons in all key demographics. We’re excited to now enhance the franchise with even more world-class international poker coverage. Saturday nights on GSN will be the go-to destination for serious poker fans.”
Previously, poker on GSN appeared on Sunday. However, GSN will now air a “poker block” between 6:00pm ET and 3:00am ET on Saturday. If you do the math, you can see that means a whopping nine hours of poker each week. Here’s a look at the schedule for the “poker block” airing on GSN beginning on Saturday, June 5th:
High Stakes Poker, Season 4 – 6:00pm ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 5 – 7:00pm ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 6 – 8:00pm ET
Aussie Millions – 9:00pm ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 5 (repeat) – 10:00pm ET
Million Dollar Challenge – 11:00pm ET
Aussie Millions Presented by FullTiltPoker.net (repeat) – 12:00am ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 4 (repeat) – 1:00am ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 6 (repeat) – 2:00am ET
When August 14th rolls around, the Doubles Poker Championship will supplant the Aussie Millions. The series was filmed at the Golden Nugget and participating teams coughed up a buy-in of $50,000 per player. A total of 16 teams entered, each sharing one hand during play and vying for a high-stakes $1 million top prize.
The cast of characters in the Doubles Poker Championship includes many that you’d expect to find in a $50,000 buy-in event: “High Stakes Poker” regulars Ivey and Dwan, 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, Full Tilt Poker pro David Benyamine, reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Danish poker sensation Gus Hansen, and Jennifer Harman. Former Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones will host.
Three events will air as part of GSN’s coverage of the 2010 Aussie Millions: the $100,000 Challenge, Heads-Up Championship, and the Main Event. Ten episodes were produced in total. Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, sponsors both the Doubles Poker Championship and Aussie Millions on GSN.
The “Million Dollar Challenge,” which will begin airing in the 11:00pm ET time slot beginning on June 5th, formerly appeared on Fox and is sponsored by PokerStars. Fox’s Chris Rose and Team PokerStars Pro front man Daniel Negreanu host the show, which features Negreanu coaching contestants in two heads-up matches before facing off against them in the third round. “Million Dollar Challenge” debuted last October and, at the time, served as nearly direct competition for Full Tilt Poker’s “Face the Ace.”
GSN reaches 72 million cable subscribers. The network has not yet announced when or if “High Stakes Poker” will return for Season 7.
