The beginning of 2009 has been a busy one for fans of poker on television. Last Sunday, the seventh season of the World Poker Tour kicked off on Fox Sports Net. Recently, the fifth season of “Poker After Dark” began airing on NBC and, in March, the fifth season of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” will debut. In the meantime, poker enthusiasts can mark their calendars for Monday, January 12th, the date of the first of seven new episodes of the Best Damn Poker Show.
The series airs on Fox Sports Net and is sponsored by UltimateBet.net. The educational online poker room sends two of its main faces to take part, Poker News Daily columnist Annie Duke and 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. The Best Damn Poker Show begins with 24 poker hopefuls battling it out, with contestants sent home each week. The first installment can be found on the cable channel at 9:00pm in each time zone throughout the United States on Monday, January 12th.
Duke and Hellmuth jockey to see who “can better teach the game of Texas Hold’em, transforming ordinary poker players into champions capable of competing on the world stage,” according to a press release issued by Ultimate Bet parent company Tokwiro on Tuesday. Duke took down a $2,000 buy-in Omaha High-Low Eight or Better tournament during the 2004 WSOP for $137,000 and her first (and so far only) bracelet. She also took down the Tournament of Champions that year for $2 million and is no stranger to the television spotlight. In addition to appearances on NBC’s “1 vs. 100” and “Poker After Dark,” she’ll appear on the upcoming edition of “The Celebrity Apprentice,” which also airs on the network.
Hellmuth has 69 career in the money finishes at the WSOP. Eleven of them, or 16%, are for bracelets. He leads Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson in that department, each of whom owns 10 pieces of hardware. In 1989, Hellmuth became the youngest WSOP Main Event winner ever at age 24, a record that stood for nearly 20 years before being shattered in 2008 by Danish player Peter Eastgate (who was 22). The Ultimate Bet pro was recently involved in a glitch on the CEREUS poker network which involved the highly-visible player being shipped a pot while holding the worst hand. Tokwiro officials blamed the error on his opponent disconnecting that the exact moment that the pot was being awarded.
Extended versions of the Best Damn Poker Show Season Two can also be found online. Season One of the popular poker program was won by Tracy Scala, who has since signed on to be a member of the site’s Star Players Team, joining James P0KERPR033 Campbell, Tiffany Michelle, and blackjack guru “Hollywood” Dave Stann. The Season Two cast ranges in age from 58 year-old artist and musician Jon Hair, the elder statesman, to 22 year-old student Tony Wind. Each submitted a video explaining why they would be the perfect candidate for the Best Damn Poker Show.
In addition, Ultimate Bet representatives traveled to Las Vegas for the 2008 WSOP and chose players from the crowd to audition. The Tokwiro press release states that “a majority” of the players made the show by virtue of their impressions made in Las Vegas.
Each installment of the Best Damn Poker Show will re-air at 11:00pm and 12:30am on Monday nights. There are seven episodes in total. Season One aired in early 2008. Who will win Season Two? Tune into Fox Sports Net at 9:00pm in each time zone to find out.
