On Thursday, Ultimate Bet announced that Season Two of the Best Damn Poker Show will debut on Fox Sports Net on Monday, October 27th. The show enters its last day of filming today on the West Coast of the United States at the San Manuel Resort and Casino, which is about a 60 mile drive from Los Angeles.
The show features the two principal faces of Ultimate Bet, Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth. As part of the show, Duke and Hellmuth will once again each coach a group of poker players. Duke won her first and only World Series of Poker bracelet in 2004. The sister of professional poker player Howard Lederer took down a $2,000 buy-in Omaha High-Low Eight or Better event, cashing for $137,860. Duke made a name for herself early on by finishing 26th in the 1994 Main Event (which was won by former UB owner Russ Hamilton). In 2004, she won the WSOP Tournament of Champions, pocketing $2 million.
Hellmuth is an 11-time WSOP bracelet winner and nearly captured a 12th during the 2008 World Series. He finished third in a $1,500 HORSE tournament, cashing for $93,168. He also made a deep run during the Main Event this year, finishing 45th for $154,400. The first of his 11 WSOP bracelet wins came by virtue of winning the 1989 Main Event, becoming the youngest bracelet winner ever at the time. He remains the youngest player to take down the Main Event.
A spokesperson for Ultimate Bet told Poker News Daily what makes the Best Damn Poker Show so successful: “It provides not only poker skill and strategy for its viewers, but it also has an element of entertainment, which you don’t really see a lot of in today’s poker programming. It’s never boring when Annie and Phil are together.”
In order to be eligible for the show, prospective cast members had to submit a video describing why they were worthy of a spot on one of the two poker rosters. In addition, Ultimate Bet ran qualifiers that awarded entries. Registration was also held as part of a live audition at the Rio during the 2008 WSOP. Eighteen players will compete on Season 2 of the Best Damn Poker Show. Tracy Scala, the newest member of Ultimate Bet’s Star Players Team, won Season 1 of the series.
Ultimate Bet has a roster of poker stars in addition to Scala. Its Star Players Team includes WSOP bracelet winner and online poker guru Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy and James “P0KERPR033” Campbell. The site also signed actress and poker player Tiffany Michelle, who was the last woman standing in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. She finished in 17th place and took home $334,534.
Ultimate Bet is gearing up for its annual Aruba Poker Classic, which kicks off on September 27th from the Radisson Aruba Resort and Casino. The picturesque Caribbean island first played host to the Ultimate Bet flagship tournament in 2002, when Juha Helppi defeated Phil Gordon heads-up. Other winners have included Erick Lindgren (2003), Eric Brenes (2004), Freddie Deeb (2005), Devon Miller (2006), and last year’s champion, Travis Rice.