On Monday, the fifth season of NBC’s “Poker After Dark” kicked off. The show featured the theme “Close But No Cigar” and included players who had made the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, but had yet to score their first championship in poker’s biggest tournament. One of the men behind the show is Mori Eskandani, who is also one of the producers for GSN’s “High Stakes Poker.”
Sixteen new events will air in total as part of the new season of “Poker After Dark.” However, Eskandani and other show officials have had to walk a fine line between airing cash games and tournaments, each of which caters to a different viewing audience. Eskandani told Poker News Daily, “When you’re in the business of producing poker for television, you have to cater to your viewers and sponsors. The viewers are split. They enjoy tournaments, but also like to watch cash games.” Eskandani is fresh off filming one of the world’s largest televised cash games, “High Stakes Poker,” which airs on cable station GSN. “Poker After Dark” airs on NBC, a network with a much greater reach. A total of seven weeks of cash games will air.
On the horizon for “Poker After Dark” are a variety of themed player groupings, including one called “Speak Your Mind.” Eskandani revealed, “This episode will feature the guys who aren’t shy to tell you what they’re thinking. Of course, we’ll have Phil Hellmuth in the middle of that.” An episode dubbed “Brilliant Minds” will host poker players who hold a PhD in mathematics or physics and includes former MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch, David Sklansky, Bill Chen, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Brandon Adams. Show organizers even went so far as to include two episodes devoted to “Hellmuth Bashing,” which will see Hellmuth, Tom Dawn, Kenny Tran, and Antonio Esfandiari, among others, hit the felts of “Poker After Dark.”
Another cash game episode is entitled “Top Guns” and includes players who are in the upper echelon of the ring game world. “Railbird Heaven” features a star-studded cast of poker players including Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Esfandiari. Appropriately, those players are often fan favorites at live tournaments and have become some of the most recognizable names in the industry.
“Poker After Dark” features a unique flair whereby the banter between the players takes center stage. Its season five debut featured Irishman Andy Black, Lee Watkinson, 2008 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Dewey Tomko, Bodog poker pro David Williams, five time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow. Leeann Tweeden reprises her role of Hostess for Season 5. Former World Poker Tour (WPT) hostess Shana Hiatt was the show’s original Host. For the first episode, each participant put up $20,000 of his own money and its winner will scoop the entire $120,000 pot.
The first tournament on “Poker After Dark” began on Monday and runs for five consecutive nights. After NBC’s trademark sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, a special episode called “Director’s Cut” will air. Tweeden will recap the week’s episodes and interviews with the show’s stars will also air. Overall, the weekend episode is an inside look at the action on “Poker After Dark.”
The show is sponsored by FullTiltPoker.net, which is the educational online poker extension of its dot com counterpart. FullTiltPoker.net will also serve as the presenting sponsor of the seventh season of the WPT, which debuts on Fox Sports Net this Sunday night, January 4th. Twenty-six episodes will air as part of the new WPT season, each one hour in length. Interested WPT fans are encouraged to check local listings for more information on what time the new episodes will air in their market.
High Stakes Poker is THE BEST poker show!!! Bring It Back. There needs to be more high stakes on Poker After Dark!!! I love seeing CASH and LOTS of IT!!!!
On the weekends directors cut, I would like to see players watching the weeks play and see their reactions when they all can see the hole cards.
I cannot take Helmutjh and Matisou any more. It’s like watching Jerry Springer’s tv show with his participants playing poker.
What would be fun about that? So I will be watching when they are not there.
And I will not be watching this show when they are there.
I like the game and the show very much when Helmuth is not there.
Eating food at the table is disgusting.Takes away from the game.Not bad enough that a large percentage of the players dress like bums.They have to have dinner also.No class.I doubt that Im the first to point this out.