Poker After Dark Debut its 5th Season on NBC

On December 29th, 2008, the 5th season of NBC's Poker After Dark will start off. The 1st episode of the new show is entitled "Close but No Cigar" and will play host to those who have been previous participants of the world series of poker Main Event table but yet to win the table. The show will be shown at 2:05 a.m. Eastern time late Monday night and will continue for five consecutive nights at the same time. The format of the Poker After Dark will be a winner take all event.

Each of the six participants will pay $20,000 dollars of their own cash, meaning that the champion of the event will win a total of $120,000 dollars. The poker players that will participate in the event include Irishman Andy Black who finished in 5th place of the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event, which was won by joe hachem. lee watkinson finished in 8th place of the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event. He was sent home by Jerry Yang's A-9. Dewey Tomko will also participate in the event.

He finished in 2nd place in the 1982 WSOP to Jack Strauss and to Carlos Mortensen during the 2001 WSOP Main Event. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame together with High Stakes Poker producer Henry Orenstein. Tomko is the holder of three WSOP bracelets and has a career earnings of $2.6 million dollars. During the 2004 WSOP Main Event, Bodog Poker Pro David Williams battled it out against greg raymer for the top spot. In the end, Raymer won but Williams won a total of $3.5 million dollars. Williams won a WSOP bracelet in 2006 in a $1,500 dollars buy-in cost seven card stud event.

Allen Cunningham owns a total of 5 World Series of Poker bracelets and is considered to be one of the most well-known poker players around. His 4th place finish in the 2006 WSOP Main Event was worth $3.6 million dollars. Eventual champion Jamie Gold won a total of $12 million dollars. He has a total earnings of more than $10 million dollars, including a total of $6.7 million dollars from playing in the WSOP. In April he won a total of $500,000 dollars at a WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Rounding up the participants is mike matusow. Matusow finished in 9th place during the 2005 WSOP Main Event. He won a total of $1 million dollars. On January 3rd, 2009, NBC will show a program called Director's Cut at 1:00 a.m. E.T. following Saturday Night Live. Leeann Tweeden will give the highlights of week's event during the show.

February 25, 2009
William Atkins