''Poker After Dark'' is an hour-long poker television program that originally aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, premiering on January 1, 2007. NBC Announces New ''Poker After Dark'' series
from the

NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

Media Village website The series was canceled on December 3, 2011, following the "Black Friday" criminal case, which involved major sponsor

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

as one of the defendants. The show rebooted on August 14, 2017, with appearances from

Tom Dwan Thomas Dwan Jr. (born 1986) is an American professional poker player who played online in the highest-stakes No-Limit Texas hold 'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games, primarily on Full Tilt Poker under the screen name "durrrr". Dwan has won prize mone ...

Daniel Negreanu Daniel Negreanu (; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player who has won six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. In 2014, independent poker ranking service Global Poker Ind ...

Antonio Esfandiari Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari ( fa, امیر اسفندیاری; born December 8, 1978 as Amir Esfandiary), is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. Esfandiari was the face of th ...

. ''Poker After Dark'' episodes are now filmed exclusively at the PokerGO Studio at

ARIA Resort and Casino Aria Resort and Casino is a luxury resort and casino, part of the CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Aria consists of two curved glass and steel highrise towers adjoined at the center. It opened on December 16, 2009 a ...

, and distributed on video streaming service

PokerGO PokerGO is an over-the-top content platform based in Las Vegas, Nevada. PokerGO was launched in 2017 as a subscription-based streaming service offering poker centric online streaming. The content offered on PokerGO includes poker tournaments, ...

. For its first two seasons, both of which originally aired in 2007, the show was presented by

Shana Hiatt Shana Hiatt (born December 17, 1975) is an American model and presenter who has appeared in several magazines. Personal life A former Army brat raised primarily in Tabernacle Township, New Jersey, Hiatt is best known for hosting the first t ...

.Poker After Dark kicks off season with Dream Match
/ref> The host for season 3 was

Marianela Pereyra Marianela Pereyra is an American-Argentine TV host, health advocate, writer and actress. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereyra, Marianela 1979 births Living people American female models Argentine emigrants to the United States American ...

, and

Leeann Tweeden Leeann Tweeden is an American radio broadcaster, model and sports commentator. She is co-host of ''Dr. Drew Midday Live'' on Radio 790 KABC in Los Angeles. Early life Tweeden was born in Manassas, Virginia, to Bill Tweeden, a retired Air For ...

took over starting with season 4.Cardplayer article on Season 4
/ref> When the series returned on

in 2017, Drea Renee took over as lead presenter. Veronica Brill was introduced as the sideline reporter during season 12. All seasons have contained voice-over commentary by Oliver "Ali" Nejad.

Summary

The ''Poker After Dark'' format featured an "intimate look at one table as it develops over the week." Blinds start at $100/$200 and slowly escalate. Commentator Ali Nejad's commentary is limited, allowing viewers to hear much of the table talk among the players, all of whom are mic'ed. (The table talk occasionally reveals that the "week-long" series is taped in one long session.) The series was originally structured as a series of week-long

No Limit No Limit may refer to: Music Record labels *No Limit Records, a record label founded by Master P * No Limit Forever Records, a record label founded by Romeo Miller, son of Master P Albums * ''No Limit'' (Art Pepper album), 1977 * ''No Limit'' ...

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, communit ...

mini-tournaments for six top poker professionals. Each week the players vied for a $120,000 winner-takes-all prize pool, with each paying a $20,000

buy-in Buying in may refer to: *Buying in (poker), a tournament entrance fee *Buying in (securities), a process in which a buyer whose seller fails to deliver the securities contracted for, can "buy in" the securities from a third party *Management buy-i ...

.Although the standard buy-in on ''Poker After Dark'' is $20,000, the buy-in for the Mega Match (which first aired the week of October 8, 2007) was $50,000. By the end of the fifth show, a winner is determined. The sixth show was a "

director's cut A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...

" that includes excerpts from the action from the previous five days, interspersed with talking heads commentary from the participants. Beginning with Season 4, the producers began to experiment with different formats, including no-limit cash games, and a double-elimination Heads Up battle between the first 4 winners of the

National Heads-Up Poker Championship The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network.

.Season 4 preview from Poker News
/ref> Also, Seasons 3, 4 and 5 had a "Dream Table," pitting an amateur against five pros.

Broadcast

''Poker After Dark'' aired six times a week, at 2:05 a.m. ET (1:05 CT) Tuesday through Saturday, and then at 1:00 a.m. ET (12:00 CT) on Sundays, though times vary according to the preferences of the affiliates. The early Sunday show is a "director's cut" weekly summary of the previous week's shows. Several NBC affiliates, most notably those owned by

Post-Newsweek Stations Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chic ...

, Barrington Broadcasting, some

Raycom Media Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its Commun ...

stations,

WBBH-TV WBBH-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is the flagship television property of locally-based Waterman Broadcasting, which provides certa ...

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

, and the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

-owned

KSL-TV KSL-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Bonneville International, the for-profit broadcasting arm of the Church of Jesus Chr ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

refused to air the show due to management or locality objections against programs featuring gambling (the Post-Newsweek stations also refused to carry ''

Face the Ace Face the Ace was a poker-themed game show on NBC, first airing August 1, 2009. The show was hosted by Steve Schirripa (''The Sopranos'') along with hostess/spokesmodel Megan Abrigo and featured the commentary of Ali Nejad, who also served in the ...

'' in August 2009), while other stations did not carry it due to existing syndication contracts precluding it from airing the series or to retain control of their overnight schedules. It was not aired entirely in the state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

due to the state's strict gambling laws. NBC abruptly stopped airing ''Poker After Dark'' on September 23, 2011, a few days after

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...

, the

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess and Sullivan. Establish ...

, issued a statement alleging production underwriter

had perpetrated a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

on its customers. Replacing the show was a rebroadcast of the

Hoda Kotb Hoda Kotb ( ; arz, هدى قطب, ''Hudā Quṭb''; ; born August 9, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist, television personality, and author. She is a main co-anchor of the NBC News morning show ''Today'' and co-host of its entertainment ...

Kathie Lee Gifford Kathryn Lee Gifford (née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is a ...

-hosted fourth hour of ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'', and on the weekends, a second episode of ''In Wine Country'' from

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

NBC station KNTV.

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

has since removed their poker section entirely from their webpage, and previous episodes have been removed from

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

. Although NBC did not issue a definitive statement regarding the schedule change or the future of the show, NBC Sports Senior Director of Communications Adam Freifeld has stated that NBC will "continue to evaluate our poker programming." Since 2017, ''Poker After Dark'' has aired live each month exclusively on

. Full replays and highlight recaps are also available on demand for each episode.

International

In Canada ''Poker After Dark'' aired afternoons and late nights on

Rogers Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was r ...

and, since fall 2009 on the French network V. In France ''Poker After Dark'' airs at night on

RTL9 RTL9 is a French-language Luxembourgish television channel shown in Luxembourg, France, Monaco, Africa and the French-speaking regions of Switzerland. History of the channel Télé-Luxembourg On 1 July 1954, CLR (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise ...

. In Germany, it airs on

SPORT1 Sport1 may refer to the following TV channels: * Sport1 (Eastern Europe) * Sport1 (Germany) * Sport1 (Lithuania) * Sport1 (Netherlands) Sport1 may refer to the following TV channels: * Sport1 (Eastern Europe) * Sport1 (Germany) * Sport1 (Lithuani ...

, with commentary provided by Michael Körner.Poker Exklusiv
on the DSF website In Ireland, ''Poker After Dark'' airs on

Setanta Ireland Eir Sport 1 (formerly Setanta Ireland) was an Irish pay television sports channel featuring local and international sporting events. The channel is available on some basic cable packages in Ireland, while it is available upon direct subscription t ...

and

Setanta Sports 1 Eir Sport 2 (stylised as eir Sport 2, formerly Setanta Sports 1) was an Irish pay television channel owned by Setanta Sports Channel Ireland. on most weeknights with little change from the US version. In

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, it airs on Veronica; episodes feature the original English commentary with Dutch subtitles. In Sweden, ''Poker After Dark'' airs on afternoons and nights on

TV4 Sport TV4 Sport was a Swedish sports television channel owned by television company TV4 AB, with the tabloid newspaper ''Expressen'' owning a minor share. In April 2014, a sports channel similar to TV4 Sport is launched as TV12 by the same company, repl ...

and on TV 10 weekday nights at 01:30. In Denmark, it airs at night on TV3+. In Italy, ''Poker After Dark'' airs at night on POKERItalia24. In Poland, ''Poker After Dark'' airs during evenings on

Sportklub Sportklub is a subscription sports television service which has been broadcast in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia since 2006, Croatia from 2007 and in North Macedonia from 2011. A different version of the channel has als ...

and Sport Klub+; commentary is provided by Paweł Majewski and Marcin Grzywacz.. In Russia, the show airs on

7TV Semyorka, or 7TV (russian: Семёрка) was a Russian federal television channel, broadcast under the ''UTH Russia'' television network from Moscow, Russia. The channel was officially founded in 1997 and on 17 September 2001 it was registered ...

at 11:30pm every day until the Febral, and now shows on REN-TV at 3:00 pm.

Episodes

Season 1 (2007)

Season 1 was taped at the

South Point Casino South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa (formerly South Coast) is a resort located along Las Vegas Boulevard in Enterprise, Nevada, south of the Las Vegas Strip. It is owned and operated by Michael Gaughan, the founder of Coast Casinos. It includes a c ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. *

Jennifer Harman Jennifer C. Harman (born November 29, 1964) is an American professional poker player. She has won two World Series of Poker bracelets in open events, one of only four women to have done so. Career Harman won her first World Series of Poker bra ...

was the only player to reach the final two players more than once. *

Doyle Brunson Doyle F. Brunson (born August 10, 1933) is a retired American poker player who played professionally for over 50 years. He is a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several ...

Phil Hellmuth Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event ...

Mike Matusow Michael Matusow (born April 30, 1968) is an American professional poker player residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table. Matusow began playing poker seriously ...

, and

appeared in the most weeks for the season with three appearances each.

Season 2 (2007)

Season 2 was taped in May 2007 at the

. from the

website *Week 8 (Mega Match) required a $50,000 buy-in rather than the usual $20,000, resulting in a $300,000 first prize. *Week 10 (Show Open) was so named because the participants were those featured in the show's 2007 opening credits. *

Howard Lederer Howard Henry Lederer (born October 30, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Series of Poker bracelets and holds two World Poker Tour titles. Lederer has also contributed to several books on poker strategy and has ...

was the only player to reach the final two players more than once. *

Gus Hansen Gustav Hansen (born 13 February 1974) is a Danish professional poker player from Copenhagen, Denmark who has lived in Monaco since 2003. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, one WSOP bracelet and the 2007 Aus ...

, and

appeared in the most weeks for the season with three appearances each.

Season 3 (2008)

Season 3 was taped in October 2007 at the

. *Week 1 (Dream Table) featured the winner of a

sponsored contest (Ken Light) and was billed as the five professionals Light chose to play against, though Light said in an interview during one of the week's episodes that he was only asked to list his favorite players, and did not know that the list would be used to form the table. *Week 9 (Love at First Raise) featured three pairs of players who were couples at the time of filming:

Marco Traniello Marco Traniello (born August 14, 1973, in Gaeta) is an Italian professional hairdresser and was a sponsored professional poker player on Full Tilt Poker. Poker Traniello made his first appearance at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2005, fi ...

David Benyamine David Benyamine (born July 5, 1972 in Paris, France) is a French professional poker player with a World Poker Tour title. Benyamine was a professional tennis player in his early career but had to retire because of shoulder pain. He was also a su ...

& Erica Schoenberg, and

Jennifer Tilly Jennifer Tilly (born Jennifer Ellen Chan; September 16, 1958) is an American–Canadian actress and poker player. Known for her distinctive voice and comedic timing, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, two MTV Movie Awards and three Sat ...

Phil Laak Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish–American professional poker player and a poker commentator, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, a ...

. *

reached the final two players three times, and

Johnny Chan Johnny Chan (;He has another Chinese name "Chen Qiangni" () which is also commonly used by Chinese-language media. It is a transliteration of "Johnny Chan" (as "Chen" for "Chan", "Qiangni" for "Johnny") rather than his Chinese birth name. born ...

reached the final two players two times. *

and

each won two sit-n-goes. *

, and

appeared in the most weeks for the season with three appearances each.

Season 4 (2008)

Season 4 was taped in April 2008 at the

. Season 4 episode titles and presumed seating order taken from NBC's Web site. *Season 4 was the first time cash games were filmed. *The two weeks of cash games were a $200/400 no-limit game instead of a winner take all tournament. During most of the second cash game, the players agreed to $100 antes and the occasional $800 straddle. *Week 3 (Heads-Up Challenge) was a double elimination heads-up format featuring the first four winners of the

National Heads-Up Poker Championship The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network.

and required a $50,000 buy-in resulting in a winner-take-all $200,000 prize. *Week 4 (Mission Impossible) was named in reference to

, who entered the game winless in three-plus seasons of the show, while each of his opponents had won at least once. *Week 5 (Dream II) was the second tournament consisting of the winner of a

sponsored contest (Paul Featherstone) and the five professionals he chose to play against. *

appeared in the most weeks for the season with five appearances, while

appeared in three weeks.

Season 5 (2009)

Most of Season 5 was taped December 19–21, 2008 at the

Golden Nugget Las Vegas The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's, Inc. It has 2,419 hotel rooms. History The Golden Nugget was origi ...

. The season's first three weeks include episodes originally announced as Season 4 episodes and were taped at South Point. *Season 5 would see the first relocation of ''Poker After Dark'' as it moved from

to the

. *Season 5 was the first season with more cash game weeks then sit-n-go weeks. *Close but no Cigar Week consisted of players who at the time of taping had played at a WSOP Main Event final table but did not win. *

is the only pro to participate in all three Dream Table games. *The two weeks of Hellmuth Bash games were the first time the same six players appeared over 10 consecutive episodes of play. *Celebrities and Mentors week was completed in four episodes. The director's cut was aired as the fifth episode, and a "Best Of" look back at Seasons 1-5 was aired at the usual time for the director's cut. *

Eli Elezra Eliahu Ilan Elezra ( he, אלי אלעזרא; born November 24, 1960, in Jerusalem) is an Israeli professional poker player and businessman, now living in Las Vegas, Nevada. With five WSOP bracelets and a WPT win in the post Moneymaker era, he ...

has only played in cash games or during weeks when the final prize was larger than the normal $120,000. Until this season, he always occupied Seat 6 when appearing. * Magnificent Six featured five of the six players shown in this season's opening credits. *

's participation in the Railbird Heaven Cash Game was his first appearance since Season 3. *

appeared in the most weeks for the season with six appearances, while

and

Phil Ivey Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. (born February 1, 1977) is an American professional poker player who has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title, and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables. Ivey is regarded by numero ...

appeared in five weeks each.

Season 6 (2010)

Season 6 was taped in October 2009 at the

and is scheduled to have 13 weeks of episodes. * New graphics debuted with Season 6, including a notation of which player has the button. Previous seasons sometimes used a non-standard "first to act" graphic. Percentages to win the hand are shown more frequently than in past seasons, especially pre-flop, and a trailing player's outs are shown during all-in situations. * Week 12 (Cash Game 150k, Part 2) -

fills in for

Alan Meltzer Alan Meltzer (1944 – October 31, 2011) was an American businessman and poker player who founded Wind-up Records along with his ex-wife Diana Meltzer. Record company Meltzer owned Titus Oaks Records, four record stores in New York and Co ...

after Alan leaves mid-session. *

appeared in the most weeks for the season with six appearances, while

appeared in five weeks.

Season 7 (2011)

Season 7 took place from the

Aria Resort & Casino Aria Resort and Casino is a luxury resort and casino, part of the CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Aria consists of two curved glass and steel highrise towers adjoined at the center. It opened on December 16, 2009 a ...

in Las Vegas, and was scheduled for 13 weeks of new episodes. The program was pulled from the schedule during this season after episode 48, and as a consequence weeks 9-13 never aired on NBC but are available on

. * Season 7 would see the second relocation of ''Poker After Dark'' as it moved from the

. * Previous to Season 7, the biggest buy-in sit-n-go was the $50,000 buy-in Week 8 (Mega Match) won by

Allen Cunningham Allen Cunningham (born March 28, 1977) is an American professional poker player who has won five World Series of Poker bracelets. Career Cunningham studied civil engineering at UCLA before dropping out of school to play poker professionally. ...

. In Season 7 there was both a $50,000 buy-in and a $100,000 buy-in sit-n-go won by

and

Huck Seed Huckleberry ''Huck'' Seed (born January 15, 1969) is an American professional poker player best known for winning the Main Event of the 1996 World Series of Poker. Early life Seed was born in Santa Clara, California, but grew up in Corvallis, ...

respectively. *

appeared in the most weeks for the season with six appearances, while

and

appeared in five weeks each.

Season 8 (2017)

Season 8 took place from inside the PokerGO Studio at

. Unlike the previous seven seasons, Season 8 would follow a new format of broadcasting live streams of each day of play, along with providing daily recaps of the action exclusively on

. * Season 8 followed a new format for ''Poker After Dark'' of live-streaming the action on delay on

. * Week 10 (Holidays with Hellmuth) would have two sit-n-goes that didn't have a winner-take-all format for the first time on ''Poker After Dark'' as both first and second places were paid. * Matt Berkey appeared in the most weeks for the season with nine appearances, while

Brian Rast Brian Rast (born November 8, 1981) is a professional poker player living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Early personal life Rast was born in Denver, Colorado but raised in Poway, California, where he graduated as valedictorian from Poway High School in ...

and

Daniel Cates Daniel Cates (born November 14, 1989) also known as jungleman12 or w00ki3z. is a professional poker player from the United States, once considered to be one of the best heads-up No Limit Texas Hold 'em players in the world. As of 2014, his onli ...

appeared in eight nights each.

Season 9 (2018)

Season 9 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at

. Each day of play was live streamed exclusively on

and would be available on demand, along with daily recaps of the action. * Season 9 would feature the most weeks in a season of ''Poker After Dark'' with 21. The most before that was 13 weeks in Seasons 5–7. *In September 2020,

launched ''Poker After Dark'' Studio Cuts which would see live streams cut into episodes. Power Play was one of the shows cut into Studio Cuts with each night of play split into three episodes each. * Week 9 (Open House) was the first time ''Poker After Dark'' would be filmed inside the PokerGO Studio. *Season 9 would be the first time a game other than No-Limit Hold'em or

Pot-Limit Omaha Omaha hold 'em (also known as Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five ...

was played. Week 14 (Big Three) featured a three-game rotation of No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw. Week 16 (Godfather) was a H.O.R.S.E. and 2-7 Triple Draw rotation. Week 19 (Dolly's Game) was No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw. Week 21 (Pro Bono) was Short Deck. * Week 17 (

888poker 888poker, formerly Pacific Poker, is an international online poker cardroom and network owned by 888 Holdings. 888poker was established in 2002, and is based in Gibraltar. History The poker provider was originally launched in 2002 as ''Pacifi ...

Week) was a $10,000 buy-in sit-n-go. Day 1 was won by

Maria Ho Maria Ho (born March 6, 1983 in Taipei, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese-American poker player and television host/commentator. One of the top ranked female poker players in the world, and a Women in Poker Hall of Fame inductee, she has over $5,000,000 ...

, and Day 2 was won by

. * Bob Bright appeared on 11 shows, ahead of

and

Randall Emmett Randall Emmett (born March 25, 1971) is an American film producer and television personality. He is the chairman and co-founder of production company Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films. Emmett is best known as the producer of the films '' 2 Guns'', ''Si ...

on nine each, and Ben Lamb and

on eight each.

Season 10 (2019)

Season 10 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino. Each day of play was live-streamed exclusively on

and would be available on-demand, along with daily recaps of the action. * Season 10 would be the first season of ''Poker After Dark'' filmed entirely in the PokerGO Studio at

ARIA Resort & Casino Aria Resort and Casino is a luxury resort and casino, part of the CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Aria consists of two curved glass and steel highrise towers adjoined at the center. It opened on December 16, 2009 a ...

. *In September 2020,

launched ''Poker After Dark'' Studio Cuts which would see live streams cut into episodes. GOAT week was one of the shows cut into Studio Cuts with each night of play split into three episodes each. * Week 5 (

Week II) was a $10,000 buy-in sit-n-go. Day 1 was won by Ali Imsirovic, and Day 2 was won by

Chris Moorman } Chris Moorman, (born 12 July 1985) is a British professional poker player. , he is the all-time leader in career online poker tournament earnings crossing the $14 million mark. Career He was among the leaders in the 2011 World Series of Poke ...

. * Week 11 (Showbound!) was a $5,000 buy-in sit-n-go. Day 1 was won by

, and Day 2 was won by Garry Gates. *Week 12 (Whales vs. Wizards) included a $5,000 buy-in sit-n-go with one rebuy allowed. Justin Young was the winner. *

appeared on 11 shows, ahead of

Brandon Cantu Brandon M. Cantu (born May 10, 1981 in Vancouver, Washington) is an American professional poker player. Upon winning a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2006, Cantu relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. On March 14, 2007, Cantu became one of only 27 ...

on eight, and

on seven.

Season 11 (2020)

Season 11 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at

. Each day of play was live-streamed exclusively on

and would be available on-demand, along with daily recaps of the action. Season 11 was cut short due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and only featured two weeks of play. * In September 2020,

launched ''Poker After Dark'' Studio Cuts which would see live streams cut into episodes. One Night in Vegas was one of the shows cut into Studio Cuts with the lone night of play split into two episodes. *

, David Silverman,

Evan Mathis Evan Bradley Mathis (born November 1, 1981) is an American former professional football player who was a offensive guard in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, and was selected by the C ...

, and

each appeared on two shows each.

Season 12 (2020-21)

Season 12 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at

. After each day of play being live-streamed on

for seasons 8 to 11, ''Poker After Dark'' returned to an episodic format released weekly for Season 12. * Season 12 of ''Poker After Dark'' returned to an episodic format that aired on Sunday evenings for Week 1 (Cry Me a River), before switching to Monday evenings for Week 2 (The Bratty Bunch) onwards. *Veronica Brill was introduced as the sideline reporter for Season 12. *Week 5 (Lesson Learned) was a $5,000 buy-in sit-n-go. James Romero defeated Matt Affleck and won $30,000. *Alex Ding and Jake Daniels both appeared in three weeks each.

Season 13 (2021)

Season 13 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at

. Episodes were released weekly on Mondays for Season 13. * Veronica Brill continued as the sideline reporter for Season 13. *Week 4 (Fight Night) was a $10,000 buy-in sit-n-go. Nick Wright defeated

and won $50,000.

Results and notes

Results from

cash game Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In contrast, a pok ...

weeks, which ''Poker After Dark'' introduced in

Season 4 Season 4 may refer to: * "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock'' See also * * Season One (disambiguation) * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album) * '' 2econd Season'' See also * ...

and continued in

Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

Season 6 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

, and

Season 7 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

, are also omitted.

Season 1 (2007)

*In the third episode of Week 1, the players continued to talk and make noise while Phil Hellmuth was trying to decide whether to go all-in against Annie Duke. Hellmuth held , while Duke had . The lack of

decorum Decorum (from the Latin: "right, proper") was a principle of classical rhetoric, poetry and theatrical theory concerning the fitness or otherwise of a style to a theatrical subject. The concept of ''decorum'' is also applied to prescribed limit ...

caused Hellmuth to lash out at Shawn Sheikhan, call over the show's executive producer, and leave the table. Hellmuth also threatened not to participate in future ''Poker After Dark'' tournaments unless the show implemented a rule that encouraged people to stop talking when a player is making an important decision. Immediately after the incident, producers put in place a rule which states that if a player wishes to have silence at the table when faced with a tough decision, the player need only inform the dealer, who will then notify the other players of the request. Failure to comply will result in a "time-out" period of one lap of the button for the offending player(s), with blinds forfeited during this time.

Season 2 (2007)

*In "International" week, Gus Hansen was knocked out after six hands, and heads-up play started after 53 hands, both record lows for the show. Nejad's commentary

Season 3 (2008)

*"Dream Table" week featured a ''Poker After Dark'' first: Phil Hellmuth won by calling an all-in bet from both Ken Light and Jen Harman on the last hand, resulting in the first match to end with no heads-up play. *"Hecklers Week" featured a controversial situation which necessitated the producer having to come to the table. Phil Hellmuth attempted to bluff the river with pair of aces on the board in a hand against Jean-Robert Bellande, and Bellande called. Hellmuth then said "you got it" and held onto his cards, waiting for Bellande to show the winner. Bellande felt he did not have to show his hand, while Hellmuth thought "olden day etiquette" indicated that he should. The tournament was stopped for 5 minutes while all players voiced their opinions and eventually the producer came over and then Hellmuth showed his hand, necessitating that Bellande show his to claim the pot. *"Jam Up" week featured a rule that allowed any player knocked out over the first six hands (once around the table) to rebuy. On the first hand, Eli Elezra was knocked out when his AK didn't crack Howard Lederer's AA when they both got all their chips in pre-flop. Eli was allowed to rebuy for another $20,000, which brought the total chips in play to $140,000, and the first place prize to $140,000. *The "Best Of" episode that closed Season 5 featured Elezra's knockout on the first hand of Jam Up week, but did not make clear that he was able to rebuy after busting out on the first hand per that week's rules, and insinuated he was eliminated.

Season 4 (2008)

Weeks 1 and 7 were Cash Games #1 and #2, and are omitted from the results table. *The Heads Up Challenge used a double-elimination format. In the opening round, Chris Ferguson defeated Paul Wasicka and Phil Hellmuth defeated Ted Forrest. Hellmuth then defeated Ferguson to move on to the final, while Forrest's win against Wasicka eliminated Wasicka. Facing off with one loss each, Ferguson defeated Forrest to set up a Hellmuth-Ferguson final, where Hellmuth only needed to win one out of two matches while Ferguson needed to sweep both matches. Ferguson won the opener before Hellmuth won the finale. In each of Hellmuth's wins against Ferguson, he had pocket tens on the final hand.

Season 5 (2009)

Seven of the 16 weeks during season 5—Weeks 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16—were cash games, and are omitted from the results table. * Season 5 started with three veteran Poker After Dark players securing their first PAD wins (Matusow, Gordon and Bloch). * In Celebrities and Mentors, the mentor-celebrity relationships were Greenstein-Alexander, Smith-Hershiser and Gordon-Cheadle. * Chris Ferguson had lost six times, including the Season 4 Heads-Up Challenge, before his Magnificent Six win became his first win since Season 1. * Howard Lederer became the first player to place last one week, and win the next week.

Season 6 (2010)

Six of the 13 weeks during season 6—Weeks 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12—were cash games, and are omitted from the results table. *Gabe Kaplan's win in Commentators III week marked the greatest comeback in ''Poker After Dark'' history. *Phil Laak's win in Nicknames week marked the first time a single player has won two ''Poker After Dark'' titles against the same opponent heads-up (he won both of his titles against Antonio Esfandiari, the first being in Phil Phil week from Season 1). *The My Favorite Pro tournament marked the first time every episode of play ended in an elimination.

Season 7 (2011)

As of April 9, 2011, 2 of the 4 weeks aired from season 6 were cash games, and are omitted from the results table. Week 11 wasn't originally aired on NBC, but are now available on PokerGO. *In week 4, Tom Dwan came back from below 40k in chips early to knock out both Andrew Lichtenberger and Melanie Weisner while trailing preflop both times, to finally finish the match against Eric Baldwin, again trailing preflop.

Season 8 (2017)

Only 3 weeks during Season 8 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 9 (2018)

Only 1 week during Season 9 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 10 (2019)

Only 3 weeks during Season 10 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 11 (2020)

Season 11 was cut short due to the

and only featured two weeks which were both cash games.

Season 12 (2021)

Only 1 week during Season 12 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 13 (2021)

Only 1 week during Season 13 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Reception

In the U.S., the show had some early

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

s success: during season one's second week, it attracted on average a larger audience among adults 18-34 than ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, ...

'' did the same week, even though the latter is broadcast 90 minutes earlier.''Poker After Dark'' Draws Ratings
, a January 2007 Bodog Online poker blog entry

Sponsorship

regularly advertised during ''Poker After Dark'' broadcasts, and in some countries, Full Tilt Poker is included in the show's title, which for a time prompted players associated with a rival site (Poker Stars) to stop appearing on the show. Full Tilt Poker held promotional tournaments that offered a seat on the show as the grand prize. The first of these winners, Ken Light, appeared in the first week of Season 3, and was said to have picked his own opponents, though Light later said on the show itself that he was only asked to provide a list of his favorite players and that he did not know that players from the list would join him on the show.

Notes

References

External links

*
''Poker After Dark''
at NBCUniversal's Media Village {{Major poker tournaments Full Tilt Poker NBC original programming Poker television shows Poker in North America 2007 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings 2000s American television talk shows 2010s American television talk shows Television shows set in Las Vegas NBC late-night programming