Poker2Nite Moves To Versus

Date: Thu, Mar 4, 2010

Poker2Night, the weekly talk/news show sponsored by UB.com, has moved to Versus for its second season. It will maintain its old time spot: Wednesday nights at 11 PM. During NHL playoffs its airtime may be pushed back slightly. The first episode just aired and reruns today (Thursday) at 5:30 PM. The show is also available on UB's site.

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High Stakes Poker Season 6 Premieres Sunday

Date: Fri, Feb 12, 2010

High Stakes Poker season 6 premieres Sunday at 8 PM on GSN. They'll be starting off with day 1. It will be preceded by an 8-hour marathon of the best episodes from previous seasons, starting at noon.

The WSOP Europe continues on Sunday nights.

The current WPT episode (schedule) is the Legends of Poker from the Bicycle Casino in California. The players are Prahlad Friedman, Kevin Schaffel, Toto Leonidas, Todd Terry, Sam Stein, and Mike Krescanko. Its official premiere isn't till Sunday night, but in many areas of the country episodes start airing earlier in the week.

Poker2Nite has finished its run.

This week's newsbites:

• Poker News Daily interviewed Brandon McSmith about his lawsuit claiming Face the Ace was his idea.
• Poker News Daily did an interview with Kara Scott about her HSP 6 hosting duties and other things.

Check our poker on TV schedule for the full list of shows running new episodes.

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High Stakes Poker Season 6 To Show Fewer Hands?

Date: Fri, Feb 12, 2010

High Stakes Poker season 6 will add at least two new non-poker segments, presumably resulting in fewer hands being shown:

• As previously mentioned, Kara Scott will be doing interviews.
• Each episode will also include a segment called "Did You Know?" where Daniel Negreanu will give a brief lesson about the game. For example, in the first episode he's expected to explain the origin of the term "Dead Man's Hand."

I think anything that results in fewer hands being shown will likely harm the show. They're already showing just a selection of the most interesting hands; some shows like Poker After Dark show most of the hands. The shtick between Gabe and AJ presumably won't be replaced, but I doubt that will save as much time as will be spent on the new segments.

The Las Vegas Sun has a preview promising a big hand between two players I won't mention here.

Card Player has a preview video:



Below is GSN's teaser video:



See High Stakes Poker season 6 for full information about the new season.

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Poker on TV Update, January 22, 2010

Date: Fri, Jan 22, 2010

The EPT Deauville streams live on PokerStars.tv at 6 AM Sunday (TV table) and Monday (final table).

If you haven't caught the new season of the World Poker Tour yet, its official premiere is Sunday night at 11 PM on Fox Sports Net. Check out the WPT's Channel Finder to verify when it's airing in your area. The first tournament shown this season is the Bellagio Cup V. Details are in our last update.

The next new show will be the WSOP Europe on January 31.

Check our poker on TV schedule for the full list of shows running new episodes.

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Poker on TV Update: World Poker Tour Premieres This Week

Date: Sat, Jan 16, 2010

World Poker Tour season 8 starts airing this coming week in certain areas of the country. Although the official premiere date is Sunday, January 24 at 11 PM, Fox Sports Net is a collection of regional networks which can run the show whenever they want. Some of them, including my affiliate, are starting the new season on Monday the 18th. WPT's Channel Finder is a good way to find out when it's airing in your area. The first tournament shown this season will be the Bellagio Cup V. Erik Seidel, Justin "Boosted J" Smith, Alec "traheho" Torelli, Alexandre Gomes, Faraz "The-Toilet" Jaka, and Christoffer Sonesson made the TV table. I've heard of all but the last of them, so it's an impressive TV table.

Poker After Dark will be in rerun until March 15.

This week's newsbites:

• Two more unnamed NAPT stops will be added to the three already announced.
  
• Kara Scott signed to represent Party Poker and will be hosting their TV shows. I hope this doesn't mean that we won't see her on American shows after her work on the upcoming High Stakes Poker season 6 and WSOP Europe airs.
  

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Poker on TV Update: New PAD, $Million Cash Game S4, PCA Live Streams

Date: Fri, Jan 8, 2010

Next week's Poker After Dark is a tourney, "Nicknames," featuring Annette Obrestad, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari, Erick Lindgren, Phil Laak, and Phil Hellmuth.

The Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game season 4 has become available for downloading or streaming. The production quality is much worse than HSP or PAD (e.g. poor onscreen graphics), but it's a big game ($300/600 blinds) with great players that features the biggest pot in TV poker history.

As mentioned previously, the PCA live streams are underway. The Main Event is one of the biggest tournaments in the world, and its final table streams Monday at noon on PokerStars.tv.

The Windy City Poker Championship is coming to Bright House Sports Network in Florida and Cox Cable's CST.

This week's newsbites:

• Someone talked to Sam Farha about why he no longer plays on High Stakes Poker: ... now that people can see his hole cards and figure out how he plays, the game has gotten harder. So, as he put it (and I quote) "It's bad for my game to be on TV."
• Hellmuth and Negreanu say that ESPN is filming the PCA. It could be a mistaken assumption based on the same production company that does the WSOP filming the PCA, but it looks likely to me right now that ESPN will be the NAPT's broadcast partner.
  
• We've written many times about how cash games are more popular with viewers than tournaments. The latest poll on 2+2 shows the widest margin I've seen so far: 91% prefer watching cash games vs. 9% for tournaments.
  

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PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Launches

Date: Fri, Jan 8, 2010

PokerStars announced the long-rumored (see our September 2008 article) North American Poker Tour (NAPT). The initial stops are the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (underway now), the Venetian in February, and Mohegan Sun in April. More events will be added. Joanna Krupa will be the hostess. Television production company 441 (the same group that produces ESPN's WSOP coverage) will be producing the NAPT series. PokerStars's Jeffrey Haas says "We do have a first tier broadcast partner that will hopefully be announced in the next two weeks."

This is PokerStars's 9th tournament series (see the list). Their European Poker Tour is the world's leading poker tour, having long ago passed out the World Poker Tour.

Below are an interview with and picture of hostess Krupa.

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PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Live Streams Start Today

Date: Fri, Jan 8, 2010

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is one of the biggest tournaments in the world, with the Main Event paying $1 million or more to the top four places. PokerStars.tv is streaming several events this year, and it is being filmed for later airing on TV.

The streaming schedule:

• Friday, Jan. 8 at 6 PM: PokerStars Charity Event
• Sunday, Jan. 10 at noon: PCA Main Event – TV Table
• Monday, Jan. 11 at noon: PCA Main Event – Final Table
• Wednesday, Jan. 13 at noon: World Cup of Poker Final
• Thursday, Jan. 14 at noon: PCA High Roller – Final Table

All the events are streaming at PokerStars.tv.

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WSOP Europe TV Schedule

Date: Fri, Jan 8, 2010

The Caesars Cup and WSOP Europe begin airing January 31 on ESPN2. The Caesars Cup is a made-for-TV poker show with an odd format which pits America against Europe. It was shot during the WSOP Europe. The WSOP Europe Main Event has one of the toughest fields in poker and it had a terrific final table. Kara Scott will be the WSOP Europe sideline reporter.

Caesars Cup:

• Sunday, January 31st: 11:00 PM
• Monday, February 1st: 12:00 AM

WSOP Europe Main Event:

• Sunday, February 7th: 10:00 PM
• Sunday, February 7th: 11:00 PM
• Monday, February 8th: 12:00 AM
• Sunday, February 14th: 11:00 PM
• Monday, February 15th: 12:00 AM
• Monday, February 15th: 1:00 AM
• Sunday, February 28th: 9:00 PM
• Sunday, February 28th: 10:00 PM

All times are on ESPN2.

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World Poker Tour Season 8 Schedule

Date: Tue, Jan 5, 2010

World Poker Tour season 8 airs on Fox Sports Net at 11 PM on Sunday nights beginning January 24 (but it will start airing in some markets on the 18th). Episodes will be one hour long and in HD. Full Tilt Poker will continue as the WPT's sponsor this season. The schedule is below:

1/24/2010 Bellagio Cup V – Part 1
1/31/2010 Bellagio Cup V – Part 2
2/7/2010 Bellagio Cup V – Part 3
2/14/2010 Legends of Poker – Part 1
2/21/2010 Legends of Poker – Part 2
2/28/2010 Borgata Poker Open – Part 1
3/7/2010 Borgata Poker Open – Part 2
3/14/2010 Festa Al Lago – Part 1
3/21/2010 Festa Al Lago – Part 2
3/28/2010 World Poker Finals – Part 1
4/4/2010 World Poker Finals – Part 2
4/11/2010 Bellagio 5 Diamond – Part 1
4/18/2010 Bellagio 5 Diamond – Part 2
4/25/2010 Southern Poker Championship – Part 2
5/2/2010 Southern Poker Championship – Part 2
5/9/2010 LA Poker Classic – Part 1
5/16/2010 LA Poker Classic – Part 2
5/23/2010 LA Poker Classic – Part 3
5/30/2010 Celebrity Invitational – Part 1
6/6/2010 Celebrity Invitational – Part 2
6/13/2010 Bay 101 Shooting Star - Part 1
6/21/2010 Bay 101 Shooting Star - Part 2
6/27/2010 Hollywood Poker Open – Part 1
7/4/2010 Hollywood Poker Open – Part 2
7/11/2010 WPT Championship – Part 1
7/18/2010 WPT Championship – Part 2

You can use WPT's Channel Finder or Wikipedia's listing to find your local Fox Sports Net affiliate. You may need to search a programming guide to find the day and time shows air in your area, which may change from week to week.

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Poker on TV Update: Million Dollar Challenge Today, Face the Ace Saturday

Date: Sun, Dec 27, 2009

The last Million Dollar Challenge airs at 4:30 on Fox today. Note that it may run late as it's on after football. They're already running qualifiers for the next season.

The last Face the Ace runs on Saturday the 2nd at 2:30 PM on NBC.

The next season of Poker After Dark begins Monday the 4th with a tourney called Commentators featuring Howard Lederer, Gabe Kaplan, Joe Sebok, Ali Nejad, Mark Gregorich, and Kara Scott. New episodes will be in HD. The show airs at 2:05 AM on NBC.

CNBC has been running a special called CNBC Investigates: The Big Business of Illegal Gambling. Upcoming airings are Friday the 1st at 9 PM and Sunday the 3rd at 11 PM. It's also available for downloading or streaming from the usual places. The mainstream media rarely does a decent job with gambling, but you may find the middle and later parts of it worth watching. They include Jay Cohen at the 26-minute mark, the WTO decision at 33 minutes, the Absolute Poker/UltimateBet scandals at 40, and the prohibition vs. regulation debate at 50 minutes.

This week's newsbites:

• Montel Williams and his International Team Poker League are being sued by an investor.
  
• Poker After Dark was voted the 9th best show of the year by Baltimore City Paper.
  

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World Poker Tour Season 8 Premieres January 24, Plus More WPT News

Date: Sun, Dec 27, 2009

World Poker Tour season 8 premieres Sunday January 24 at 11 PM on FSN.

The WPT added Paris's Aviation Club back to its schedule. They last played there in 2006 for legal reasons. The tournament will take place at the end of season 8 in 2010, and will be filmed for television.

Other WPT newsbites:

• Card Player talked to some of the WPT people about the tour's future. Expect more international events, the WPT to keep its own brand (it won't be labeled PartyPoker), and for them to encourage other online sites to run satellites to their events.
  
• The WPT announced another non-TV event: WPT Bucharest.
  
• Poker News Daily summarized the WPT's 2009. Alternatively, you can click our WPT label for all of our stories.
  

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Pokertronic Automated TV Production Equipment

Date: Sat, Dec 26, 2009

Pokertronic's equipment generates poker video with hole cards and winning percentages on the fly, for live-to-tape or streaming video productions. OCR is used to recognize the hole cards. Pokertronic found RFID recognition of bets to be too expensive, so bets must be input manually (see however our previous coverage of RFID solutions: 1, 2). Pokertronic's system isn't available for sale yet, but it will be available for long-term lease (at least one year) in the first quarter of 2010. Currently they offer taping in their German studio or travel to clients' locations (about 8,000 Euro for a one-day show). Below is a screenshot from their live stream of WPT Venice.

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High Stakes Poker Season 6

Date: Sat, Dec 26, 2009

High Stakes Poker season 6 premieres on GSN Sunday, February 14 at 8 PM. Reruns will air at 11 PM and 2 AM. 13 episodes will air. Gabe Kaplan will do commentary (AJ Benza is gone) and Kara Scott will do interviews from the floor. Blinds will be $400/800 with a $200 ante and a $200,000 minimum to $500,000 maximum buyin. Prop bets will not be allowed.

We know the starting lineups from the three days of taping in November. Known replacement players are also mentioned below.

Day 1:

• Phil Hellmuth
• Tom "durrrr" Dwan
• Phil Ivey
• Daniel Negreanu
• Gus Hansen
• Antonio Esfandiari
• Dario Minieri
• Andreas Hoivold

Phil Laak and Eli Elezra replaced players later.

Day 2:

• Tom "durrrr" Dwan
• Phil Ivey
• Daniel Negreanu
• Patrik Antonius
• Barry Greenstein
• Dennis Phillips
• Lex Veldhuis
• Andrew "good2cu" Robl

Phil Laak replaced a player later.

Day 3:

• Phil Ivey
• Tom "durrrr" Dwan
• Daniel Negreanu
• Doyle Brunson
• Mike Matusow
• Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier
• David Benyamine
• Eli Elezra

Phil Galfond and Phil Laak replaced players later.

Jason Mercier also played an unknown day. There may be other replacement players that haven't been revealed. Dwan, Ivey, and Negreanu played all three days.

More details on High Stakes Poker season 6:

• Gus Hansen, Phil Galfond, Lex Veldhuis, and Andrew "good2cu" Robl blogged about their experiences playing.
• Logos will be allowed for the first time.
• PokerStars is reportedly sponsoring the show.
• Barry Greenstein is expected to do another one of his charitable fundraising drives for saying a poker phrase on the show. This time it's "bing blang blaow."
• Tom "durrrr" Dwan was going on little sleep at the day one taping, as he'd been busy losing millions to Isildur1 online just prior to filming.
  
• Greg Raymer talked about why he consistently refuses his invitations to play on High Stakes Poker (he's not bankrolled for the game).
• Card Player interviewed Kara Scott and Mori Eskandani at the day one taping (video).

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