Poker After Dark is a TV show aired on NBC, which so far had 7 seasons and 354 episodes. It runs for 1 hour and it shows poker games between some of the best players in the world. It started in 2007, was cancelled in 2011 after the Black Friday criminal case, and started again in 2012.
Over the years it had multiple hosts and commenters and it was usually aired during weeknights, starting at midnight. In 2017 it continued to be hosted by PokerGO, a subscription based service. The show takes a close look at the players and how their game evolves over the course of a week. Blinds start small and get bigger each day. Viewers are able to hear what players are talking during the games, since they all have microphones. The commentary is also limited, allowing people to really be a part of the game.
The initial structure was that of six pro players playing in a No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament over the course of 5 days, where each player paid a buy-in of $20,000 making the prize pool of $120,000. In the fifth day a winner was chosen, showing excerpts from the previous days with commentaries from each of the players involved in the tournament. But in time the producers experimented other formats as well, such as no-limit cash games, heads-up battles and a “Dream table” where an amateur player would play against five pros.
Poker After Dark had a great success in the United States, and was soon aired by various TV channels from all over the world. It included some of the best players in the world and had very interesting and spectacular hands. Some of the winners are Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Vanessa Rousso, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Tom Dwan and many more others.
And speaking of Tom Dwan, it was in 2011 during Season 7 of Poker After Dark when he made a spectacular comeback after being retired for many years. He played among big names like Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Jean-Robert Bellande, Lauren Roberts and Bill Klein. And right from the first episode we had a spectacular hand, where masterminds Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari and Daniel Negreanu battled for a $700,000 pot, all having a big pair in their hands. Tom had a pair of Aces, Antonio had a pair of Kings and Daniel had a pair of Queens. In the end Tom Dwan took the big pot with his pair of Aces.
There were many more other fascinating and spectacular hands, and you can find most episodes on Youtube. One of them would be that when Doug Polk loses a pot of $371,400.
Doug Polk loses huge pot at Poker After Dark TV Show
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