Poker After Dark

Summary

Broadcast

International

Episodes

Season 1 (2007)

Season 2 (2007)

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

  Season 3 (2008)

• Week 1 featured the winner of a Full Tilt Poker sponsored contest 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 featured three pairs of players who were couples at the time of filming: Jennifer Harman & Marco Traniello, David Benyamine & Erica Schoenberg, and Jennifer Tilly & Phil Laak.

  Season 4 (2008)

• Dream II was the second tournament consisting of the winner of a Full Tilt Poker sponsored contest and the five professionals he chose to play against.
• Heads Up Battle was a double elimination heads-up format featuring the first four winners of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and required a $50,000 buy-in resulting in a winner-take-all $200,000 prize.
• 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.
• Mission Impossible Week was named in deference to Mike Matusow, who entered the game winless in three-plus seasons of the show, while each of his opponents had won at least once.

  [|Season 5] (2009)

• 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.
• Mike Matusow 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 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.
• Gus Hansen's participation in the Railbird Heaven Cash Game was his first appearance since Season 3.

  [|Season 6] (2010)

• 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.
• Cash Game 150k, Part 2 - Phil Laak fills in for Alan Meltzer after Alan leaves mid-session.

  [|Season 7] (2011)

Season 8 (2017)

Season 9 (2018)

Results and notes

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 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, 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.

  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 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)

• 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)

• Season 5 started with three veteran Poker After Dark players securing their first PAD wins.
• 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)

• 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.
• The My Favorite Pro tournament marked the first time every episode of play ended in an elimination.

  Season 7 (2011)

• 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)

Season 9 (2018)

Season 10 (2019)

Reception

Sponsorship