Season 6 of NBC’s hit show Poker After Dark had quite a beginning as the announcers hit the tables in what was entitled “Commentators III”. High Stakes Poker hosts Gabe Kaplan and Kara Scott (who was just recently named a host), Joe Sebok, Mark Gregorich, and of course Poker After Dark host Ali Nejad all took a seat in the Season 6 opener.
Nejad was often the center of attention in his own show as he got involved in lots of action, and produced some really fun moments. During one part of the episode, Nejad jokingly celebrated Joe Sebok’s appearance on TV by saying, “I had something special to do today in honor of Joe finally making a TV table.”
After delivering the quote, Ali Nejad gave each one of the players a champagne glass in order to toast Sebok’s ‘accomplishment’. The joke is a reference to Sebok busting out right before the final table in numerous live tournaments. Some of the tourneys where Sebok has busted out just before the final table include the Bay 101 Shooting Star, the WPT Fiesta al Lago, and the 2007 Legends of Poker.
All joking aside, the game was pretty competitive during Commentators III. Each player began the game with 20,000 chips, and the blinds were set at $100/$200 so nobody was taking anything lightly. Sebok quickly grabbed the chip lead after taking down a pot worth 7,900 chips against Gabe Kaplan. Sebok hit trips queens during the hand, which prompted Kaplan to wisely fold. The chip lead didn’t last long though as Mark Gregorich came out firing against Sebok with pocket aces. Eventually, Gregorich forced Joe to fold with a bet of 3,000 chips.
This pretty much concluded the main action in the first episode of Season 6. However, there is plenty of good poker to be played on Poker After Dark with 35 more scheduled episodes.
Typically, if you show me 5 poker movies, I can show you at least 4 bad poker movies. However, sometimes a film comes along that gets poker and gets film making at the same time.
Unless you spent the weekend rasslin’ gators, curing diseases or base jumping with one of those bat suits you weren’t anything nearly half as extreme as playing Cowboy Poker.
Pictured: Erik Seidel on Curb… he’s the OTHER bald guy in the frame.
GSN created waves in the poker world when they decided to do away with one half of the High Stakes Poker broadcasting duo after firing A.J. Benza. The move was not only a shock to Benza who publicly complained on his blog about it, but it was also a shock to fans of the show since Benza and fellow co-host Gabe Kaplan played quite well off each other.
There aren’t too many poker autobiographies that I would be excited about. Doyle Brunson’s upcoming book, however, is one I’ll be buying. Godfather of Poker is slated for a November 11, 2009 release and is building a healthy buzz.
With the November Nine FINALLY coming up soon, we’re ready to go with more coverage, news and whatnot. It seemed like it was so far away, and now it’s almost here. It’s like Christmas… gambling Christmas.
Reality TV Update!
