Poker after Dark is a television series which started in January 1, 2007. It is part of NBC’s late night programs and usually starts after 2:00am. Poker after Dark was originally hosted by Hiatt. Currently, it is on its fourth season and is doing better than before. The show also experienced some changes and by the third season Shana was replaced by Marianela Perevra for the third season. For the BambuQQ season they replaced the host again and is currently Leean Tweeden with Oliver “Ali” Nejad as voice over commentary since the first season. It airs six times a week from Monday to Saturday, the latter being a sort of recap show or “Directors Cut” episode with excerpts from that week’s players. The show is a mini tournament of Texas Hold ’em up. Six players compete for the whole week for $120,000 and the winner for the week would be determined every Friday night. How do they pick the players then? Does anyone have a chance to join?
First of all, the players in Poker after Dark are usually top notch professional poker players. The likes of Gus Hansen and Phil Hellmuth are usual players in the show. But this does not mean that no one else has a chance to join in the game. In season 3, the first week featured Ken Light and a number of professional poker players that were included in his list that network producers asked him for. Ken Light was the winner of a tournament held by Full Tilt Poker and the grand prize was a seat in Poker after Dark. Full Tilt Poker started the promotion on January 2, 2007, a day after the show was premiered. They ran sit and go tournaments around the clock with the top nine finishers qualifying for a spot in the final tournament held on April 30. This was won by Light and went on to the season three for the first week and played against some of the best poker players.
Other than the Full Tilt Poker tournament, Poker after Dark has their own tournament. The prize is also a free seat in the show. You can enter the qualifier tournament by buying in with 10,000 Full Tilt Poker points or by winning smaller tournaments to get into the qualifier for free. Technically, anyone who knows how to play poker has a chance to win a seat for the weekly games of Poker after Dark for free. It would be a difficult task and the chances of getting the grand prize is slim depending on the number of participants of the qualifier and the smaller promotions to get into the qualifier. The odds of getting a seat on average are around 1 out of 3000. The good news is, you still have a one. Like anything else in playing poker, you may not always like the odds but you will never know if you can win or not until you take that chance and try to go for the win.