Stephanie Moore /

$50k Cash Game Week, from left to right: Chris Ferguson, Phil Helluth, Antonio Esfandiari, Brandon Adams, Todd Brunson and Mike Matusow.

Note: This is an encore presentation of weeks 56-57

Cash game action returns to Poker After Dark for the next two weeks with a game featuring a $50,000 minimum buy-in. Competing to begin play are Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Brandon Adams, Todd Brunson, and Mike Matusow. Also appearing in the game later will be David “Viffer” Peat and Dennis Phillips. The blinds are $100/$200 with a $25 ante.

Hellmuth and Esfandiari have appeared previously in a cash game on Poker After Dark, and have had quite a feud going on between them for some time with Esfandiari getting the better of it as of late. He punished Hellmuth unmercifully in “Nicknames Week,” which was filmed just before this game took place, so look for the two to continue to try and get the best of one another over the course of this game.

Ferguson has rarely played in televised cash games, but claims he has been working on his cash game skills recently so it will be interesting to see if he can emerge a winner against this lineup. Matusow is no stranger to televised cash games, and whenever he and Hellmuth are at the same table viewers can expect him to needle Hellmuth in a way that only Matusow can.

Adams is primarily known as a cash game player and has appeared on PAD once before, during “Brilliant Minds” week. Look for Adams to be the quiet one at the table, preferring to let his cards do the talking as he makes some slick moves. Brunson may have won more money in cash games than all the rest of the players have in cash games combined over his career. He is making his first PAD appearance, but it is a memorable one as he will humorously mock Hellmuth in a way never before seen on television.

Brief profiles of all six players follow. The match will begin airing on NBC late night Monday at 2:05 a.m., August 23, and will continue for five consecutive nights in the same time slot. A special program called the “Director’s Cut” will air late night Saturday, August 28, at 1:00 a.m., right after Saturday Night Live. This show will feature Leeann Tweeden with a behind-the-scenes look at the week with highlights and insightful player interviews and analyses. The game will resume the following week in the same time slots. Check your local listings for the exact times in your area. Viewers can also watch the action at www.nbcsports/msnbc.com/poker.

Over the next two weeks there will be far more entertainment available to viewers than just watching a poker game with money on the line. Whenever Hellmuth is in the lineup it just seems that he has a bull’s-eye on his forehead for the rest of the players to take shots at him, whether verbally or by trying to outplay him. The table talk at times is hilarious, and it begins right out of the gate. Those anticipating insults and blow-ups of sorts will not be disappointed. And wait until you get a load of Brunson’s companion; she’s a real doll!

Ferguson, Chris: (Seat 1)
· Nicknamed “Jesus” and one of poker’s most recognizable players
· World Series of Poker Champion in 2000 and owner of five WSOP bracelets
· Career live tournament winnings in excess of $8.05 million, and ranks 19th on the all-time money list
· Runner-up in both the 2005 and 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and the winner of the event in 2008
· Earned a Ph.D. in computer science from UCLA in 1999, and is a former ballroom and swing dance instructor

Hellmuth, Phil: (Seat 2)
· Known as the “Poker Brat,” a name he now embraces, and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in July 2007
· 1989 World Champion, and won his 11th World Series bracelet in 2007, making him the first and only person in history to do so
· Career live tournament winnings in excess of $11.44 million, and ranks 4th on the all-time money list, despite never having a cash for more than $755,000
· With 6 cashes in the 2009 WSOP, now has more World Series cashes (79) and has made more WSOP final tables (41) than any other player in history
· His fame has given him the opportunity to be involved in many businesses on the side, and he is highly acknowledged as the game’s best self-promoter

Esfandiari, Antonio: (Seat 3)
· Nicknamed “The Magician” for having been a professional magician before becoming a poker player
· Winner of one WSOP bracelet and one WPT event
· Career live tournament winnings in excess of $3.63 million
· Went deep in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, finishing 24th, collecting his biggest WSOP payday ever of nearly $353,000
· Hired Mindset Coach Sam Chauhan for a six-month period beginning in 2009 to help him regain his poker focus and his hunger and desire to win

Adams, Brandon: (Seat 4)
· Born in New Orleans in 1978, and now resides in Miami, FL
· Semi-professional cash game player, playing NLHE as high as $200/$400, and appeared on the 4th season of GSN’s High Stakes Poker
· Career live tournament winnings in excess of $780,000
· A college graduate at the age of 19, holds Master’s degrees in Finance and Real Estate, and now teaches two classes each spring at Harvard on The U.S. and the World Economy
· Has written 3 books, one entitled Broke: A Poker Novel, and just finished one dealing with the state of the world’s economics

Brunson, Todd: (Seat 5)
· Nicknamed “Darkhorse” and a highly feared high-stakes cash game player
· Owns one WSOP bracelet, that in a $2500 Omaha Hi/Lo event in 2005
· Career live tournament winnings in excess of $3.39 million
· Wrote the 7-card stud hi/lo section in his father’s book Super System II
· Has had his famous ponytail for nearly two decades, though he says he might cut it off if someone offered him the right price

Matusow, Mike: (Seat 6)
· Known as “The Mouth” for trash talking at the tables, and one of poker’s most recognizable players
· Winner of three WSOP bracelets, his latest in the prestigious 2008 $5000 no-limit 2-7 draw event w/rebuys
· Lifetime live tournament winnings in excess of $7.42 million, and ranks 25th on the all-time money list
· Won a $100,000 prop bet with Ted Forrest at the beginning of the 2008 WSOP by losing more than 50 pounds since the 2007 WSOP, weighing in at a svelte 179
· Released his autobiography entitled Check-Raising the Devil in May 2009, a candid and revealing look at his life and the battles he’s faced with demons over the years

Dennis Oehring serves as the Public Relations Coordinator for the firm POKER PROductions.  Statistics courtesy of The Hendon Mob database.  Photo courtesy of Stephanie Moore.