Stephanie Moore / © NBC Universal, Inc.

Note: This is the final presentation of Weeks 60-61

Great news for fans of cash game action! For the next two weeks, NBC’s Poker After Dark will present a new high-stakes cash game featuring six of poker’s best known personalities. Those participating are Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Eli Elezra, Tom Dwan, Doyle Brunson, and Gus Hansen. David Peat will also make an appearance later in the session.

The minimum buy-in for this game is $100,000 with a maximum buy-in of $250,000. The blinds will start at $200/$400 with a $100 ante. Viewers can also look for the deuce/seven prop bet to be introduced later in the game to induce even more action.

All of these players have played in Poker After Dark cash games before, and are very familiar with each other’s games. Hellmuth leads the group with five previous cash game appearances, followed by Dwan and Elezra with four, Peat with three, Brunson with two and Laak and Hansen with one apiece.
Individually, because of their talkative natures, each of these players is amusing in their own right and fun to watch.  But collectively, this is one of the more entertaining groups ever assembled in the history of the show and the banter alone will make for must see television.

There are many rivalries among this group, and Hellmuth seems to be in the center of most of them. Always wanting to prove his claim of being the best no-limit hold’em player in the world, to his credit he is not shy about butting heads against anyone. But Dwan has posed a particularly tough challenge for Hellmuth since they first butted heads in the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and could even be considered Hellmuth’s nemesis. Laak and Antonio Esfandiari ridiculed Hellmuth pretty good in Nicknames Week earlier in the 6th season, and Peat busted him in the $50k cash game which first aired in March 2010 resulting in a classic Hellmuth blow-up.

Is another tirade from Hellmuth possible over the span of the next two weeks? Most viewers probably already know the answer to that question.

Brief profiles of all six players follow. The match will begin airing on NBC late night Monday at 2:05 a.m., January 10, 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, January 15, 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.

While the table talk in this game is entertaining, the game is filled with many long thought out decisions which add to the drama and excitement. One decision in particular is riveting, and will be remembered for years to come. There are numerous rebuys along the way as well as some pretty wild swings. And something very unusual occurs at the beginning of this game that viewers are not accustomed to seeing. Be sure to tune in and see if you can pick up on what it is.

Hellmuth, Phil: (Seat 1)
· 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
· Has more World Series cashes (79) and has made more WSOP final tables (41) than any other player in history
· Established a lifetime goal in 1988 to write a book that would make the New York Times best seller list, and achieved the goal in 2004 with his book entitled “Play Poker Like the Pros”, a feat he takes great pride in

Laak, Phil: (Seat 2)
· Nicknamed “The Unabomber” for the trademark hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses he usually wears
· Holder of one WPT invitational title, and won his first WSOP bracelet in London in the 2010 WSOPE 6-handed NLHE event
· Career live tournament winnings in excess of $2.32 million
· May be the man mostly responsible for "hoodies" becoming popular apparel among poker players
· Broke the Guinness World’s Record for endurance in June 2010, playing $10/$20 at the Bellagio for a total of 115 hours straight, with half of his $6766 winnings going to Camp Sunshine, a Maine organization that runs summer camps for children with terminal diseases

Elezra, Eli: (Seat 3)
· A native of Israel, he served in the Israeli army in a commando unit similar to the Green Berets in the United States
· Won his first World Series bracelet in 2007 in 7-card stud hi/lo, and also owns one WPT title
· Lifetime live tournament winnings in excess of $1.95 million
· Highly successful Las Vegas businessman and entrepreneur who owns several retail establishments on the Las Vegas Strip
· Frequent player in the “Big Game” at Bellagio, but considers poker just a hobby

Dwan, Tom: (Seat 4)
· Nicknamed “durrrr” and has a huge following in the online community
· Primarily a high-stakes cash game player with remarkable success despite his young age, and is considered one of poker’s premier cash game players
· Live career tournament winnings in excess of $1.58 million
· Made two final tables in the 2008 World Series of Poker, the first he was old enough to play in
· Is wrapping up his $1 million heads-up challenge against Patrik Antonius, where he has a commanding lead with about 10,000 of the 50,000 hands left to play, and is also involved in another challenge with Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates

Brunson, Doyle: (Seat 5)
· At the age of 77, perhaps the greatest player of all time, and is the author of several books, including Super System and Super System II
· Back-to-back World Series of Poker Champion in 1976 and 1977, and despite not playing in the Main Event from 1999-2001 has now played in the championship 38 times, a record
· Lifetime live tournament winnings in excess of $6.02 million, and ranks 39th on the all-time money list
· Owner of 10 WSOP bracelets, tied for 2nd with Johnny Chan, and is tied for 1st with Jesse Alto for making the most WSOP Main Event final tables in history with 5
· Had the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic renamed the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in his honor in 2007

Hansen, Gus: (Seat 6)
· Known as “The Great Dane” and “Gambling Gus”
· Won his first WSOP bracelet in the 2010 WSOPE £10,000 NLHE High Roller Heads-Up Event, and later in the year won the 2010 FullTiltPoker.com Poker Million IX, good for $1 million, joining Michael Mizrachi as poker’s only players who have at least four $1 million paydays
· Lifetime live tournament winnings in excess of $9.10 million, and ranks 15th on the all-time money list
· He and Carlos Mortensen are the only players in history to have won 3 WPT open titles
· His success as a player has been instrumental in fueling the tremendous increase of poker’s popularity among European players

Peat, David
· Nicknamed “Viffer” and has been a professional poker player since moving to Las Vegas from Ohio in the early 2000s
· Primarily a high-stakes no-limit cash game player, playing as high as $400/$800, and likes to play a lot of hands
· Plays very few tournaments, though he does have in excess of $277,000 in career live tournament winnings
· Enjoys clubbing, shooting pool, dating, and partying with friends when not playing poker, and once played pool for a living
· Known for his rather unusual hair styles

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.