With two new series and the ever-popular High Stakes Poker now on Saturday night, Game Show Network could be the best place to watch professional players hit the felt.
With ratings going up and up, and with the start of the 2010 World Series of Poker today, watching poker is more popular than ever before. Starting next week, GSN will move its popular poker block to Saturday nights and introduce two new shows: “Aussie Millions” and “Doubles Poker Championship.” Every week, these series along with “High Stakes Poker” will combine to form a nine hour poker marathon from 6pm ET to 3am ET (3-12pm PT).
GSN decided to make the move because of the dramatic increase in ratings for “High Stakes Poker” last season. David Schiff, the Vice President of Programming for GSN, said he hopes that “Saturday nights on GSN will be the go-to destination for serious poker fans.”
The first new series, “Aussie Millions Presented by Full Tilt Poker.net” is a 10-episode coverage of the three biggest events at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship, one of the largest tournament series in the world. All three events attract many of the biggest names in poker, including Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, Tony Bloom, Tom Dwan, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren and Jeffrey Lisandro.
Coverage starts with the $100K Challenge, a major tournament with a $100,000 AUD buy-in. Next, the series shows the Heads Up Championship, an intensely competitive event where each match goes to the best of three winner. Finally, the series shows the Main Event, with a $10K buy-in and $7.46 million prize pool.
The next new series, “Doubles Poker Championship Presented by Full Tilt Poker.net,” is a 13-part series covering an unusual event at the Golden Nugget Casino in Vegas. In this tournament, thirty two of the world’s best players competed as two-person teams that shared each hand. With so many big names in such a strange format, the event is sure to be filled with great plays. This series begins on August 14.
There is a reason that ratings for professional poker games continue to climb: the skill and intensity of the world’s best players is amazing. If you want to see these players in action, GSN on Saturdays is the place to be.