Review of Poker After Dark
Poker After Dark joins the saturated arena of televised poker in hopes of cashing in on the popularity of poker. The series offers much of the tried and true elements that have made the WPT and WSOP popular, but also adds a few wrinkles to the formula, which will appeal to hardcore poker fans.
Each week six top poker pros play a winner take all tournament with a buy-in of $20,000. Coverage is spread over five one hour episodes aired Monday through Friday at two a.m. A recap episode is aired on Saturday at one a.m.
Poker After Dark revolves around the premise that the viewer is drawn to the lives of professional poker players, since all of the show’s commentary is generated by table banter among the poker pros. There are no color commentators except for the occasional voice over comment that tells the viewer who won a hand or gives clarification on the banter.
The voice overs come off as more intrusive than informative. The randomness and sparseness of the comments make them feel out of place, and it doesn’t help that the commentator’s voice lacks personality and sounds both stiff and rushed. The banter feels relaxed and unforced, and there is enough of it that the voice over comments are unnecessary.
Aside from the entertaining poker banter, Poker After Dark’s strength is that 80% of the hands are shown. In contrast coverage of the WSOP tends to show only the important hands, and results in a skewed portrayal of poker. Every other hand players are going all in or are getting premium pocket cards. Poker After Dark provides the closest representation on television of how the pros play, showing both the small and large pots.
Another thing that Poker After Dark has going for it is Shana Hiatt, who does the introduction and close comments for each episode, and also makes sporadic appearances during the show in the form of impromptu interviews with the players. Her appearances on screen are always refreshing, especially during interviews when she appears more relaxed and is not reading off a cue card.
Presentation wise, Poker After Dark allows the viewer to see the players hole cards and uses the same on-screen graphics as its competitors. The show also makes sure that the viewer knows the pot size, player bets and raises, blinds, and stacks sizes.
This information proves helpful for players trying to gain a full understanding of how a hand was played. The only problem is that the stack size and blinds are shown at certain points in the show, like when the blinds go up. Not having this information visible at all times makes it easy to forget, but at the same time prevents on screen clutter.
Poker After Dark airs on NBC Monday through Fridays at two a.m. and Saturday at one a.m. For those that can’t bother to stay up that late, episodes are also shown at www.nbcsports.com/poker/.
Poker After Dark, NBC, poker, review, Shana Hiatt
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