Poker After Dark's 5th Season Premiers Tonight with $120K on the Line

NEW YORK, NY - As Reported by cardplayer.com: "The fifth season of NBC’s Poker After Dark will debut tonight at its normal late-night time (2:05 a.m.) with a special cast of characters
Poker After Dark  who came oh-so-close to winning the big one."

“Basically, we’re going to have 16 new episodes that will be spread out in 2009,” said executive producer, Mori Eskandani.

This first three episodes, titled “Close but no Cigar,” features players who made the final table of the World Series of Poker main event in recent years, but weren’t quite able to finish the deal.

Mike Matusow, who finished in ninth place in the 2005 main event and made another deep this past year, will highlight the table and should make sure the game doesn’t stay too quiet. His brash demeanor should contrast nicely with his fellow Full Tilt pro, Allen Cunningham, who finished in fourth place in 2006 after losing a coin-flip for his tournament life against eventual champion Jamie Gold.

Two main event runner-ups will also be in the field — David Williams and Dewey Tomko. Williams out-lasted everyone but Greg Raymer in 2004, and Tomko has the notorious but impressive distinction of finishing second in the main event two times — once in 1982 and again in 2001.

Rounding out the table will be Andy Black, who finished fifth in 2005, and Lee Watkinson, who finished eighth in 2007. Both pros met their untimely demise much earlier than expected in their televised final tables..."