Why is it the best Poker shows on TV aren’t seen by anybody?  And the worst gets a prime time slot on network TV.  NBC is home to Poker After Dark which is a bare bones, heavy in hands and light in fluff, look at poker with the best playing the best.  Problem is it’s not only on after dark it’s on after 2 am in a lot of places.

NBC is also home to Face the Ace.  The widely panned show was on a time everybody could watch it, even if nobody did.  Two other shows 2 Months 2 Million offers a rare glimpse inside the life of internet poker pros is on a channel most people don’t get G4, and High Stakes Poker is on the Game Show Network which is in slightly more homes.

Poker After Dark recently went with one of their cash game formats which is a little bit like High Stakes Poker.  In fact, it’s the best of the Poker After Dark formats as the single table sit n go style features a lot of spots where the players are forced into decisions because of rising blind structures.  If you switch the players often times the hands would play out the same.  The deep stacks in a cash game don’t allow this.

Anytime Tom Dwan is given a deep stack there is a lot of creativity for all to see.   This past week on  “Top Guns” cash game on “Poker After Dark” has been no different.   Tom “durrrr” Dwan is running away with the lead in terms of profits.

Dwan, sits near $520k after buying in for less than half that with $250k.  The guys that paid off Dwan?  Two of his frequent opponents from the nosebleed games online: Patrik Antonius and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.  Sahamies has lost the most of the players.  Antonius would be right there with him except for a big pot they played together that Patrik took down.  The two hail from Northern Europe and you have to wonder if they will be heading to Riga.

Some of the old guard from the Big Game, Phil Ivey and Eli Elezra continue to stay above water.   Elezra did lose a big pot trying to bluff  Ivey.  Ivey made an easy call with a flopped a set of twos.   It was eerily similar to the big pot between Antonius and Sahamies, where Sahamies was the one bluffing into a made hand (trips).

Howard Lederer is the other player in the game.  He’s played slow and steady but after tripping up early is yet to show a profit.   The wide variety of styles and the willingness to gamble is part of the reason this is such a terrific program.