"Our company consists of professional poker players. In our heart, we know that if we just put the real poker out there, sooner or later it's going to catch on." –Mori Eskandani, Executive Producer

"The American public was polled, they told us that they want to watch the great players play the great players. Kind of like the PGA tour, they want to watch the masters in golf, they want to watch the masters in poker." –Phil Hellmuth

"Poker is always entertaining. People can watch the greatest players play at Poker After Dark. You can learn a thing or two." –Johnny Chan

Poker After Dark

It's official. NBC's Poker After Dark is a hit with poker professionals and fans.

"We had a gut feeling that late night would be a good place to catch the poker enthusiast. Right now between all the cable shows and all the network shows, Poker After Dark owns that slot." –Mori Eskandani, Executive Producer

Due to its rating success, NBC crews returned to South Point Casino Resort in Las Vegas in May to tape a second season. The hour-long late night poker television program debuted on NBC in January 2007. The show airs six nights a week as part of NBC's all night programming lineup.

UTG was behind the scenes to find out what really goes on as top poker pros battle it out in this made-for-television no-limit Texas hold'em mini-tournament. Each of the six players paid $20,000 and competed in a freeze-out format for the $120,000.

Shana Hiatt hosts, while Ali Nejad announces each episode. The show airs weekdays at 2:00 a.m. ET on most NBC stations. A "Director's Cut" reviewing the previous week airs each Saturday.

"What I love about this show is just the quality of the play, I think it's where poker on TV is going. As the audience becomes more sophisticated and understands quality play, these kind of made for TV but very real poker events are really going to be the audience favorites. –Howard Lederer

Players competing in this season's Poker After Dark include Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen, Jamie Gold, Joseph Hachem, Greg Raymer, Huckleberry Seed, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Brad Booth, Vanessa Rousso, Annie Duke, Gabe Kaplan, and Kristy Gazes.