Megan Abrigo Pictures

Megan Abrigo is the hostess of NBC's poker-themed game show Face the Ace. She's a model most famous for holding briefcase number 6 on gameshow Deal or No Deal. You can read more about her on NBC's site.































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International Week On Poker After Dark

Next week's Poker After Dark is a tourney, their third "International Week." It features Brad Booth, Allen Cunningham, David Benyamine, John Juanda, John Phan, and Ivan Demidov.

The next World Poker Tour show is the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic, featuring Hoyt Corkins, Chino Rheem, Amnon Filippi, Steve Sung, Justin Young, and Evan McNiff.

High Stakes Poker, and the other shows on our schedule, continue as usual.

This week's newsbites:

• The Heartland Poker Tour got sponsorship from PokerStars.
  

Check our poker on TV schedule for the list of shows regularly running new episodes.

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Aussie Millions: Cash Game To Show Omaha

Bart Hanson provided some additional information on the Aussie Millions broadcast.

I am doing the color commentary along with Barry Tompkins. We have already voiced the first two shows, one to air today and the second next week.

The first two shows are indeed the final table episodes.

The 3rd and 4th episodes will be the cash games, half NL and half PLO. We will indeed be showing the PLO portions (as far as I know the first time ever as a cash game). The last episode (out of sequence) will be entirely heads up Antonius vs Durrr. I've been waiting years to commentate on a cash game of this magnitude.

See also our cash game taping updates.

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Aussie Millions, New Poker After Dark

The Aussie Millions starts airing on Fox Sports Net this weekend. Two episodes will be devoted to the final table and two to the cash game filmed at the Aussie Millions. Saturday night at 11 PM is its standard timeslot, but, as always with Fox Sports Net, search a programming guide to find the day and time the show airs in your area.

Poker After Dark is back with two new weeks of tournaments (full schedule). Next week is "Dream Table III," where online qualifier Arnold Thimons got to choose his opponents: Johnny Chan, Jennifer Tilly, Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, and Daniel Negreanu.

This week's newsbites:

• I finally listened to two podcasts I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (click the links for summaries and links to the podcasts): AJ Benza discussing High Stakes Poker was a laugh; Mori Eskandani discussing National Heads-Up Poker Championship invitations and such was less interesting.
  

Check our poker on TV schedule for the list of shows regularly running new episodes.

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Dutch Government Threatens Poker TV Shows

DutchNews.nl reports:

Three television broadcasters and one production company have been warned by justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin to stop making programmes about the gambling game poker.

‘The broadcasters have overstepped the mark. These programmes give people the idea that poker is completely legal and harmless,’ the NRC reports the minister as saying during a debate on Thursday.

Hirsch Ballin made his comments in response to calls from two MPs for a more liberal attitude to poker.

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Poker On TV Is Now Fifth Street Journal

Poker On TV has changed its name to Fifth Street Journal. Our new address is FifthStreetJournal.com, though links to our old address will redirect you to the new one for now. We'll continue to be the only site that provides full coverage of poker on US TV, though you can expect us to add additional content over time.

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Foxwoods World Poker Finals And EPT Live

This week's World Poker Tour event is the Foxwoods World Poker Finals featuring Mike Matusow, David Pham, Jonathan Little, Jonathan Jaffe, Charles Marchese, and Jack Schanbacher.

The European Poker Tour Dortmund event is airing on EPT Live. The final table is at 8 AM Eastern on Saturday.

This week's newsbites:

• Pokerati hints that the WSOP might move to NBC after ESPN's contract expires next year.
  
• David Oppenheim replaced Layne Flack on the National Heads-Up Poker Championship after the latter was arrested for drunk driving on his way home from the draw party.
• The WPT released some further details of the WPT Venice, which will run in May and be broadcast on the web.
• Daniel Negreanu talked about doing commentary for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which will air on GSN later in the year.
• Poker News Daily interviewed the founders of Heartland Poker Tour, the sucessful second-tier tour.
  
• NBC's Jon Miller and Mori Eskandani talked about the National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
  

Check our poker on TV schedule for the list of shows regularly running new episodes.

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Poker On TV Update

Poker After Dark remains in rerun. Best Damn and the WSOP Europe have ended their runs. There's nothing new to add to the poker on TV schedule this week. The EPT Dortmund will be airing on EPT Live next Friday and Saturday.

Over the last week we ran a poll asking what you thought of the World Poker Tour's future. 65% of you think the WPT will be sold; 22% of you think it will be out of business a year from now; and 14% of you think it will remain an independent company. Of those who think the WPT will be sold, 2/3 think it will be sold to Full Tilt Poker and 1/3 think it will be sold to someone else.

This week's newsbites:

• The National Heads-Up Poker Championship brackets are now up. Hevad Khan replaced Ivan Demidov at the last minute.
• The WPT added a second overseas tournament for season 8 sponsored by an online poker room, this one in Marrakech.
• Shannon Shorr felt slighted at not being invited to the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, but Shane Schleger thinks he's delusional.
• The Las Vegas Sun had a nice article about the High Stakes Poker season 5 taping, including Jennifer Harmon having to explain to a producer what a sweater is in pokerspeak.
• Chris Tessaro, in an interesting article in the Toronto Sun, talked about what created the poker boom and the current state of poker on TV.
• Podcasts: Mori Eskandani was on Wise Hand Poker and AJ Benza was on Ante Up.
  

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Jamie Gold's Poker TV Show

From a Card Player interview:

I created a new TV show with Sam Simon and Nick Cassavetes, and the producers from Real Time with Bill Maher are going to produce for us, and I feel like that is going to be another great way. It’s poker, celebrities, and charity, it’s called Jamie Gold’s Big Deal. We’re very fortunate, Universal bought out a whole season.

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