Late Night Poker Returns to British Airwaves

The granddaddy of poker shows, the UK's own Late Night Poker, will return to the Channel 4 British airwaves. Before the endless reruns of US cable television's The Aruba Poker Classic, there was Late Night Poker, introducing a revolutionary glass-topped table that raised the bar in poker television entertainment. It was then that several poker professionals, virtually unknown to the public, were introduced. Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Daniel Negreanu, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, John Duthie (who went on to produce his own poker programming in the UK), and Simon "Aces" Trumper were cutting their first poker entertainment teeth in front of the UK's Late Night Poker camera lens. The hit show returns this month along with several of its poker television pioneers.

After six seasons and a long break, Channel 4 began taping in June of 2005. Barny Boatman, Ram Vaswani, Willie Tann, Dave Colclough, Simon Trumper, and Peter Costa of Great Britain will join Tony Guoga of Australia, Pascal Perrault of France, Michael Keiner of Germany, Michiel Van Woerden of Holland, and several other professional players from across the pond for a four-heat competition.

In a world of television program spinoffs, Late Night Poker is no exception.Together with Channel 4, they've developed Late Night Poker Ace, where last year 42 online players rose from a field of thousands and qualified to compete to become "Britain's Best Amateur Poker Player." John Shaw of Dunfermline won the title and a large portion of the $100,000 prize pool. This year, Channel 4, PartyPoker, and producers of Late Night Poker will up the stakes to $160,000 in Late Night Poker 2. The show will be hosted in Cardiff and the winner crowned "World's Best Amateur Poker Player." The top eight finishers will face off with 24 poker pros on another version called The Late Night Poker Masters show. The first-place winner will take home $100,000, the lion's share of a $250,000 prize pool.

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