New Poker After Dark Episodes Feature Poker Mainstays

In this week's Ibrand-new episodes of Poker After Dark, six of the most highly respected and well-known poker players will battle for a $120,000 winner-take-all prize.

Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen, and Phil Hellmuth are featured at tonight's table. Hellmuth holds the record for most World Series of Poker bracelets at 11, but is the only one among these pros that does not have a PAD title.

The show will air Tuesday through Saturday at 2:05 a.m. ET with a special "Director's Cut" episode that recaps the week's action on Sunday at 1 a.m. ET. With players of this caliber all at the same table, the action promises to be exciting.

The following are bios on each of the competitors provided by the CardPlayer.com player database.

Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey is a force to be reckoned with at any limit and any game. He was born on Feb. 1, 1976, in Riverside, California. By the age of 16, he told his family he was going to become a professional gambler.

Ivey has five World Series of Poker bracelets, in the 2000 pot-limit Omaha, 2002 seven-card stud eight-or-better, 2002 S.H.O.E., 2002 seven-card stud, and 2005 pot-limit Omaha events. He took home $1 million in the 2005 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Millions event. Ivey's near wins in 2006 include second place in the EPT Barcelona Open, third in the WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, and second in the WSOP Omaha eight-or-better event. Ivey is married to his high-school sweetheart and resides in Las Vegas. He is a founding member and representative of Team Full Tilt.

Chris Ferguson

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson can throw playing cards through vegetables, ballroom dance, and play some serious poker. He was born in Los Angeles on April 11, 1963, and attended the University of California for 20 years, receiving a Ph.D. in computer science.

Ferguson began his poker career by consistently winning his high-school home games. He then played through college, and successfully made the transition to live poker tournaments. During the 2000 World Series of Poker, he won his first bracelet in seven-card stud and went on to win the main event, as well. He has captured three other bracelets, one coming in a 2001 Omaha eight-or-better event, and the other two in 2003, in the half hold'em-half seven-card stud and Omaha eight-or-better events. In 2006, he finished second in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ferguson is also a member of Team Full Tilt.

Howard Lederer

Nowadays, Howard Lederer is president of Full Tilt Poker and competes with the best of the best in the poker world every day, but he credits his competitive edge to his early card-playing experiences with his siblings.

At the age of 18, he pursued his passion for chess, and moved to New York to play professionally. He discovered a new passion in poker and began playing, and went broke most of the time until he began gaining experience at the famous Mayfair Club. This was home to professionals such as Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel. Lederer improved his game and moved to Las Vegas in 1993.

In 2002, he shifted his focus from cash games to tournaments. "The Professor" has two World Series of Poker bracelets in the 2000 $5,000 Omaha eight-or-better and the 2001 $5,000 deuce-to-seven draw events. He also won the 2002 World Poker Tour Championship at Foxwoods, is the 2003 WPT PartyPoker Million champion, and won three Five-Star World Poker Classic events.

Jennifer Harman

Don't let Jennifer Harman's sweet personality and small frame fool you. She is one of the most feared players in the game today. She was born in Reno, Nevada, where she grew up playing cards. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Harman is one of the only women to ever play in the highest-stakes cash game in the world. She was a member of the group of poker professionals who banded together in order to play Andy Beal heads up for millions of dollars. She owns two World Series of Poker bracelets. She won her first bracelet in 2000 in the deuce-to-seven draw event, and another in the 2002 $5,000 limit hold'em tournament.

After taking some time away from poker to recover from a kidney transplant, Harman placed fourth in the World Poker Tour Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, fifth in the inaugural Professional Poker Tour event, and second in the WSOP Tournament Circuit championship event at the Rio. She is a member of Team Full Tilt and is married to Marco Traniello.

Gus Hansen

Gus Hansen is hardly a forgettable player. Known as "The Great Dane," his statuesque image, super-aggressive style, and self-professed gambling tendencies make him dangerous at the poker table.

Born in 1974 just outside Copenhagen, Denmark, Hansen grew up learning to compete. He was a youth tennis champion, as well as a world-class backgammon player. He began playing poker in 1993 while attending school at the University of California Santa Cruz as an exchange student.

Hansen was inducted into the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame. He has won four WPT titles, including the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, the L.A. Poker Classic, the Bad Boys of Poker tournament, and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event. He showed no signs of slowing down after taking down the Aussie Millions main event, winning $1.2 million, because he made a run at another WPT title when he made the final table at the Spanish Championship as chip leader. He did not win but finished in fourth-place. Hansen is a member of Team Full Tilt.

Phil Hellmuth

Phil Hellmuth won the 2005 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and is back to defend his title. Otherwise known as "Poker Brat," Phil Hellmuth was born July 16, 1964, in Madison, Wisconsin. He completed three years at the University of Wisconsin before pursuing a professional poker career. Known for his outbursts and a short temper, he remains a highly regarded poker professional. While other cash-game players scoffed at his attempts to collect World Series of Poker bracelets, they wonder now if he might have foreseen their value in today's poker culture.

Hellmuth won the 1989 World Series of Poker championship event at only 24 years of age. He's made the money in more than 100 major tournaments. At the 2007 WSOP, Hellmuth pulled away from the three-way tie between him, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan when he won his eleventh bracelet.

Hellmuth has written many columns for Card Player Magazine, and is the author of Play Poker Like the Pros, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, and The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played. He has distributed and directed several instructional DVDs. He's also a representative of UltimateBet.com as well as a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

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