Poker After Dark Season Three to Begin on New Year

Poker After Dark is bringing poker fans into the new year with never-before-seen episodes to look forward to. The first episode of season three begins on Jan. 1 at 2:05 a.m. on NBC with a brand new hostess.

Viewers will be introduced to Marianela Pereyra. Dubbed the "Poker Princess," the Argentina-born beauty has taken over hosting duties of the $20,000 buy-in winner-take-all tournament. She has experience interviewing stars from her time as a VJ on a show called Daily Download on the digital cable network FUSE. Pereyra has also been a guest on numerous television shows and has also graced the pages of Maxim and Billboard magazine, but she first caught the attention of the poker community during her stint at this summer's World Series of Poker. While working as a sideline reporter for the Pay Per View coverage of the main event, Poker After Dark producers loved her personality and interaction with players. They snagged her, and she can be seen in action on the first season-three episode.

The premiere week of the third season will feature a "dream table." The players featured are Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Scotty Nguyen, and Ken Light, who will truly be living a dream at this table. This amateur poker player from Pennington, New Jersey, won his seat through a special online tournament against a field of 1,395 players. See how Light fairs against five of the toughest pros in the game with $120,000 on the line.

The week's episodes will air Jan. 1-5 at 2:05 a.m. with a special "director's cut" recap episode on Jan. 6 at 1:00 a.m. For more Poker on TV listings, click here.

Photo credit for Marianela Pereyra: NBC's Paul Drinkwater

The following are the stats for these players, taken from the CardPlayer.com player database.

Daniel Negreanu

• Lifetime winnings: $9.66 million
• World Series of Poker: cashes -- 27, bracelets -- 3
• World Poker Tour: cashes -- 12, titles -- 2

Phil Hellmuth

• Lifetime winnings: $9.1 million
• World Series of Poker: cashes -- 64, bracelets -- 11
• World Poker Tour: cashes -- 7, top-10 finishes -- 3

Jennifer Harman

• Lifetime winnings: $1.6 million
• World Series of Poker: cashes -- 15, bracelets -- 2
• World Poker Tour: cashes -- 8, top-10 finishes -- 2

Mike Matusow

• Lifetime winnings: $5.6 million
• World Series of Poker: cashes -- 22, bracelets -- 2
• World Poker Tour: cashes -- 6, top-10 finishes -- 2

Scotty Nguyen

• Lifetime winnings: $7.4 million
• World Series of Poker: cashes -- 35, bracelets -- 4
• World Poker Tour: cashes -- 8, titles -- 1

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