poker tv

Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino announced this week that the downtown Las Vegas property has signed on to host the 2009 season of NBC’s Poker After Dark.

Sixty episodes of the hour-long show will be filmed Oct. 26 through Nov. 5 at the Golden Nugget's new event center.

“The Golden Nugget is thrilled to host the fifth season of NBC’s exciting, late-night poker program, Poker After Dark,” said Brett Kellerman, chief operating officer for the property. “The Golden Nugget has been home to several big poker productions, as well as hosted many poker tournaments and events, so bringing a top-rated program like Poker After Dark to the property just seemed like a natural fit.”

Poker, once nearly muscled off casino floors by gimmicky table games and flashy slot machines, is hotter than ever in Las Vegas, thanks to the game's popularity on TV.

Now, the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino will try to build on those winnings by staging The Real Deal!, an audience-participation show, in its Venetian Showroom, starting in October.

The show will combine the elements of a game show with comedy and celebrities, all revolving around the now-familiar poker game of Texas Hold 'Em. Since this is Las Vegas, there will be prizes, including the long-shot possibility for an audience member to win $1 million.

Season premiere features a $200/$400 no-limit hold'em cash game with a minimum buy-in of $100,000.

Is the popular poker TV show High Stakes Poker on the way out?

That's what numerous poker blogs including WickedChops and Pokerati are reporting. Apparently GSN has yet to renew the program at a time when it is usually filming new episodes.

Pokerati quoted co-host AJ Benza as saying:

"Far as Gabe and I know... the show isn't coming back. Apparently... the network is going to go in a different direction and that aint good news for our show, especially since we skew a higher-aged audience.