New Poker After Dark Lineup Set to Make Railbirds Very Happy

Poker pro Patrik Antonius is just one of the featured players in the new Poker After Dark cast. (Bodog Beat Image)" /]

The fifth season of NBC's popular high-stakes cash game poker TV show, Poker After Dark, wraps up over the next two weeks with the "Railbird Heaven" matches. Aptly named due to the presence of fan favorites Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius, the series kicked off last night and has already seen a ridiculous amount of action, although most of it was off the table in the form of prop bets.

There's about three layers of action at the table at any given time, with Negreanu booking Hellmuth for a dollar for each dollar won or lost either way and several overall last-longer bets. As the series continues, you can bet that there will be much more of this action as each player bought in for a whopping $250,000 and will be trying not to reload at any point.

After the first week of play, the participants will redraw their seats just to make sure that no one gets too comfortable and to kick start a whole new round of action as players feel out their new positions at the table. The starting blinds are $200/$400, which means with minimum amounts of raising the pots can easily creep up into the tens of thousands and, as they are playing No Limit Holdem, even higher. The blinds do jump to $300/$600 later in the series, which will generate even bigger pots and more fireworks as hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands across the felt.

Episodes will air on NBC at 2:05am all week with a "Director's Cut" episode scheduled after Saturday Night Live. If you're not willing to throw a million dollars around a poker table, then download Bodog Poker and pick the level suitable for your own bankroll and start working your way up in stakes with helpful poker strategy tips.