What's that you say? Want a new poker show? You got it!

Cable network GSN is no stranger to poker programming, having once been the home of the World Poker Tour and still serving as the only place to see High Stakes Poker and coverage of the Aussie Millions on television. This weekend the network is adding another poker show to its lineup with the Doubles Poker Championship.

The new show features a unique format. Each episode, two teams of two players each that alternate playing streets of no-limit hold’em, with one player making the decisions pre-flop and on the turn and the other player taking control on the flop and the river. It sounds a little gimmicky, but the personality pairings should be enough to make it interesting television.

A top-tier lineup of players, including eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey, high-stakes online cash game pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan, WSOP Tournament of Champions winner Huck Seed, new Women in Poker Hall of Fame member Jennifer Harman, 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, and Florida State Poker Championship winner Mike “Ted Forrest Has Been Paid” Matusow, took part in the tournament. They and 26 other top poker players put up $50,000 apiece to play four “regular season” match-ups with different partners. The top half of the field then advanced to the semifinals, with two teams moving on to the final table to fight it out for the $1 million top prize.

Filmed at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, the program was put together by Poker PROductions, Mori Eskandani’s prolific production outfit responsible for poker shows like High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Poker SuperStars and ESPN’s coverage of WSOP Europe.

The Doubles Poker Championship will air on GSN at 9 p.m. ET this Saturday, August 14.

From the news desk to a poker table full of sharks.

George Stephanopoulos has lived an interesting life so far. He is a former television journalist and adviser to US President Bill Clinton, and these days he serves as co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America. For all his other accomplishments, it’s that last one that’s giving him a chance to do what he’s wanted to do ever since leaving high school: he wants to win at poker.

“Living The Dream” is a week-long series on GMA that will see its anchors travel to destinations around the United States on their dream adventures, set to air during sweeps week from Monday, May 3rd to Friday, May 7th. Stephanopoulos’ dream involves going to Atlantic City for what he called “basically a mini World Series of Poker” on today’s episode ofGMA. 

“I want to go back and win the poker games I lost in high school,” Stephanopoulos said this morning. In order to do that he enlisted the assistance of 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke to adjust his strategy. Duke’s help, and his own experience with the game, is all Stephanopoulos will have to lean on when he squares off against Phil Hellmuth, Jason Lee, and 2009 November Niner Steve Begleiter. Poker After Dark announcer Ali Nejad will even call the action. All in all, it should make for good poker TV.

Regarding the fierce lineup, the former Clinton Administration official said, “I’m going to try not to lose my entire week’s salary.” He also revealed that while he no longer has a running game in Washington (“I used to play a lot but I’ve got kids now, got a life”), he’d be willing to set one up with his GMA co-hosts. Not to knock Stephanopoulos’ chops, but that sounds like a much better way to win than taking on poker players who are as familiar with WSOP final tables as he is with Washington politics.

George Stephanopoulos’ “dream game” will air on Wednesday, May 5th, on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Word of advice: don't make moves against this man on High Stakes Poker.

Much like high-stakes online poker has been for the last year, Season 6 of High Stakes Poker on GSN has been all about Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. The two have dominated every episode that’s been aired so far, adding some big hands to their personal highlight reels. And in last night’s episode, Ivey added another televised, top-notch bluff to the list of reasons why everyone fears him at the poker table.

The hand began with Dutch online star Lex Veldhuis under the gun posting a $1,600 straddle. Barry Greenstein decided to get involved, raising to $5,500 in early position with Qc-Td. Then Ivey silently stepped in with a reraise to $18,000 holding nothing more than 5s-2d. The action folded back around to Veldhuis, who read the situation well and decided his Kh-Jh was good enough to put in a four-bet worth $51,600. At least, it would have been a good read of the situation against any other opponent. But things have a habit of going a little funny when Ivey is involved.

Ivey immediately asked Veldhuis how much he had behind. After a quick count Veldhuis said he about $140,000 left. For the next ten seconds Ivey considered the situation, and announcer Gabe Kaplan opined that the world’s greatest poker player was putting on a show just so Greenstein wouldn’t know that he’d raised with complete air. But once that ten seconds was up Ivey did the unexpected and announced himself all-in. That put Veldhuis on the line for his entire $197,200 stack if he decided to make the call.

Veldhuis did exactly what you would expect given the situation - he looked palpably sick and gave a long exhale as he tossed his cards in the muck. “All these super-good spots keep coming up,” Veldhuis remarked. But as Kaplan noted in his commentary, there are no super-good spots when you’re up against Phil Ivey - especially if the venue is High Stakes Poker.

Made-for-television poker tournaments have been good to Annie Duke.

Annie Duke, who has become known more in the past few years for promoting poker on television than for playing it, is the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Champion. 

The quarterfinal brackets in this year’s NHUPC saw eight-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Erik Seidel defeat former WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate; former WSOP Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen beat 2009 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Jason Mercier; former WSOP Main Event runner-up Dennis Phillips beat two-time world champ Doyle Brunson; and Duke beat former world champ Jerry Yang.

In the semifinals Seidel had the tougher of the two matches but still emerged victorious over Nguyen. Duke had the slightly easier, though still unenviable, task of vanquishing Phillips - and once she did so she set herself up to play the role of underdog in the best-of-three finals against one of poker's all-time greats.

The final matchup proved to be as dramatic as NBC’s producers had hoped. Duke won the first match after winning two big pots with a straight and a flush before getting into a confrontation on the flop with A-K against Seidel’s spade flush draw. Big Slick held and Duke was up 1-0. But the second match went to Seidel, who was already in the lead when he hit trip deuces to cripple Duke before finishing her off with 8-7 against her K-5.

In the ultimate round Seidel once again chipped up and had Duke’s back to the wall, grabbing a 3-to-1 lead that looked as if it would be enough to seal the win. But Duke got in with Q-9 against Seidel’s A-K and hit two pair to double up into the chip lead. Short-stacked, Seidel shoved with A-2 not too long afterward and Duke called with pocket nines, which became the championship hand when they were still ahead once the river card was dealt.

The $500,000 score in this year's version of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship is Annie Duke’s first win since 2004, when she took down the made-for-TV WSOP Tournament of Champions by defeating Phil Hellmuth in a now-classic heads-up battle. (That was the same year she won her only WSOP bracelet.) Seidel, meanwhile, grabbed $250,000 for finishing in second place.

The popular late-night host, and prime time bust, Jay Leno (photo courtesty of NBC)

As you've probably heard by now, Jay Leno sucks. NBC announced it's cancelling his prime time show, due to shockingly low ratings. Well, shocking for the network, but not for anyone who actually watched his show and saw that it was the exact same schtick that Leno has been doing for what feels like the last forty or fifty years. Normally, a has-been stand-up comedian's ineptitude wouldn't be any big news for poker fans. But in this case, the ripple effect caused by the cancellation of his show might end up in the cancellation of the popular Poker After Dark.

Nobody yet knows quite how things will play out, but here's the problem. NBC is currently looking at pushing Jay Leno's slot to later in the evening, probably 11:35pm, when viewers are drunk or sleepy enough to find him funnier than he actually is. That means that if they want to keep Conan O'Brien on the air, and they probably do because they have to pay him whether or not they broadcast his show, they'll have to push his show an hour later. And, reportedly, they also want to keep Jimmy Fallon on the air, which means pushing Late Night With Jimmy Fallon back an hour too. And, finally, they already have yet another show, with Carson Daly, that airs before Poker After Dark.

Still following? All this means that Poker After Dark, which already airs pretty late, at 2:05am EST might get cancelled. That would be a shame for poker players, and for the network, considering it actually does pretty well for a show that's on so late. There is another possibility, that they'll just put it on even later than it already is. Or, we can all cross our fingers and hope that either Jimmy Fallon or Carson Daly wind up having to go to sex rehab or something, and have their shows cancelled.

Mike Kosowski and his daughter celebrate his million dollar prize (photo courtesy of Ray Mickshaw)

For those of you following FOX's poker TV show Million Dollar Challenge, you'll already know that the format of the show doesn't make it easy to actually win the grand prize. But in a heads-up match for all the cake, 9/11 first responder and former NY detective Mike Kosowski beat Daniel Negreanu to win $1 million dollars.

But though he's rolling in dough now, it's not exactly an easy path to the promised land. First he had to win a 16,000 person online poker tournament, then impress show judges with a bio video. Once accepted, he had to win a whole series of head-to-head and multiplayer games before finally earning the spot going up against Negreanu for the big prize.

Interestingly, he actually lost against one of the celebrity challengers on the show. Supermodel Joanna Krup beat him in an earlier head-to-head match. Luckily for Kosowki, Krup also beat all the other players that week, giving him a chance to continue on in the game by beating all the other contestants on that week's show.

When it finally got down to it, Negreanu was no match for the skill and luck of the former cop, and Kosowki walked away with the million bucks.

Supermodel Joanna Krup gets in the way (photo courtesy of FOX)

In news that is surprising to some, the new-ish FOX poker program Million Dollar Challenge is turning out to be a runaway hit. The first episode was the most watched poker show in history, with around 4 million viewers. Week 2 surpassed that with another couple million more tuning in. And this week, the appearance of Tito Ortiz and supermodel and Maxim's Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the World, Joanna Krup, promises even more reason to tune in.

If you haven't already watched it, the format works like this: the contestants, who are regular schlubs off the street (well, they have to qualify for the show by winning a tournament and then sending it a video) have to first play a celebrity opponent in heads-up play, in this case former UFC champ Ortiz, or Krup. If they can beat the celeb, they move on to a match against a poker pro. But it's not quite as easy as you'd think to beat the celeb. Early reports suggest that both Ortiz and Krup have some poker chops. In fact, the supermodel has been playing for years, and entered the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

But assuming they can knock off their famous opponent, they then get to play a poker pro for $25,000. Also new this week, WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada has been added to the stable of pros ready to get between contestants and their chance at glory. But if the player is able to knock off Joe Cada, or one of the other pros, they get a heads-up match against Daniel Negreanu for $100,000. Win that, and they get a seat at a final game with all the other $100,000 winners, and Negreanu again. And the winner of that match gets the million bucks. Easy, right?

If that all sounds interesting, or you just like the idea of watching Joanna Krup push chips around, then tune in to episode 3 this Sunday. It comes on right after FOX's NFL action is done for the day.

The next session of Poker After Dark boasts some familiar faces (photo courtesy of NBC)

So you're sitting at home late at night playing some online poker, and you suddenly think to yourself: "self, this is fun, but it would be even more fun if I could watch Phil Helmuth lose a hundred grand of his own money." If that's your dream, you're in luck - the cards are about to be dealt on a new session of NBC's Poker After Dark starting Monday. And while I can't guarantee Helmuth will actually lose all that money, just the possibility that it could happen makes it worth tuning in.

The late night favorite returns with some familiar faces, and a couple new ones. Besides Helmuth, some of the players who will battle it out over the next couple weeks include: Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu. Oh, and Patrik Antonius will take a break from his multi-million dollar poker ping-pong matches with Isuldur1 to sit in on a few games.

The minimum buy-in for this week's session, which is being called "Railbird Heaven" is $100,000, with a max of $250,000. Sources from the show are saying that viewers will be in for a week of huge pots, lots of the usual trash-talking, and even more prop bets and side action.

Episodes will air on NBC each week-night, starting at 2:05 am on Monday, with the "Director's Cut" episode airing after Saturday Night Live. I'm not sure what exactly "Director's Cut" means in this context, but given the list of players this time around, I'm really, really hoping there's no suggestive scenes or explicit nudity.

Everybody dreams of being famous - well, Tiger Woods probably wishes he wasn't famous right now but that's not the point.

A new poker game show, hosted by Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton, is looking for contestants. Shuffle Up and Deal, deemed to be "family friendly" by the producers, will hold an online contestant search using Facebook.com as well as auditions across the country like American Idol.

"We feel that it's important to have an online presence as well as a traditional presence when marketing a new show", said Dewey Oates, the shows' creator.

They apparently also feel it's important to have a hot girl join Sexton. Brandi Williams, who poker fans might know from her time as a hostess on the Ultimate Poker Challenge, will take the reigns of co-host.

Keeping with the Ultimate Poker Challenge family it appears that the play-by-play man for that show, Chad Brown, will be involved as well. Brown, who won the Bluff Magazine Player of the Year award in 2006, will travel with the touring auditions.

Poker fans interested in learning more can visit www.shuffleuptv.com.

I know I’m a little behind here. The WSOP is over and so is the Keyboard Cat craze, but combine the two and you have a whole new level of awesome that is more than worthy of a blog post.

Yes, we know it’s not poker news. It’s better. Much, much better. Take it away Keyboard Cat!