- Poker Royale
"Poker Royale" was a television series on the
Game Show Network (GSN), which featured No LimitTexas hold 'em Poker . The first series began onDecember 7 ,2004 . The seventh and final series, "Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages", began airing onNovember 4 ,2005 . The series host at its conclusion wasJohn Ahlers , with commentary byRobert Williamson III and sideline reporting byLisa Dergan .The Series
Poker Royale: The WPPA Championship
The first series was based on the championship of the
World Poker Players Association . The show was hosted byKevin Nealon , with commentary by Williamson. A total of 72 players participated and put up the $10,000 entrance fee.Unlike later series, this series was done in a tournament-style format where players who had zero chips were eliminated. Also different from other series were that three tables were active during the early episodes, and was later lowered to the top ten players at the main table in center stage.
This was the only series where there was a contest for viewers. During intervals of the program, various poker
buzzwords would appear on screen. Viewers would log into GSN's website and input this word for a chance to win up to $10,000,000 in a poker hand with the winner of the WPPA championship. In order to win the grand prize, the poker tournament winner had to get a full house or better.James Van Alstyne won the tournament and shared an additional $15,000 with a member of GSN's website, who, in addition to the cash received, won a year's supply of pizza fromPizza Hut .Results
Poker Royale: The James Woods Gang vs the Unabombers
"Poker Royale: The James Woods Gang vs. the Unabombers" featured two teams featuring celebrities and poker pros. Once again, the point system was used, but this time points were combined into a total score for the whole team as opposed to scores for individual players. The James Woods Gang was led by celebrity and poker player
James Woods , and had celebritiesNicole Sullivan andBob Goen , plus poker players Kathy Liebert,Ted Forrest , andSusie Isaacs . The Unabombers were led by Phil Laak. His team had celebritiesJennifer Tilly ,Danny Masterson andGail O'Grady , plus poker playersHasan Habib and Cyndy Violette. Matt Savage and Bill Bruce returned as the Tournament Directors.Results
* $25,000 to Grand Final winner, $50,000 to winning team. Team captains pick two team members to take part in the final.Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages
"Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages" was the most recent series of Poker Royale. This one featured six poker players over the age of 60 playing against six players under the age of 30. The older players were
T. J. Cloutier , "Action" Dan Harrington, "Miami" John Cernuto,Barbara Enright ,Maureen Feduniak andWendeen Eolis . The younger players wereMichael Gracz ,Dutch Boyd ,Erin Ness ,Evelyn Ng ,Jennifer Leigh andKasey Thompson . A bounty was introduced for each episode. Matt Savage and Bill Bruce were, once again, the Tournament Directors.Results
1 $1,000 bounty on this player
2 bounty winner
3 joint bounty winners
4 $400 bounty on this playerPoker Royale: Young Bloods II
"Poker Royale: Young Bloods II" was another special featuring poker players under 30, and aired on
December 9 ,2005 . This special featured the same players and format as the first "Young Bloods".Kenna James once again did commentary instead of Williamson for this special.
Airings
GSN aired new episodes of "Poker Royale" every Friday evening from 10-11PM EST, part of their "Casino Night" block (the block has since moved to Mondays, and does not feature "Poker Royale"). Episodes of previous seasons are rerun occasionally on GSN.
As of 2006 , GSN does not intend to do any more "Poker Royale" shows. A cash game poker show titled "High Stakes Poker " premiered onJanuary 19 ,2006 on GSN. This series is unrelated to "Poker Royale".External links
* [http://www.gsn.com Official GSN site]
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