Poker After Dark Raises Stakes

  There are a lot of guys who would happily trade their bank accounts, 401ks, trust funds, and quite possibly a random appendage to spend some serious time with Shana Hiatt. Of course the sort of guys who would be in favor of this sort of trade off probably also consider "Best Buy" holy ground, and whoever created the Halo series as some sort of lord and savior. Fortunately, all some folks needed to get in the same room with Ms. Hiatt was $50,000 and the desire to stop the living daylights out of any poker player who stood in their way.  Poker After Dark is trying something new this week: they have raised the buy-ins to a whopping fifty grand. This means six of the sport's top pros will be looking at a potential payday of $300,000. Not a bad payoff for a nights work.  For many who are used to the World Series of Poker structure, this is just sort of ho-hum. In the WSOP people are used to putting up $10,000 for a chance at a pot that is roughly equal to the GNP of an average Banana Republic, or quite possibly, France. So why would they be willing to risk five times that amount for a final prize package that any fifth place WSOP Main Event finisher would be disappointed with? Those participating in this Poker After Dark event are banking on the odds being in their favor.  The World Series of Poker Main Event is the sort of thing that any shark who has lived through a feeding frenzy would recognize. It is a structure that basically dumps enough players to populate a small city into one room, and they keep attacking and feeding off each other until only one person is left. There are so many bad players, unpredictable players, and general X factors involved that good players are often clipped well before their time and the championship is as much about attrition as it is about poker skill.  The Poker After Dark event is about six of poker top pros entering the room, and only one of them leaving with the money. This is skill and experience vs. skill and experience. The X factors are left at home to play online poker or test the idea that an X-Box is an appropriate substitute for an actual girlfriend.  The people involved in this tournament are David Benyamine, Barry Greenstein, Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Phil Ivey and Eli Elezra. Phil and Jennifer are former Poker After Dark winners, but this by no means gives them an edge. One could argue the competition might be hungrier than they are. Any way you look at it, this will be interesting television.