Late Night Poker
Encyclopedia
Late Night Poker is the pioneering television show that helped pave the way for the explosion of interest in poker in the 2000's. With it's ground breaking use of "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards, the show became a cult hit on Channel 4 UK when it first aired in 1999.

The show originally ran for 6 series between 1999 and 2002. After a couple of spin-off series, Late Night Poker Ace and Late Night Poker Masters, it returned to our screens in 2008. The 10th series of Late Night Poker is currently airing on Channel 4.

Late Night Poker 2011

The series returns to Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 for its 10th series in 2011. Sponsored by Gala Coral Group, 32 players will compete for the $150,000 first prize. Commentary on the series is provided by two of the UK's top poker professionals, Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren
Victoria Elizabeth Coren is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect....

 and James Akenhead
James Akenhead
James Akenhead is a professional English poker player, sponsored by Full Tilt Poker. and part of the London based poker group The Hitsquad...

.

Some of the top players in action are Luke Schwartz
Luke Schwartz
Luke Schwartz is a professional poker player from London, England.Schwartz's first cash was at the Grosvenor World Masters in 2005 where he won £3,900 for his eighth place finish in the £1,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event...

, Roberto Romanello
Roberto Romanello
Roberto Romanello is a Welsh professional poker player from Swansea, Wales. Since turning professional in 2005, Romanello has made more than $520,000 live tournament earnings. Online, he is a Full Tilt professional....

, Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst is an American professional poker player who has made five final tables, including two heads-up semi-finals, at the World Series of Poker and won the 2008 World Series of Poker $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Selbst also won the main event of the 2010 and 2011 PokerStars.net North...

, Jake Cody
Jake Cody
Jake Cody is a professional poker player from Rochdale, England, United Kingdom.He burst on to the European tournament scene in 2010 with major wins at the European Poker Tour event in Deauville in January where he won €857,000 and the main event of the World Poker Tour London in August where he...

, James Bord
James Bord
James Bord, born 1981, is a professional poker player. Originally from Stanmore, U.K., he now divides his time between London and Las Vegas. His biggest victory was the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe main event, where he won $1,313,611. and became the first British champion of that event...

 and Liv Boeree
Liv Boeree
Olivia “Liv” Boeree is a poker player, TV presenter and model from England who won the 2010 European Poker Tour in San Remo for €1,250,000...

. The field contains 5 former Late Night Poker champions, Dave Ulliott
Dave Ulliott
David A. Ulliott , known by the nickname Devilfish, is an English professional gambler and poker player. Formerly, Ulliott was a minor figure in the Hull underworld, but went on to become a World Series of Poker bracelet-winner, and a mainstay of televised poker...

 aka Devilfish, Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper is an English professional poker player from South Kensington, London, England. He is chiefly noted as the winner of Late Night Poker series 2 and runner-up of series 4...

, Padraig Parkinson
Padraig Parkinson
Padraig Parkinson is an Irish professional poker player. He is chiefly recognised as the grand final winner of Late Night Poker series 5 and as the third-place finisher of the 1999 World Series of Poker, where he lost to fellow countryman Noel Furlong.Originally, Padraig refused to play in Late...

, Peter Costa
Peter Costa
Peter Costa to Greek Cypriot parents is a British professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada.He is most well known as the winner of the sixth series of the popular Late Night Poker television series during his time living in the United Kingdom, where he defeated Austria's Jin Cai Lin in...

 and John Duthie
John Duthie
John Duthie is a London-based English television director and creator of the European Poker Tour.-Film and television:...

.

The series is broadcast on Monday nights around midnight from October 3rd 2011.

History

Back in 1999, Cardiff based TV production company Presentable approached Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 with the idea of producing a TV series in the form of a poker tournament. At the time, poker had never been shown on UK TV. Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 commissioned the series and Late Night Poker was born.

The first series aired in July 1999 and very quickly built a cult audience. Viewers were captivated by the dark, smoky, intimate studio atmosphere and the quirky characters of the professional poker players sat around the table. The variation of poker they were playing was No Limit Texas Hold'Em, a variation relatively unknown in the UK at the time.

The first series was won by Dave Ulliott
Dave Ulliott
David A. Ulliott , known by the nickname Devilfish, is an English professional gambler and poker player. Formerly, Ulliott was a minor figure in the Hull underworld, but went on to become a World Series of Poker bracelet-winner, and a mainstay of televised poker...

 who became the UK's first poker celebrity. Other players who became regulars on the series included Series 2 winner, Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper is an English professional poker player from South Kensington, London, England. He is chiefly noted as the winner of Late Night Poker series 2 and runner-up of series 4...

, Surinder Sunar
Surinder Sunar
Surinder Sunar is a British professional poker player based in Wolverhampton, who gained fame as a three-time finalist in the Late Night Poker television series....

, Liam Flood
Liam Flood
Liam Flood is an Irish bookmaker and professional poker player who is a former European poker champion.-Poker career:Flood began playing poker tournaments in the 1980s in Ireland. He won the Irish Poker Open in 1990 and 1996, becoming one of only four players to have won that tournament multiple...

, Dave Colclough
Dave Colclough
David E. Colclough is a Welsh professional poker player, now living in Thailand.-Before poker:Prior to becoming a poker professional, Colclough worked as a computer programmer. Amongst the companies he worked for were the Post Office and the National Health Service...

, Kourosh
Kourosh
Kourosh is a common Persian masculine name. It may refer to the following people:* Kourosh Bagheri, Iranian weightlifter* Koorosh Modaressi, Iranian politician* Kourosh Zolani, Iranian-American composer...

 and the 4 players known collectively as the Hendon Mob, Joe Beevers
Joe Beevers
Joseph "Joe" Charles Beevers is an English professional poker player and a member of The Hendon Mob....

, Barny Boatman
Barny Boatman
Barny M. P. Boatman , is an English professional poker player and the oldest member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob...

, Ross Boatman
Ross Boatman
Ross Boatman is an English RADA-trained actor, professional poker player and a member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob.-Acting:...

 and Ram Vaswani
Ram Vaswani
Ram Vaswani is an English professional snooker player, turned professional poker player and the youngest member of The Hendon Mob...

.

A celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

 version of the show was produced on 12 October 2000, featuring (in finishing order from 1st to 7th place) Anthony Holden
Anthony Holden
Anthony Holden is an English writer, broadcaster and critic, particularly known as a biographer of artists including Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky, Leigh Hunt, Lorenzo da Ponte and Laurence Olivier, and of members of the British Royal family, notably Charles, Prince of Wales...

, Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez is an English poet, writer and critic who publishes under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez....

, Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...

, Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren
Victoria Elizabeth Coren is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect....

, Patrick Marber
Patrick Marber
Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...

, Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

 and Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

. This led into the creation of spin-off series Celebrity Poker Club
Celebrity Poker Club
Celebrity Poker Club was a British television series featuring celebrities playing poker. It aired on Challenge from 2003 to 2005 as a spin-off to Channel 4's popular Late Night Poker series...

 on Challenge in 2003.

Late Night Poker ran for 6 series from 1999 until 2002. A couple of spin-off series, Late Night Poker Ace and Late Night Poker Masters were aired between 2005 and 2007. In 2008, Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker is the pioneering television show that helped pave the way for the explosion of interest in poker in the 2000's. With it's ground breaking use of "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards, the show became a cult hit on Channel 4 UK when it first...

 returned for its 7th series and has continued annually since then.

Crew

An integral part of the series are the Tournament Referee and dealers. From the very start of Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker is the pioneering television show that helped pave the way for the explosion of interest in poker in the 2000's. With it's ground breaking use of "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards, the show became a cult hit on Channel 4 UK when it first...

,experienced referee, Austrian Thomas Kremser
Thomas Kremser
Thomas Kremser is an Austrian poker tournament director from Vienna, and the owner of the Concord Card Club.He has been in charge of events on the World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, Late Night Poker, William Hill Poker Grand Prix and many others...

 has presided over the action. In the early series he was accompanied by dealers Marina Kremser and Peter Schmid.

The commentary on Late Night Poker has at times created as much interest as the action on the table. In the first few series, the commentators were Jesse May
Jesse May
Jesse May is an American poker commentator and player.Jesse May was raised in Madison, New Jersey, where he first became hooked on poker playing with friends. In 1988 he started attending The University of Chicago, but he found that classes were clashing with his poker games, and so dropped out...

 and Nic Szeremeta
Nic Szeremeta
Nic Szeremeta is a poker player of mixed English/Polish descent, noted as a former editor of Poker Monthly magazine, and creator of the popular Late Night Poker television series -Early Life:Nic's father, who used to play draw poker himself, was a rear gunner who went missing during World War II.He...

. Jesse actually appeared in the first series as a player under the pseudonym "Mickey Dane".

Other commentators in the series have included Barny Boatman
Barny Boatman
Barny M. P. Boatman , is an English professional poker player and the oldest member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob...

, Lucy Rokach
Lucy Rokach
Lucienne "Lucy" Rokach is an English professional poker player from Stoke-on-Trent. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and is now regarded as one of the top female players in Europe...

, Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren
Victoria Elizabeth Coren is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect....

, Gary Jones
Gary Jones
Gary Jones is an actor, who has worked on television and on stage in Britain and Canada. He is best known for his recurring role as CMSgt. Walter Harriman in Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis...

 and Richard Orford. For the 10th series, the commentators are Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren
Victoria Elizabeth Coren is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect....

 and James Akenhead
James Akenhead
James Akenhead is a professional English poker player, sponsored by Full Tilt Poker. and part of the London based poker group The Hitsquad...

.

Format

In the 10th series, there are 4 heats of 8 players with the players finishing 1st and 2nd in each heat qualifying for the final. The winners of each heat start the final with 50,000 in chips, the runners-up start with 30,000 in chips. Each of the heats and final is shown across 2x 60 minute programmes - 10 programmes in total.

Most of the previous series of Late Night Poker consist of 9 programmes - 7 heats, one semi-final, and the final. Each heat has 7 players. The 7 winners of the heats progress straight to the final, and the runners-up go to the semi-final, where one additional player progresses, for a final table of 8 players.

(NB: The first series featured 5 heats, with the players finishing 1st and 2nd in each progressing to the final. The players who qualified by finishing first in their heat started the final with twice as many chips as the heat runner-ups.)

Although the precise sums of money involved have varied, the typical buy-in has been in the region of £1,500, with a first prize of between £40,000 and £60,000. In recent years, the buy-in has considerably increased. In the 10th series, the buy-in is $10,000 creating a prize pot of $320,000 with the winner banking $150,000.

Under-the-table cameras

Late Night Pokers success is largely attributable to its "under-the-table" cameras
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...

 (later known as hole cam
Hole cam
In poker, a hole cam is a camera that displays a player's face-down cards to television viewers.The hole cam became popular in 1999 when the Late Night Poker program first began using it in televised tournaments shown on British Channel 4...

s) which allow the viewers and commentators to see the players' cards through the transparent table. It is doubtful poker could succeed as a spectator sport
Spectator sport
A spectator sport is a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches. For instance, Tennis, Rugby, F-1, baseball, basketball, cricket, football , and ice hockey are spectator sports, while hunting or underwater hockey typically are not...

 otherwise, and American broadcasters have subsequently used a similar technique in programmes such as World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises , the firm that...

.

Nevertheless, in contrast to most Poker shows, in its early series, Late Night Poker tended to use these cameras in a rather minimalist way. For example, in a two-way pot
Pot (poker)
The pot in poker refers to the sum of money that players wager during a single hand or game, according to the betting rules of the variant being played...

, often only one player's cards are shown, with the commentators trying to infer from the other player's actions what cards he or she holds, and how the first player should act. Because of this, the commentary often mirrors the actual decision-making process of a Poker player. Only late in the hand, at the time of a critical decision, would the other player's cards be shown, possibly revealing a startling bluff
Bluff (poker)
In the card game of poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand. To bluff is to make such a bet. The objective of a bluff is to induce a fold by at least one opponent who holds a better hand. The size and frequency of a bluff determines its...

 or an unexpectedly strong hand.

Sponsors

The original 6 series of Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker is the pioneering television show that helped pave the way for the explosion of interest in poker in the 2000's. With it's ground breaking use of "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards, the show became a cult hit on Channel 4 UK when it first...

 did not have a sponsor. However, with the creation of online poker came online poker companies and sponsored players. By the mid 2000's most TV poker shows were sponsored by one of these online companies.

The Late Night Poker spin off series, Late Night Poker Ace and Late Night Poker Masters and Series 7 of Late Night Poker were sponsored by PartyPoker. Series 8 and 9 of Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker
Late Night Poker is the pioneering television show that helped pave the way for the explosion of interest in poker in the 2000's. With it's ground breaking use of "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards, the show became a cult hit on Channel 4 UK when it first...

 were sponsored by Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is an online poker card room that opened in June 2004 with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson...

. Series 10 is sponsored by Coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

.

Series finalists

Season Winner Prize Runner-Up 3rd place
1 Dave Ulliott
Dave Ulliott
David A. Ulliott , known by the nickname Devilfish, is an English professional gambler and poker player. Formerly, Ulliott was a minor figure in the Hull underworld, but went on to become a World Series of Poker bracelet-winner, and a mainstay of televised poker...

£40,000 Peter Evans
Peter Evans (poker player)
Peter Evans is an English retired scrap metal dealer and a poker player, who came to the limelight when finishing as runner-up in the first series of Late Night Poker. He currently lives in Birmingham, England....

Dave Welch
Dave Welch
Dave Welch is an English poker player based in St. Albans, who made several appearances on the Late Night Poker television series, including the season 1 grand final and the season 6 semi-final....

2 Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper is an English professional poker player from South Kensington, London, England. He is chiefly noted as the winner of Late Night Poker series 2 and runner-up of series 4...

£40,000 Ross Boatman
Ross Boatman
Ross Boatman is an English RADA-trained actor, professional poker player and a member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob.-Acting:...

Ram Vaswani
Ram Vaswani
Ram Vaswani is an English professional snooker player, turned professional poker player and the youngest member of The Hendon Mob...

3 Phil Hellmuth, Jr.
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his temperamental, "poker brat" personality...

£45,000 Adam Heller Paul Alterman
4 Hemish Shah
Hemish Shah
Hemish Shah was an English stock broker before he became a professional poker player, and the winner of Late Night Poker series 4, where he beat the season 2 champion Simon "Aces" Trumper in the final heads-up confrontation....

£50,000 Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper
Simon Trumper is an English professional poker player from South Kensington, London, England. He is chiefly noted as the winner of Late Night Poker series 2 and runner-up of series 4...

Barny Boatman
Barny Boatman
Barny M. P. Boatman , is an English professional poker player and the oldest member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob...

5 Padraig Parkinson
Padraig Parkinson
Padraig Parkinson is an Irish professional poker player. He is chiefly recognised as the grand final winner of Late Night Poker series 5 and as the third-place finisher of the 1999 World Series of Poker, where he lost to fellow countryman Noel Furlong.Originally, Padraig refused to play in Late...

£50,000 Korosh Nejad
Korosh Nejad
Korosh Nejad is an Iranian professional poker player based in London, England.Nejad has played for over 30 years, but first came to the public attention with three impressive performances in the Stakis Festival in London during May 1999 where he had a 2nd place finish in a £100 Pot Limit Omaha...

Joe Beevers
Joe Beevers
Joseph "Joe" Charles Beevers is an English professional poker player and a member of The Hendon Mob....

6 Peter Costa
Peter Costa
Peter Costa to Greek Cypriot parents is a British professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada.He is most well known as the winner of the sixth series of the popular Late Night Poker television series during his time living in the United Kingdom, where he defeated Austria's Jin Cai Lin in...

£60,000 Jin Cai Lin Lucy Rokach
Lucy Rokach
Lucienne "Lucy" Rokach is an English professional poker player from Stoke-on-Trent. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and is now regarded as one of the top female players in Europe...

Ace 1 John Shaw £50,000 Hung Luc Miles Adam
Ace 2 Raul Mestre $50,000 Simon Ehne Michiel Van Woerden
Masters David Tighe $100,000 Simon Ehne Barny Boatman
Barny Boatman
Barny M. P. Boatman , is an English professional poker player and the oldest member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob...

2008 Andreas Jorbeck $125,000 Roland De Wolfe
Roland De Wolfe
Roland De Wolfe is an English professional poker player and a former writer for the poker magazine Inside Edge.After winning first prize in an event at the 2004 Gutshot Poker Festival, he went on to make a money finish in the $1,000 No Limit event of the 2005 World Series of Poker.In July 2005, he...

Andy Black
2009 Huck Seed
Huck Seed
Huckleberry Seed is an American professional poker player best known for winning the main event of the 1996 World Series of Poker.-Early Life:...

$200,000 Gus Hansen
Gus Hansen
Gustav "Gus" Hansen is a professional Danish poker player who lives in Monaco. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, the 2007 Aussie Millions main event and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament...

Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad is a Norwegian poker player. Obrestad is the youngest person to ever win a World Series of Poker Europe bracelet...

2010 John Duthie
John Duthie
John Duthie is a London-based English television director and creator of the European Poker Tour.-Film and television:...

$200,000 Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey
Phillip Dennis "Phil" Ivey Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables...

Carlos Mortensen
Carlos Mortensen
Juan Carlos Mortensen is an Ecuadorian professional poker player of Danish descent and the only Hispanic Main Event winner of the World Series of Poker. Mortensen is known for his loose play, bluffing tactics, and interesting chip-stacking style.Mortensen moved from Spain to the United States in...

2011 To be broadcast in Oct/Nov 2011 $150,000

Results

  • Late Night Poker season 1 results
  • Late Night Poker season 2 results
  • Late Night Poker season 3 results
  • Late Night Poker season 4 results
  • Late Night Poker season 5 results
  • Late Night Poker season 6 results

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK