Poker After Dark: Worth a shot if you're up at 2 a.m.

NBC duped me into thinking the premier of Poker After Dark would be on Tuesday night at 2 a.m. when they announced that the show would debut on Jan. 2. Turns out the date changes at midnight, and they meant Monday night at 2 a.m.

So I set up my DVR to tape Tuesday night's show. I later found out that you could watch all of this week's episodes on NBC.com.

The format is a little confusing because the players have a combination of chips and stacks of cash, making it unclear whether it's a tournament or a cash game. It's actually a $20,000 buy-in winner-take-all tournament.

The first few episodes are a mixed bag. The anonymous commentator is just awful. The show would be 1,000 times better without him. Seriously, if you're watching poker at 2 a.m., you either recognize a double belly-buster straight draw, or you don't care.

The other problem is the cast this week. With Phil Hellmuth and Shawn Sheikhan both mugging for TV time, there's so much table talk that sometimes it's almost impossible to figure out what they're actually saying.

But there are several aspects of Poker After Dark that make it worth watching. Normally I hate , but Shana Hiatt conducts interviews with players during the tournament, and I find the live interaction refreshing when compared to the cliché filled postproduction commentary.

Since almost every hand is broadcast, including pots won by a single preflop raise, the banter is often more interesting than the poker, when it can be understood. Did you know Steve Zolotow once bet Annie Duke $500 that her marriage wouldn't last five years? Did you also know that Stevie Z was arrested in Canada under suspicion of diamond smuggling? Watch Tuesday's show, segment six, for all the details.

The unfortunate thing about Stevie Z's diamond smuggling story is the timing is awful. It takes place during the most interesting hand of the whole show. The stories and interviews, however, will probably be more important to the show than the quality of play. But seriously, I can do without hearing Annie Duke talk about condoms.

I doubt that Poker After Dark will draw a large devoted audience outside of insomniacs and poker addicts with DVRs. But it may draw in parents of newborns. My wife is expecting our first baby in about two weeks, and if I'm trying to get the baby to fall asleep at 2 a.m., Poker After Dark just might be on in the background.