Poker After Dark: Season 2 Subjective Champions

Season 2 of Poker After Dark was also filmed in 2007, pulling from a similar player pool of Season 1, but made sure to pull younger players too. Online patch deals drove the player pool and the poker world was riding robust boom. The most popular players at the time came together to play $120,000 winner-take-all freezeouts and only PokerGO has every single episode archived on demand.

The ten, six-handed matchups brought heated rivals, a battle of the sexes and hyper-aggressive players together. Each match was a $120,000 freezeout winner-take-all event which produced ten individual winners on the season.

Match 1: “World Champions II” – Joe Hachem
Match 2: “Internationals” – Patrik Antonius
Match 3: “Queens and Kings” – Gabe Kaplan
Match 4: “WSOP Legends” – Doyle Brunson
Match 5: “WPT All-Stars” – Howard Lederer
Match 6: “Live to Hurt” – Shawn Sheikhan
Match 7: “Poker Prowess” – Clonie Gowen
Match 8: “Mega Match” – Allen Cunningham
Match 9: “Of Mouth and Men” – Mike Sexton
Match 10: “Show Open” – Phil Ivey

Playing in three matches in Season 2 fared well for decently for Lederer with a win, as he also finished runner-up and in third. So. if scoring is similar to Season 1 with subjective finishes, then Lederer could be the winner, but editorial discretion makes room to right some wrongs, so he’s not the winner.

Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu also played in three matches, but Hellmuth earns the nod as best performance with three entries as he finished runner-up, third and fourth place collectively.

Hansen had a sixth, third and fifth place showing, Negreanu ran terribly with two fifth places and a fourth place. 

Crowing a Season 2 winner also falls under editorial discretion, so Ivey and Brunson each earn a win for their generation as co-champions as each won a match and third-place afterwards.

Doyle gets a win from PAD because no one deserves it more. (Photo: PokerPhotoArchive.com)
Jamie Gold played twice, busted early and then finished runner-up to Sexton. David Benyamine, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman all played twice with nothing to show for it.

Professional best friends Antonio Esfandiari (3rd and 4th) and Phil Laak (2nd & 6th) logged some TV time. Mike Sexton, TJ Cloutier, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Michael Mizrachi all debuted on Season 2 with varying results.

Each Season 2 matchup is available on demand exclusively on PokerGO. Season 1 and most of Season 3 are currently available as new blocks of episodes continue to be released.