1129ken: I tried adding a reply to your intial post, but I often get IE errors and I have to make a new topic occassionaly.
Poker After Dark has stopped and pulled from being televised along with websites that promoted and showed older episodes. Due to the chaos in the online poker world and ongoing indictments, Poker After Dark was basically supported by Full Tilt Poker and that's why it featured mostly Full Tilt pros. Full Tilt did a strike against High Stakes Poker because PokerStars was the main advertiser and Full Tilt felt it necessary to forbid any of their pro sponsors to participate.
I enjoyed Poker After Dark more than any other poker show because it featured friends, business associates and offered the best players in the game. It also started promoting Pot-Limit Omaha, and Andy Bloch did a sensational job at explaining the game to newbies but also the deep thinking for top pro players. I've disagreed with Bloch since 2004 on the way he plays, advises and teaches others, but none the less, he did an exceptional job announcing the Pot-Limit Omaha on Poker After Dark.
I enjoyed the show because it was 6 handed (not considered a true short game but enough to increase the action; I always though 3-5 players was short and the game texture changed significantly from pre-flop to showdown, and 6-7 players it just increased more pre-flop play and you often still needed a decent hand to win a showdown) and premiered the best No-Limit Hold'em players and line-ups.
I made a point of recording certain cash games with episode titles like "Top Guns", "Railbird Heaven", "Magnificent Six", "PLO", etc... (line-ups with Ivey, Dwan, Antonius, Sahamies, Hansen, Elezra, Galfond, etc... always produced great action and top level thinking and playing. Hellmuth is always entertaining even when he folds most the time, and other top pros like Negreanu, Cunningham, Chan, Matusow, etc... added a nice mix).
That show is done (99% likely for good) for the simple reason it was a Full Tilt promotion and featured most of it's premiere players. This type of scenario has been coming for 6 years, especially since the 2006 SAFE Port Act. Maybe now the government will get involved an provide security for players even if the rake (or however they get their cut in revenues) is higher, at least you can rest assured that U.S. oversight will provide more stability and fairness. Also, however they go about it seems the major obstacle will be like boxing, where in each state legislates and secures it's own laws. People that were not affiliated with an online company, and that use to cheat by themselves or as teams were not in any legal trouble because the U.S. had no affiliation and previous to many new bills passed, they weren't even sure if it was legal to play at your home. One thing was certain, if you did play and won, you definitely had to pay taxes even if it was a very gray area legally. It will take time but the U.S. only stands to lose billions by not providing such a service that they can track and earn revenues and Uncle Sam gets a double dip when he taxes you on the wins.
In the U.S. you still have the following televised poker programs (1st five are active still):
1. World Series of Poker (ESPN) {WSOPE; WSOPC; TOC}
2. World Poker Tour {EPT; NAPT; LAPT; APPT; UK&I PT}
3. High Stakes Poker (GSN)
4. National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NBC)
5. Heartland Poker Tour
6. Poker Superstars I:Invitational Tournament & II & III (FSN; might still air previous episodes)
7. Ultimate Poker Challenge (might still air previous episodes)
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