Garry Gates

Week 3 of NBC's Poker After Dark should be a good one, as they've pitted six World Series main event winners against each other, including its most recent and perhaps most controversial winner Jamie Gold. Accompanying Gold are past champions Doyle Brunson, 1976 and 77'; Johnny Chan, 1987 and 88'; Chris Ferguson, 2000; Carlos Mortensen, 2001; and Chris Moneymaker, 2003. The winner-take-all format guarantees some serious action as these six hyper-aggressive players vie for the $120,000 prize.

Last night's episode was dominated by Chris Ferguson, who took an early chip lead when he caught an ace on the flop holding A J against Carlos Mortensen's pocket Q's. I'm particularly interested in seeing how the two most recent winners, Gold and Moneymaker, fare against four established and respected professionals. Jamie Gold's style of play, moreover his table talk, has been the subject of many critics, following his dominating victory at the 2006 main event. You can bet he'll restrict most of his table talk to "nice hand, Doyle" or "good play, Johnny," in the face of these esteemed pros. And then there's Chris Moneymaker, who many poker analysts hold responsible for the Internet poker boom. His play and ability were both questioned after he won the 2003 event, as a result of a few "lucky" hands that were televised and played over and over again on ESPN.

Tune in tonight at 2:00 a.m. (and everyday this week) to watch this impressive group duke it out and see whether or not the newcomers can hold their own against some of the game's most iconic figures.

Should be good TV (as long as you can tolerate the announcer, who throws in his two cents every other minute as if he were one of those alien movie critics from that one show... help... I'm blanking here!).

That's all I got for now... Take care of yourselves!

GG

P.S. - Peyton Manning will have his year. Bet the bank on the Colts!