Big Names Headline “Poker Night in America” Debut

Rush Productions, the company behind the new Nolan Dalla-fronted poker program “Poker Night In America,” has unveiled the list of poker professionals and personalities that are committed to attending the filming of the premiere episode.

As pokerfuse first reported last week, the show is flying in a select group of players to New York to participate in a made-for-TV cash game.

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Phil Laak, Greg “FBT” Mueller, David Williams, Layne “Back To Back” Flack, Gavin Smith and Eli Elezra headline the West Coast crew. They’ll be joined by David “ODB” Baker, Shawn Buchanan, David Levi, Tom “DonkeyBomber” Schneider as well as the only two people to survive the cuts of the open casting call, Lauren Billings and Pokernews’ own lead on-camera reporter, Kristy Arnett.

Set to meet them at the airport is a crew of East Coast natives who are also planning on participating: WPT Champ Will “The Thrill” Failla, Parx Poker Room rep Matt Glantz, Shaun Deeb, Dwyte Pilgrim, Amanda Musumeci, Dennis Philips and more will be all be on hand. Even Darvin Moon is planning on coming out of the woodwork, literally, for the event.

“Poker Night In America” is hoping to change the face of poker television by combining on-felt play and interviews with unscripted reality TV style coverage.

Filming of the $25/50 cash game will begin on August 8 followed by the first flight of the $1500 Main Event starting on the 9th. The event will take place at Empire State Poker Classic Main Event held at the Turning Stone Casino and Resort in New York.

For more information on the Empire State Poker Classic as well as Poker Night in America, visit their website.