Poker Articles

By Dan

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy finished second in the UltimateBet.com Aruba Poker Classic for $446,975 and, in the process, solidified himself as a skilled live and online poker player. On Friday, December 8, 2006, at 10:00pm ET, GSN will air a one hour recap of the final table of the event, as called by PocketFiver Annie Duke, 10 time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, and poker author John Vorhaus. The event attracted 500 poker hopefuls from around the world, each vying for their share of over $2,500,000.

“The final table being on GSN is nice for my wife,” said Josephy. “She can see what I do for a living right on the television.” Eventual champion Devon Miller was a force at the final table: “It was pretty much all in or fold every hand of the final table. I should have busted early, but hit a two outer on the river. There wasn’t a lot of post-flop play.” Josephy doubled up with pocket fours against a wired pair of aces when a four hit on the river. He then coasted to finish runner up to Miller.

Filming on the windy coast of Aruba was not an easy task. “The final table was right on the beach, and, as you could imagine, it was quite windy. There were a lot of pauses to get the lightning and the card placement right, so we weren’t able to play a lot of hands,” said Josephy. Kevin Belinkoff, Vice President of Programming at GSN, reiterated the uniqueness of the final table setting: “It was about 100 degrees out, under the lights, with a strong wind. The people at the final table had to battle themselves and the elements. At one point, a group of iguanas started crawling onto the set.”

Recently, GSN has focused on cash game play with High Stakes Poker, which will begin airing in its third season in January. “High Stakes Poker has been our focus so far,” said Belinkoff. “It’s the only cash game on television. We had aired a few tournament poker shows in the past, including Poker Royale, but wanted to do something completely different.” UltimateBet.com approached GSN about airing the Aruba Poker Classic, formerly a World Poker Tour event that aired on The Travel Channel. “The Aruba Poker Classic is one of the stronger tournaments in terms of play and notoriety. We were glad to have it. GSN is looking to broaden its poker programming.”

Be sure to catch JohnnyBax on Friday, December 8 at 10:00pm ET. Visit www.gsn.com for more information.