'Face The Ace' Partnership Between NBC And Full Tilt Poker

A new concept for televised poker shows In the United States, NBC and Full Tilt Poker.com are joining up again, this time to produce Face the Ace, a new concept for a poker show where players who qualify online get to play heads-up against three Full Tilt pros for a million dollar prize. A spokesman for NBC said that if selected to be a participant on the show, the contestant will have to choose between four smoked-glass doors, behind each of which is a top professional poker player, or the “Aces.” Once one is chosen, the contestant will play that pro in a heads-up No-Limit Texas Hold'em match. Should the contestant defeat the pro, they will have the opportunity to take the money they have won and leave or risk it all and choose another door and battle a different pro for a significantly larger sum of money. There is as yet unconfirmed speculation that the roster of pros for the show, which will be presented by Sopranos star Steve Schirripa, includes Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel, Allen Cunningham, Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Patrik Antonius and Howard Lederer. Entry to the Face the Ace promotion is free: the classification tournaments are all freerolls, details of which will soon be available at the Full Tilt Poker websites or visit www.face-the-ace.com. All winners in the online qualifiers will be flown to Vegas with one guest, and lodged at the Golden Nugget for 5 days and 4 nights, where they will get $500 spending money and their chance to audition for NBC's new poker show. Filming is imminent, and Face the Ace will premiere on NBC on Saturday, August 1st at 9:00 pm ET. Seven one-hour episodes of the program are currently booked, and they will show from the prime-time August 1st debut through January 2nd, 2010.