In America, NBC has revealed the full schedule for its new Face The Ace poker show hosted by Steve Schirripa and featuring amateurs competing against 15 of the world's best professional players.
Face The Ace will debut next Sunday, August 1, at nine o'clock in the evening New York time showing a stage with four doors, each concealing a professional poker player.
Schirripa is best known for portraying gangster Bobby Baccalieri on the long-running HBO show The Sopranos and will then help the contestants pick one of these doors before the amateur battles it out with the revealed pro in a game of heads-up no-limit Hold'em poker. If the contestant should win, they can opt to take their winnings and leave or risk it all by going up against another pro for a bigger pot.
After a second victory, the contestant will be given the same choice again and success against a third pro in the hour-long programme will see them win one million dollars. However, a player will walk away with nothing if they should lose.
The show is being produced by Poker Productions, which is also responsible for the popular late night Poker After Dark franchise on NBC, with the broadcaster revealing that the second episode will air on August 8 from nine o'clock in the evening.
Face The Ace will then move to a Saturday afternoon time-slot beginning on September 12 from two o'clock before taking a long break and returning on October 31 from half-past three o'clock.
The next two episodes will be broadcast on November 14 and December 12 from three o'clock in the afternoon while the final programme will air on January 2 from half-past two o'clock in the afternoon.
All Face The Ace contestants qualified online at FaceTheAce.com and FullTiltPoker.net and will be pitted against some of the world's best professional players. The four pros required for each episode will be drawn from a star-studded pool of 15 professional players that have collectively won 41 World Series Of Poker bracelets and eleven World Poker Tour titles in addition to amassing nearly $100 million in live tournament winnings. NBC revealed that the pros taking part include Patrik Antonius, Andy Bloch, Allen Cunningham, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel and Gavin Smith.