Poker After Dark Love at First Raise

Poker After Dark is featuring couples this week on shows they are calling "Love at First Raise" and the first couples episode will air on Tuesday at 2:05am on NBC.  It will star three romantically involved couples that will be competing for the $120,000 dollar winner take all first place prize.

This is a good idea for Poker After Dark since the teams will be up against other teams and they all have some great experience at the cards since all of the players have won major tournaments in the past.  There is still one more factor which should definately make things interesting the silent communication that couples have with each other.

At this poker table everyone will have to focus on their opponents poker face as well as any silent signals they may be sending to their partner.  Because if you have ever been in a relationship you know with a look you can convey a lot to your significant other, for example, the you better not do that or your gonna be in big trouble when we get home look and more.

Jennifer Harman and Marco Traniello will be competing together as a couple and Harman has won many tournaments including a bracelet in the 2000 Deuce to Seven Draw event and another in the 2002 $5,000 Limit Hold'em Tournament.  A little more recently she played in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Event and finished in third place for $330,000 dollars.

Her husband Marco Traniello learned from some of the best poker players as Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren were both frequent guests at their home and as began to pick up an interest in poker he watched and discussed poker with his wife before making hit start in 2005.  He played at that year's World Series of Poker and cashed seven time in hold'em events. 

The second couple to compete at Poker After Dark will be Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak.   Tilly has won a World Series of Poker Ladies event bracelet and also has a WPT Ladies Invitational title.   Phil Laak is mostly a cash player but has also placed in several major tournaments throughout his career. He won the 2004 WPT Invitational, finished second place in the 2005 $2,500 pot limit hold'em WSOP event and in 2004 he finished in fifth place at the Seneca World Poker classic.

The last couple that will be competing in the first episode is David Benyamine and Erica Schoenberg.  David has made a name for himself by competing in high stakes cash games and has also enjoyed success playing in live major tournaments.  Erica has worked as a model, personal trainer and a professional volleyball player before she went professional poker player.

She was trained by a member of the MIT Blackjack Team and became known as the "Blackjack Babe" after that she started playing poker and since then she finished 16th at the 2006 WPT Five Star World Poke Classic and recently finished in first place at a preliminary no limit hold'em event at the Mandalay Bay Championship.