Poker and reality television collided on NBC way past my bedtime last week. But in the age of Tivo, it doesn’t matter what time something is aired just as long as the content is good and Shana Hiatt is within a hundred yards of it.

In 2005 NBC created the National Heads-Up Championship, which at the time was the best produced poker product on the market. (And arguably still so.) They avoided a sophomore slump last week with the premiere of ‘Poker after Dark’, a six person winner take all tournament featuring the biggest names in poker.

As a poker fan, I’m thrilled. As a reality buff, I’m ecstatic. In a barren year of reality television, some of the truly original moments came from the World Series of Poker. However, the biggest problem with poker on television is that it’s focused on pretty much everything but poker. The shows are stuffed with feel good stories and hands that are 50 - 50 races with people’s dreams on the line. It’s entertaining, but the sometimes mundane hand to hand strategy disappears and 50 well played small pots are buried in editing in favor of five misplayed big pots.

That is until ‘Poker after Dark’ premiered last Monday. The tournament spans five nights showing every hand with very little commentary. I once wrote, “I’m a huge poker fan and I can’t help but think that it could be much more compelling if the announcers would recognize when it’s time to zip it. So often an altercation will erupt at the table and I’ll be dying to know what’s going on. But I have to listen to Norman Chad making lame jokes about his ex-wife.” NBC agreed and television at 2 a.m. has never been so good.

Right out of the gate, decision one was phenomenal, because of two words: Shana Hiatt. I’ve always thought that girls fell into one of two categories, cute or hot. It’s the age old Ginger or Mary Anne question. Somehow, Shana is both. The misses disagrees: “I just don’t see it.”

Overall, the synergy between poker and reality is innate. One of the crowning achievements of reality television is its ability to glorify otherwise regular people. In most cases with poker players, we’re talking about degenerate gamblers so the running subplots and embellished rumors are off the charts. The lineups this time around featured Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Shawn Sheikhan, Annie Duke, Huck Seed and Steve Zolotow.

Shawn Sheikhan was well known as a fish for years. The big game that plays the highest limit poker in the world would organize their games around his attendance. Steve Z, who despite being a poker presence for many years, is mild mannered and hasn’t received the level of notoriety that his peers have. Hellmuth and Huck Seed were at one time best friends and Huck once paid Phil $10,000 on a side bet when he was unable to tread water for 24 hours. He never dipped a toe in the water.

How do I know all this and much, much more? Because we’re dealing with regular people who can afford to be honest. What sets poker players apart is they can be imperfect with little to lose. If Tom Cruise starts playing on Oprah’s furniture, it could cost him his movie deal. In poker, the exact opposite is true. Phil Hellmuth, the self proclaimed poker brat, recently went through a torrid slump. You could argue he gained more fame and notoriety over that period due to his childish antics than he did this past successful summer.

This week on ‘Poker after Dark’, he played poorly and bowed out early. Not before over-reacting and making a huge scene threatening never to play again because the other players were teasing him while he pondered a decision for his tournament life. What’s amazing is that he was probably better off losing his cool than keeping it.

Daniel Negreanu is arguably the game’s most notable player supplying fans with strategy columns, weekly newsletters, written blogs and video blogs. Due to his candor and outspokenness, he has caused public riffs with 2004 champ Greg Raymer and the aforementioned Annie Duke, which in turn caused a mini issue with her bother Howard, another a big time player. It made for nice fodder in all their respective blogs and has done wonders for the advancement of poker. The Donald has said any exposure is good exposure and some of the poker elite owe their careers to it.

In the end, Gus Hanson, a reckless yet feared Dutch player, won a heads up match against Huck Seed. The final episode was a bit slower than its predecessors but overall, the show was a success.

Much like reality television, it’s hard to determine the shelf life of poker on television.

There are basically two camps on television poker: those who love it and those who would threaten to divorce those who love it. See if you can figure out what camps my wife and I are in. Either you agree whole-heatedly that poker on TV is a good thing or you didn’t get through two sentences of this column.

With reality on deck for a recovery with a strong mid season lineup, poker might get swept up along for the ride and poker programs should stay on course with more of voyeur personae which should make a lot of poker and reality fans happy, including Norman Chad’s three ex-wives.