New seasons of the “World Poker Tour“, “High Stakes Poker” and “Poker After Dark” are set to kick off soon, led by the fifth season of PAD, which debuts today on NBC. While there was a time when the future of at least two of the shows was in doubt, all three will return and look to build upon the previous successes that have allowed poker to grow into a worldwide phenomenon.

The first week of PAD will be titled “Close But No Cigar”, and will feature players who have made the final table of the World Series of Poker main event, but haven’t actually won the big tournament. The line-up will include: Lee Watkinson, David Williams, Mike Matusow, Andy Black, Allen Cunningham and Dewey Tomko.

A few months back, the Game Show Network announced that they would be filming the fifth season of “High Stakes Poker” — the show just wrapped up filming last weekend and is set to begin airing on March 1st, 2009. The seventh season of the “World Poker Tour” has found itself a new home on Fox Sports Net and will be getting underway on January 4th.

There will be 26 episodes of the show this season including a new format. Instead of showing the entire final table in a single one-hour episode, the World Poker Tour will be airing two one-hour episodes that will allow more of the final table action to be shown and build suspense, as viewers will have to wait until the following week to find out who ends up winning.

Good luck to all three shows, as they can only aid in further spreading the popularity of the great game of poker.