Hellmuth gets felted, Ivey gets richer, more Europeans in one place than the World Cup—High Stakes Poker is back on the Game Show Network (GSN).
Sunday marked the return of the richest game in televised poker history, with a field Gabe Kaplan justifiably refers to as “the Breeder’s Cup Classic field…everybody a star.” He later announces that Phil Ivey and Tom “durrr” Dwan will be in every episode this season, serving as catalysts for what will conceivably be some of the largest pots ever made, outside of the one I picked up at the Asian flea market that one time.
Kaplan’s announcing is still witty, cynical, educated, and on point. I have always enjoyed his approach to humor and he does not disappoint in the Season 6 opener. That being said, there is a notable absence in the announcing booth, as Kaplan’s one man show seems lonely in the void of an actual co-host. This is probably the first time anyone has ever said this, but I miss A.J. Benza.
The Kara Scott component of the show, as talented, beautiful, and savvy as she may be, seems like it was just stapled on. While they dubbed her a “co-host”, her roll couldn’t be further from one, as she’s more or less just an underused auxiliary to the show’s identity. I think GSN’s decision to put some tail on the program (a la broadcasts with Leeann Tweeden or Shana Hiatt) and reinforce its standing as an equal opportunity employer stripped what worked so well about the previous format, and Benza along with it.
New circus sideshow segments like “Did You Know?”, where Daniel Negreanu gives us a history lesson of the Dead Man’s Hand, or “30 Seconds With Kara Scott”, where she asks people to describe Phil Hellmuth in 10 words or less, tarnish the show’s pacing and purpose. With the addition of the pointless aforementioned, High Stakes Poker is slowly becoming what is bad about all the other poker shows on television, as they dumb down the product with hopes of marketing it to a more mainstream audience.
Even the players were joking about the new mandatory interview Scott gets to do after a player loses all their chips. Pretending he’s in front of the camera, Gus Hansen says to Negreanu in mocking tone, “I love High Stakes Poker!” It’s really the poker equivalent of losing a sports championship, and then that senseless reporter says to the coach or star player of the losing team, “You just got within inches of reaching your life long dreams and aspirations and all your hard work almost paid off. How does it feel to lose?”
But at the end of the day, no matter how hard the show hits the fan, I’ll waste an hour of my life at a time watching people better than me at poker spending money I’ll never have from playing it.
In what seems to be the current trend of the resurfacing poker pro, Paul Wasicka went on to capture the $5,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Circuit Championship Event in Tunica, Mississippi. Wasicka was brought to notoriety in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing second to Jamie “Enjoyable as a Cold Sore” Gold. Staking his claim atop a mountain of 96 other players in the field, it is his first win and notable mention since the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, in which he beat pro Chad Brown 2-0 in the finals.
Some of you may remember Jeff Madsen’s breakout onto the poker scene in 2006. His first year in the series at the ripe age of 21, he had an unprecedented four top three finishes: third in the $2000 
Canadian, Aussie Mills veteran and all around good guy Elliot Smith (the poker player, not the dead musician) is grinding out another great showing in the 2010 Aussie Millions.
Winning a World Series of Poker bracelet is one of the biggest achievements that a poker player can earn during their career. And pro poker player T.J. Cloutier has been lucky enough to win 6 of them during his career. However, he is only holding five of them after an unidentified person bought one of the bracelets off of Cloutier recently.
Pictured: Erik Seidel on Curb… he’s the OTHER bald guy in the frame.
There have been several noted bad boys in poker over the years. People like Phil Hellmuth, Tony G, and Mike Matusow have made just as big of a name for themselves on the felt as they have with their mouths and crazy antics. But these are of course well noted live tournament players who’ve gained most of their fame from being on TV and winning huge tourneys. However, one player is proving that being a poker bad boy is no longer limited to live play.
Here is an update from one of our Australia correspondants. As you know, CarbonPoker was proud to send some online poker winners to the PokerNews Cup – Australia. Here’s what Shane in Melbourne has to report on the action from Day 1A:
The World Series Of Poker Europe isn’t all about tight hands and pressure betting, it turns out. Paul Zimbler proved that Thursday (or should I say on Tuesday through Thursday) by successfully breaking the world record for the longest recorded continuous poker session at London’s Casino at the Empire.
On Friday morning pros attending the World Series of Poker Europe will wake up and rip the wrapping off a brand-new event in the poker world, the Caesars Cup.
