Poker News Daily can independently confirm that the seventh season of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” will debut on Saturday, February 26th. The show moves from its customary Sunday night time slot to Saturday this time around. Once again, Gabe Kaplan will provide solo commentary in the booth and Kara Scott will conduct interviews from the poker room floor.
The series was filmed last month at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and is now just a few short weeks from airing on the cable station. It will hit the airwaves at 8:00pm ET and PT on GSN and may not feature any Full Tilt Poker pros this time around, as rival site PokerStars officially sponsors the show. Therefore, “High Stakes Poker” Season 7 may be void of players like Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Patrik Antonius.
Poker PROductions creates “High Stakes Poker” and confirmed the February 26th premiere date on Twitter yesterday. The series began airing five years ago and has been a smashing success. DoylesRoom front man Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, and PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu have appeared in each of the series’ six seasons. A cast list for Season 7 has not been distributed as of the time of writing.
Despite the potential dearth of Full Tilt pros, posters on TwoPlusTwo were looking forward to the debut of “High Stakes Poker” Season 7 on February 26th. One member wrote, “FTP pulling its pros from the show means we lose Durrrr, Ivey, and PA. However, I don’t see how anyone could think that it’s going to make ‘High Stakes Poker’ a boring show. ‘The Big Game’ was great without any FTP pros, and FTP really has nothing going for it aside from the Big Three.”
A Tweet from Poker PROductions on December 13th, just before taping started, addressed the involvement of Full Tilt pros: “Whether or not FTP pros play is out of the production co.’s control. As of today, we are planning as though none will play.”
Among those who touted their participation on the new season of the cash game franchise was Victory Poker’s Andrew “good2cu” Robl. He posted in his blog shortly after participating, “On Wednesday of this week, I played on the newest season of ‘High Stakes Poker.’ ‘High Stakes Poker’ is one of the only TV shows I watch and by far my favorite poker TV show. I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say about what happened, but on my day there were some monster sick pots. Should make for some real good TV.”
Also purportedly taking part in Season 7 are Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Scotty Nguyen, Haralabos Voulgaris, Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel, David “Viffer” Peat, Phil Laak, Greenstein, Brunson, and Esfandiari. Brunson announced that the new cycle was filmed in 3D on his Twitter feed: “Off to play in ‘High Stakes Poker’ for the 2nd time in 3 days. They are filming it in 3-D. Should be interesting!”
Negreanu had originally announced that he was not planning to participate in Season 7 due to a hectic travel schedule, but later recanted on Twitter, “My schedule this week has become a complete mess. I’m totally exhausted and now I’m supposed to go play ‘High Stakes Poker’ last minute/last session. Not fun.”
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest.
Season 7 premiere sucked, big time. No chemistry between players, dull play, no humor, no anything. Where is the great players like Negreanu, Ivey, Dwan, Laak and even Hellmuth? It was a very boring show and won’t succeed as is. Someone better get busy and do something because even the most ardent viewers like something better than this.
Worst season ever!
I miss Gabe. Norm is mildly amusing at best. I agree w/ previous comments: HSP will not last with current cast. Childish boycott on behalf of Full Tilt only made the show worse. Unpredictable plays from Eli and Durrr make the show more entertaining. Lastly… my biggest reason to watch the show: I NEED to see Helmuth and Gold lose.
As an avid fan of the previous six seasons, I must tell you that this cast of characters is not worth watching. They are profoundly dull, and not very entertaining. Norm MacDonald fits right into that mold. He can’t hold a candle to Gabe. What were you people thinking when you conjured up this group of yawners. You better get with the program or I don’t believe you will have much of an audience for a season eight, if there is in fact, one. All due respect to Doyle, as he is the only bright light, so far regarding this season.
Quit watching program after they canned Gabe.
Norm McDonald is a nice guy. However, there is no comparison between him and Gabe when it comes to poker. Norm says nothing of interest where as Gabe was riviting. Bring Gabe back or go out of business.
they need gabe back asap. gabe made the show very entertaining and his analysis on poker was outstanding. will not watch anymore without gabe. i really enjoyed AJ benza as well, he had good chemistry with gabe and would make the show watchable to people who aren’t into poker as much.