The fifth season of popular televised cash game High Stakes Poker will film for three days beginning on Friday, December 19th at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. The show boasts a $200,000 minimum buy-in and among those in attendance will be 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate and 11 time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. GSN, which airs High Stakes Poker, claims the show’s price tag makes it the “largest buy-in for an entire run of a television series.”
The show returns to its roots for the fifth season, as the very first installment of High Stakes Poker was also filmed at the storied Las Vegas casino. Since then, it has moved around to other locales including the South Point Casino and The Palms. High Stakes Poker is hosted by “Welcome Back Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan as well as A.J. Benza. The show airs on cable network GSN, which also owns the rights to the sixth season of the World Poker Tour. Poker programming on the station currently airs on Sunday nights.
The icon of the industry, Doyle Brunson, will be a part of High Stakes Poker Season V. The namesake of online poker site Doyle’s Room owns 10 WSOP bracelets, tied for the most with Johnny Chan. Brunson won the 1976 and 1977 WSOP Main Events and tacked on his most recent piece of hardware in 2005 in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event.
Hellmuth is one of the principal faces behind Ultimate Bet and will return to High Stakes Poker for the new season. “The Poker Brat” won his 11th WSOP bracelet in 2007 in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, pocketing $637,000 in the process. He narrowly missed out on a record-setting 12th bracelet this year, finishing third in a $1,500 HORSE tournament which was eventually won by James Schaaf. Two other world-famous “Phils” will join Hellmuth at the table, Phil Ivey and Phil Laak. Ivey owns five WSOP bracelets. Laak’s partner in crime on MOJO show “I Bet You,” Antonio Esfandiari, will also head to the Golden Nugget next Friday.
Eastgate headlines a list of newcomers to High Stakes Poker. The youngest WSOP Main Event Champion ever at age 22, Eastgate pocketed $9.1 million for his efforts in poker’s most prestigious tournament this year. Hailing from Denmark, Eastgate shattered Hellmuth’s standing record by two years. The tournament wrapped up in the morning hours of November 11th. Eastgate’s heads-up opponent in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, Ivan Demidov, will also participate.
Joining Eastgate and Demidov for the first time on High Stakes Poker will be Tom Dwan, who is known as durrrr in the online poker world. A high-stakes online poker player, Dwan has made the successful transition into the live world and has competed on NBC’s “National Heads-Up Poker Championship” and “Poker After Dark.”
Two recognizable recreational players will also take to the felts at the Golden Nugget. Co-Creator of animated television series “The Simpsons,” Sam Simon, will appear, as will director Nick Cassavetes. Simon finished 329th in the 2007 WSOP Main Event and his franchise, The Simpsons, recently released a full-length feature film. Cassavetes is best known for directing “The Notebook” in 2004, which featured Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.
Crowd favorite Daniel Negreanu will head to Las Vegas for High Stakes Poker Season V, as will fellow Team PokerStars Pro member Barry Greenstein. Other players slated to appear include David Benyamine, Eli Elezra, Howard Lederer, Giorgio Medici, Dario Minieri, Ilari Sahamies, and Bob Safai. GSN crews will film the event between 12:30pm and 9:30pm next weekend. The Golden Nugget is one of the marquee casinos on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas and the set will be closed to the general public. Selected media are permitted to attend.