Television poker has exploded in popularity over recent years with almost the same force as the actual game of cards itself. In the beginning we just saw coverage of tournament play, then the introduction of contrived Sit & Go tournaments with famous pros until finally, in 2006, the North American poker world got what it had been waiting for: High Stakes Poker, the first television Cash Game poker show. Now, some years later but every bit as action packed and fun to watch, the world’s best poker show is going to be aired around Europe.
Tournaments involve paying a fee, getting a certain number of chips, and playing until you bust or you win a prize. In cash games, the chips on the table in front of you represent actual dollars. Every time you lose a pot you’re losing dollars straight out of your wallet, and you’re free to come and go as you please. Many players argue that there is a higher ratio of skill to luck in cash game play, due largely to the fact that players at cash tables tend to have deeper stacks and so there’s more room for actual poker to take place.
High Stakes Poker, as the first cash game show on TV, provided an exciting look at what was for many players a new side of poker. Everyone’s favorite pros plus a few entertaining amateurs battled it out with literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money on the line. Bluffing a stack of your own chips can really get the heart racing when it’s actual dollars at risk rather than mere tournament tokens. On the other hand, if it all goes south and you lose your stack, you’re perfectly able to just reach into your deep pockets and buy back in, meaning that the action never has to end, and indeed that’s what a lot of the pros on High Stakes Poker end up having to do.
Until now this great show was only aired in North America, but The Poker Channel has recently announced that they have signed a three-year deal with USA’s Game Show Network, which will give the former the exclusive rights to broadcast three seasons of the show in both Russia and Europe, including Great Britain. Expect weekly shows of seasons two through four to soon be appearing on your television screens, and I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed by the action as pros such as Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey battle it out and put their poker skill-sets to the test.
For those of us lucky enough to have already seen the six seasons already filmed, there’s good news in store! GSN announced recently that they will be airing a seventh season in 2011, and filming for this will begin next month. If there’s one show poker fans go crazy for it’s High Stakes Poker. Whether you’ve managed to check it out in the past or not, definitely tune in to The Poker Channel and enjoy the high stakes action!