Cable station GSN will air an eight-hour marathon of its hit cash game show “High Stakes Poker” leading up to the premiere of Season 6. The action begins at Noon ET on Sunday, February 14th.
If you don’t have a valentine in 2010, don’t sweat. You can curl up beside the fireplace with your remote control and watch eight hours’ worth of highlights from “High Stakes Poker” Seasons 1 to 5 as part of GSN’s I Love Poker Marathon. The highlights will ramp viewers up for the kickoff episode of Season 6, which will air at 8:00pm ET. If you’re at a pricey Italian restaurant with your valentine and miss the premiere, encore episodes can be seen at 11:00pm ET and 2:00am ET on Sunday nights. The eight episodes leading up to the Season 6 premiere are some of the most memorable in “High Stakes Poker” history.
When Season 6 debuts, viewers will only hear Gabe Kaplan call the action on “High Stakes Poker.” His partner in crime for five seasons, A.J. Benza, will not return for the show’s sixth cycle after a messy divorce from GSN. Instead, seasoned tournament reporter Kara Scott will assume reporting duties from the floor of the “High Stakes Poker” suite. In 2009, Scott became only the second woman in history to cash in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in back-to-back years. She recently moved to California and is a sponsored pro of the popular online poker site PartyPoker.
An impressive lineup will take to the “High Stakes Poker” felts this season. Those who can be seen when the sixth installment of the show unfolds on GSN include Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Andreas Hoivold, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, and Lex Veldhuis.
Neither Hellmuth nor Ivey appeared on the fifth season of “High Stakes Poker;” both will add a considerable level of interest to the show in 2010. Ivey only took to the felts as part of Season 3, while Hellmuth last appeared during Season 4. “High Stakes Poker” was filmed at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas in November for the second consecutive season. Just a few days prior, Ivey finished seventh in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, earning $1.4 million.
“High Stakes Poker” Season 6 has a $200,000 minimum buy-in. Past installments have featured a bevy of heavy hitters including L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Johnny Chan, Sammy Farha, Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer, Daniel Alaei, and Bodog pro David Williams. Last season featured the largest single pot awarded in “High Stakes Poker” history, with Dwan and Greenstein pushing their money into the center of the table after the flop came 2-4-Q with two spades. Greenstein held pocket aces for an overpair, while Dwan held K-Q of spades for top pair and a flush draw. The turn was another queen and the river blanked out for Greenstein, shipping the $919,000 pot to Dwan.
This time around, Dwan takes to the felts as a card-carrying member of Team Full Tilt. Dwan signed with the world’s second largest online poker site one week before filming began. The first season of “High Stakes Poker” aired in January 2006 and has become an industry staple. Among those who have made waves is Greenstein, who is set to udder the three most feared words in all of poker during Season 6 in the name of charity: “bing, blang blaow.” Previous catch phrases for Greenstein have included “Math is Idiotic” and “LOL donkaments.”
Catch the I Love Poker “High Stakes Poker” marathon beginning at Noon ET on Sunday, February 14th on GSN.