Can High Stakes Poker work in 2020?
Self confessed HSP fanboy Barry Carter shares his hopes and fears for the return of the fan favourite cash game show.
Like everyone else I was excited to discover that High Stakes Poker would be returning to our screens in some capacity. PokerGO have acquired the brand and it looks like they will be producing some new episodes of the iconic high stakes cash game show.
High Stakes Poker is my all time favourite poker show by a country mile, so I wanted to write today about what I hope to see and what I hope they avoid. This is not in my capacity as a poker industry veteran or making any claim to being an expert on poker broadcasting, this is purely as a fanboy of the show.
For me what made the show special was not so much the quality of the poker or the nosebleed stakes, but what happened between hands. The table banter, the prop bets, people waiting to get in the game and stuff we don’t normally see like people loaning each other money. I was just as intrigued watching Doyle tick his sheet of prop bets on every flop or Eli Elezra sniffing a rose (for some reason) as I was the big hands.
A backstage peak
What I loved about High Stakes Poker was that it felt like a genuine backstage peak into what the ‘Big Game’ at Bobby’s Room felt like. In a way I liked it because of the elements that were not slickly produced. I liked to see what the players were like to each other in real life. It felt genuine.
Can PokerGO recapture that? I don’t know. Since the show ended everyone has Twitter and Instagram, every poker player has a brand they want to protect. I suspect this time around the players might censor themselves or portray a character a bit more than they would have the first time around. What was table banter in 2006 could be dissected and turned into outrage bait on Twitter in 2020. It's not that I want the show to be offensive, I simply worry that the players might be too image conscious to let it all out like they used to on the show.
The show has to find that right balance of nostalgia while staying true to modern poker. It can’t just have the Mike Matusows and Barry Greensteins because they don’t really play the biggest games anymore. Likewise it can’t just have the likes of Stephen Chidwick and Lucas Greenwood because that would be a different show too. It needs to be talkative and the players need to give action, that I know for sure (and I hope Mike Matusow gets a game).
Keep the stakes comfortable
This may be controversial but I actually hope they don’t raise the stakes. I almost felt the better games were the lower buy-in games (still $100,000) and the bigger games ($500,000) were too serious. Again, if my assertion is correct that what made the show entertaining was the realism, I’d prefer they keep the stakes comfortable so that the players are relaxed and goofing around.
The show certainly has to be relaxed enough so that the players can do what they want, argue, do prop bets, drink and let whatever happens, happen. Too narrow a focus on the poker itself would be a mistake. Let’s not forget one of the most talked about episodes was when Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan made a seven-figure bet Phil could not go vegetarian for a year. Imposing too much structure on the show would be a mistake.
I do think the show can flirt with other formats this time around, like PLO, Short Deck or even Dealers Choice. Normally I would advise broadcasters to avoid formats new players struggle to follow but the show is going to be on PokerGO. I'd prefer it reach the mass market but given the target audience is now serious poker players, there is no reason why it cannot branch out from No Limit Hold'em.
Bring back Gabe
The show’s success will really depend on who is invited and ideally the returning players would include people like Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Guy Laliberte, Antonio Esfandiari and Doyle Brunson. New players who I’d love to see on the show that would make it interesting would include Tony G, Leon Touskernik, Rob Yong, Bryn Kenney, Jean-Robert Bellande and a few (not too many) of the GTO guys like Stephen Chidwick.
Most of all, I don’t care how you do it, but please get Gabe Kaplan back in the commentary. I know PokeGO have a rock solid commentary team but Gabe really was the icing on the cake for that show.
It seems every movie and TV show has been rebooted in recent years to varying degrees of success. Fanboys like myself will probably never be truly happy when a show like High Stakes Poker returns because the hype never lives up to the idealised image we have built around the original. Having said that, poker broadcasting really needs a ‘fun injection’ and if there was ever a show to do it, it’s this one.
What do you want to see from a returning High Stakes Poker? Let us know in the comments:
