If you haven’t seen GSN’s High Stakes Poker you quite simply haven’t lived (in poker terms anyway). The cast list across the various seasons of the show reads like a who’s who of the poker world, with the likes of Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Phil Laak, Jennifer Harman and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson getting involved in some monster pots running into the hundreds of thousands. There are five previous seasons of High Stakes Poker that you can catch up with at www.pokertube.com, but many poker fans, myself included, have been waiting with bated breath for the arrival of series six (now with added Kara Scott flavour).
If you like poker (and you do), you will love High Stakes Poker. The commentary from Gabe Kaplan and (formerly) AJ Benza makes the shows accessible to players of all levels but, beyond the poker, it’s the fantastic banter between players that really makes the show work. Here are a few clips showing some of our favourite moments from all five previous seasons.
Freddy Deeb goes south
When the diminutive Freddy Deeb is accused of going south he loses plot. Going south is the illegal practice of removing chips from the table so as to protect yourself from losing as many chips in big pots or to help yourself book a win. Deeb feels the comments are a slight on his integrity and he blows up in spectacular fashion.
Mike Matusow loses his shades
Mike Matusow and Sean Sheikhan are both fiery characters who have been known to stick their oar in from time to time, yet this time their childish side comes through without too many fireworks.
Phil Hellmuth rants (yet again!)
The self-proclaimed best player in the world, Phil Hellmuth is a regular on High Stakes Poker and has lost a lot of money – and his cool – in most of his appearances. There’s a great moment when Hellmuth insta-calls with the worst hand against Barry Greenstein thinking that he’s ahead, but a personal favourite has to be when Daniel Negreanu flops top two pair against the Poker Brat and gets three streets of value from him. The momentary pause before his rant is priceless.
Big boys
Of course, the main attraction of the TV show isn’t the messing about but the monster pots that have played out over the last couple of years. Let’s take a look at some of those.
Farha and Greenstein
In perhaps the most viewed poker hand in the history of High Stakes, Barry Greenstein and Sammy Farha get embroiled in a classic Aces versus Kings mash-up. It’s a terrible situation for Sammy Farha, who knows his loose image is sometimes going to induce more action than others. With that in mind (and, of course, the fact that he’s got Kings) Farha gets it all-in, but it’s Greenstein who’s left taking one in the eye when the flop brings a third King worth $361,800.
Brunson and Laliberté
Poker legend Doyle Brunson shows he’s still got what it takes to bust up the high stakes tables when he wins an $818,100 pot, calling all-in with top pair and the nut flush draw with Ad-Td against Guy Laliberté’s top pair and gutshot with Ah-5h. Brunson’s cool demeanour makes him look like he’s playing a pot for $80 rather than a whopping $800,000.
Negreanu and Hansen
Battling the Greenstein and Farha hand for most watched clip is the Daniel Negreanu cooler where he runs a full house into Gus Hansen’s quads. It initially starts as a cooler for the Great Dane, when he flops set under set to Kid Poker. Negreanu manages to get it all-in for $575,700 but makes the call halfway suspecting he’s behind when he’s check-raised all-in – even if it is to the hyper-aggressive Hansen.