Highest Stakes Yet �C 'High Stakes Poker' Announces Lineup, Filming Plans
"High Stakes Poker," the smash-hit poker game show on the Game Show Network, has just announced the lineup for the show's upcoming fifth season. The upcoming Season Five will be filmed at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, the same location as the original season. Among those slated to return are show veterans Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, and Daniel Negreanu, all of which have participated in every season thus far.
The list includes a few new players to "High Stakes Poker" as well, including Nick Cassavetes (director of The Notebook), Peter Eastgate (2008 WSOP Main Event Champion), Dario Minieri, and Sam Simon ("The Simpsons" co-creator). Also new this season is the minimum buy-in for the event, $200,000, doubling last year's buy-in of $100,000. Though the minimum may be $200,000, buy-ins to the event can be much more than that, with previous seasons seeing buy-ins of up to $500,000, which brought about the occasional $1,000,000 pot. With this season's increased minimum buy-in, hefty pots are sure to be plentiful.
High Stakes Poker is played with a few variations from the typical casino poker game. Variations from previous seasons include straddling, double straddling, a 2-7 rule (in which a player winning a hand holding 2-7 collects $500 from every player), and running the board more than once for all-in players. Along with these differences, players are allowed to make prop bets on the side as well.
Filming takes place Friday, December 19th through Sunday, December 21st, from 12:30pm-9:30pm each day. The set is closed to the public. The players scheduled to appear include Patrik Antonius, Mike Baxter, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Nick Cassavetes, Ivan Demidov, Tom Dwan, Peter Eastgate, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Phil Ivey, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Giorgio Medici, Dario Minieri, Daniel Negreanu, Ilari Sahamies, Bob Safai, and Sam Simon.
