Poker fans throughout the United States and the internet have been eagerly awaiting the airing of the latest season of High Stakes Poker, with filming due to start today, but there have been some unexpected changes to the show’s lineup which may leave fans feeling disappointed. Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu has confirmed he will not be making an appearance, and it seems that all Full Tilt Pros, including Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, will also be missing from the table due to sponsorship conflicts between the two leading poker sites.
GSN’s High Stakes Poker is probably the world’s favorite poker show, and was the first show ever to be broadcasting a live cash game table rather than some kind of tournament or Sit & Go structure. Famous pros and amateurs alike have turned up for six seasons thus far, putting hundreds of thousands and sometimes even millions of dollars of their own money on the line as they battle it out for glory, profit and fun. The seventh season is being filmed this week, and unlike the previous seasons will be entirely sponsored by online poker giant PokerStars.
Despite the new sponsorship deal, one of the the leading ambassadors of PokerStars, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu will not be sitting around the table for the seventh season. He is one of only five players who have appeared on all six of the previous seasons, but due to other commitments he isn’t able to continue the streak. Earlier this week he updated his twitter to let fans know, explaining “Sad news: at airport headed home which means the trip is over 🙁 have a commercial shoot when I land which means no HSP for me this year.”
He’s not the only famous player who fans will be disappointed to hear isn’t taking part, as Full Tilt Poker have announced that none of their pros will be playing on the show, due to the PokerStars sponsorship. This means that players who can normally be counted on for a great deal of action and excitement, such as Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius will not be playing, nor will Eli Elezra who shares Negreanu’s streak of six seasons of appearances.
Barry Greenstein, who is actually a Team PokerStars Pro, spoke with Team Full Tilt’s Howard Lederer and Mori Eskandani, who produces High Stakes Poker, and confirmed that Bovada Pros would not be present. He says that HSP is still welcoming Full Tilt players with open arms, but that Bovada does not feel comfortable having their players appear when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show, and also that Bovada is “unhappy that PokerStars bought the HSP archives,” as in the first seasons players were not sporting logos, and so it could now incorrectly appear that the Full Tilt affiliated players in those episodes are sponsored by PokerStars.
While it’s clear that everyone involved is making their decisions from the perspective of smart business and, to quote Barry Greenstein once more, “neither Howard nor Mori were placing blame on anyone,” it is still a great pity that the lineup has been altered in this way. Having said that, there are still many great poker pros and amateurs alike who will be happy to appear on High Stakes Poker for anywhere from their first to seventh season. The show, as they say, must go on.