I have to admit up front that I’m not much of a fan of poker on TV –I have a hard time understanding why people want to watch others gamble instead of doing it themselves, which probably makes me a somewhat of a Degen—but all-in-all this season of High Stakes Poker has been a clunker from the word go.
Obviously the lack of Full Tilt Poker’s Team Pro members like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Tom Dwan have a lot to do with the deterioration of the High Stakes Poker finished product, especially when you consider the biggest stories that come out of the show tend to have little to do with actual hands and more to do with crazy prop bets and challenge matches –If you think back, the durrrr Challenge was first announced on High Stakes Poker, and the $1 million Phil Ivey Vegan bet was also finalized on HSP.
But I think the bigger issue for the show in Season 7 is the lack of personality at the poker table, as well as the addition of not one or two amateur players, but a whole assortment of them. Thus far we have seen the more stoic Doyle Brunson, Vanessa Selbst, Barry Greenstein, and Andrew Robl; along with the slightly more colorful David “Viffer” Peat and Antonio Esfandiari representing poker players, and businessmen Robert Croak, Phil Ruffin and Bill Klein. Even more troublesome is that aside from Viffer, none of the participants are particularly “fancy” in their style of play and the play has been fairly ABC to this point.
Season 7 is still awaiting the appearances of Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Phil Galfond, Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Duhamel, Jason Mercier and Phil Laak – a significantly better televised roster, but they will also be joined by a few more non-poker players, as only three of the seven “Whales” scheduled to be on the show have sat at the table thus far.
The final obstacle may have something to do with the current lineup, but the show is still waiting for the big pots, which up to this point simply haven’t come. So far only one pot has exceeded $500k, and most of the “big” pots are in the $100k-$200k range. Obviously HSP cannot create action, but with a lineup of Vanessa Selbst, Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari and some wealthy businessmen it’s unlikely you’re going to see a pre-flop 5-bet with 94s! Realistically I don’t think anyone on the Season 7 roster outside of Viffer has that play in them –where in the past you have the likes of durrrr, Ivey, et al. who would be willing to pull that trigger.
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Written by Steve Ruddock on March 21st, 2011