The registration-only TVWeek's got an article about a new GSN poker show called "High Stakes Poker." No date yet, but a fair use quote from the article:
"No one else has done cash-game poker on television," said GSN President and CEO Rich Cronin. "The difference between tournament poker-even the World Series of Poker, with a $10,000 buy-in-and a cash game where a player can lose several hundred thousand dollars of their own money will be dynamic." The new show, called "High Stakes Poker," will feature professional poker players competing against wealthy amateurs in cash games with a $100,000 buy-in.
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GSN hopes "High Stakes Poker" will represent the next generation of poker programming. The cash-game concept is based on "the big game," an ongoing, private West Coast-based game in which high-rolling businessmen are typically fleeced of their funds by experienced pros. GSN has lined up pro players such as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson to compete against the likes of NBA Lakers owner Jerry Buss and Landry's restaurant chain owner Tilman Fertitta.
"You can't normally get into this game unless you have a lot of money and you can't normally watch it since it's held in private rooms," said GSN programming head Ian Valentine, who ordered 13 episodes of the series. "They're playing with their own money and lots of it. This is real poker, and we will also capture the rarified milieu in which the high rollers live and play."
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The article mentions that the poker genre is generally hurting in the ratings, with the exception of "Celebrity Poker Showdown" (and that includes GSN's "Poker Royale"). "World Poker Tour"'s Steven Lipscomb says that the genre is maturing and that those that got there first (his show, of course, "World Series of Poker" and "Celeb Poker Showdown") are the ones that are going to stick around. GSN, of course, begs to differ--they hope.
