The taping of Season 7 of the popular High Stakes Poker has just finished at the Bellagio. The official list of players has not been released by GSN but names have been revealed mainly thanks to Twitter. They include Doyle Brunson, Phil Laak, Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Galfond, Jason Mercier, and Andrew Robl.
The filming took place over a three day span and not all the pros played all three days, so you will see alternate pros playing part of the tournament. Doyle Brunson played on two days out of three.
Canada is well represented by WSOP Champion Jonathan Duhamel and Haralabos Voulgaris, an accomplished pro from Winnipeg, Manitoba with over $1.7 million in career winnings. Daniel Negreanu who was expected to miss the whole thing because of a commercial shoot, actually made it on day three. Daniel has been a staple of the show featuring in every season so far and famously being the unluckiest player ever on High Stakes Poker.
None of the Full Tilt Pros, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan and company played so the tournament may feel a bit different this season.
Greenstein, a PokerStars pro, explained the dilemma on a forum post: “Full Tilt has two major concerns. First is they don’t like their players playing when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show… Secondly, they were unhappy that PokerStars bought the HSP archives. In the early seasons of HSP, the players didn’t wear logos, so FTP is concerned that viewers will be able to go to PokerStars.tv and see the FTP players without logos and be confused by their affiliation.”
The popular cash poker show has shifted location from the Downtown Las Vegas Golden Nugget to the Bellagio on The Strip as a result of a production decision since season 6. Actor turned poker pro Gabe Caplan (Welcome Back, Kotter) and Party Poker pro Kara Scott originally from Calgary continue to host the show.
High Stakes Poker season 7 is slated to air at its regular Sunday night slot on GSN in February, 2011.
