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Dave Woods watches the latest episode of his favourite TV show. But is it poker or soap opera?

I've just been watching the latest episode of High Stakes Poker. If you've watched the show before you can skip down to the next paragraph because I'll be preaching to the converted. If not, all you need to know is that it's, by far, the best poker programme on TV. (It's also, by far, the best poker programme that's still not being shown on UK TV, but that's another story. In the meantime, you've got www.pokertube.com.)

But something funny's been happening over recent weeks. Instead of playing for the minimum $100,000 buy-in, or anything above, the past four episodes have played under a minimum $500,000 buy-in, which means there's been $5,000,000 on the table at any one time to play for. And, unlike the Big Game, there's no cap in place, which means you can lose your entire stack in one hand. Sounds great doesn't it? And there have been some uber-mega-pots thrown up, ranging from $750,000 up to a truly staggering and record-breaking $1,250,000

Sounds like great TV doesn't it? And it is, but not necessarily for the reasons you'd think. You see the table's made up with a selection of the biggest and best poker players in the world. Brunson, Antonius, Esfandiari, Negreanu, Farha, Greenstein, Gold and Benyamine. And then there's Guy Laliberte, the billionaire founder of Cirque de Soleil and, as Brunson says, 'the only player that can really afford to play this game.'

And therein lies the rub. For the first time, players of this calibre have been taken out of their comfort zones, and it doesn't make them look particularly good. So far we've had Jamie Gold almost pleading with Farha not to bet any more money; Farha losing the plot and not betting in a pot where he was obviously ahead; Esfandiari nitting up spectacularly; and a truly amazing pot between Laliberte and Benyamine which surely begs the statement, 'if you can't afford to lose, you really shouldn't be playing the game.'

It's truly fascinating stuff but not for the cards - there's far more action in the standard HSP shows. Instead, it's an insight into a game populated by egos, where the stakes are so high that no-one wants to blink, yet no-one's prepared to back down. Some people are playing with scared money, some seem truly bemused by the whole thing, others are obviously playing it like a hit-and-run and Guy Laliberte who is only there 'for fun'. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing one of the highlights of the year.

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