Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 11 March 2011 / 1 Comments

The new season of High Stakes Poker, the popular cash-game show appearing on Saturday nights on the Game Show Network in the U.S., is underway with the first two episodes having aired thus far. Already the new season has drawn a lot of attention and comment from poker fans, many of whom have long considered HSP a favorite poker show among the many currently on offer.

While the show's basic format -- a full-ring cash game of no-limit hold'em with big buy-ins and blinds -- has remained the same, changes in hosts as well as in the line-up of players have altered the program somewhat from what viewers had grown accustomed to since the show's 2006 debut. And for some, those changes have not been well received. (See, for instance, comments to Matthew Pitt's post about the new season from last month.)

While I'd agree with the general sentiment that the show isn't as scintillatingly great as it has been in the past, I wouldn't say it is as bad as some have made it out to be. In fact, I've found these first couple of episodes quite interesting, primarily because of some of the hands played between the established pros and the less tutored amateur players.

HSP had established a winning formula, to be sure, and thus unfavorable reactions to changes in that formula aren't too surprising to hear. Most notably, after six seasons as host, Gabe Kaplan, the comedian and actor who himself has been a high-stakes poker player since the 1970s, is no longer at the microphone, having been replaced by another comedian and actor, Norm MacDonald.

MacDonald does have some experience with the game, although hasn't the background and knowledge Kaplan does, perhaps limiting him somewhat when it comes to hand analysis. And while the former Saturday Night Live cast member has managed to fire off a few funny lines during the first couple of shows, there, too, MacDonald not quite matched his predecessor according to many commentators. Meanwhile, Kara Scott (interviewed here) returns for her second season on HSP, again contributing short voice-over intros and outros and interview segments with players.

Perhaps even more importantly, the line-up of players has changed as well, with Full Tilt Poker deciding this year to keep its affiliated players off of the PokerStars-sponsored show. In other words, popular players like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius are no longer present, their seats having been filled during these first few episodes of Season 7 by three wealthy amateur players.

One consequence of that latter change has been a decline of sorts in the overall level of skill being exhibited on the show, with the amateurs having already managed to make several not-so-stellar plays in the less than 30 hands shown thus far. The pros, too, have occasionally found it challenging to deal with the amateurs' play, having made a couple of missteps themselves as a result. More than anything, this difference (especially from the most recent couple of seasons) seems to have bothered most fans of HSP.

The line-up has been the same for both of the first two episodes. The five pros gathered around the private table at the Bellagio include Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, David "Viffer" Peat, and Vanessa Selbst. They have been joined by the three amateurs, Robert Croak, Bill Klein, and Phil Ruffin.

"So it's the pros against the zillionaires," is how MacDonald introduced the first episode, alluding to the fact that none of the three businessmen would necessarily be bothered that much by the six-figure pots that were potentially to occur. Indeed, both Ruffin and Klein bought into the $400/$800 NLH game for $500,000, while the other six each began with $200,000.

(For those still waiting to watch the shows -- available online at the GSN site -- some spoilers follow.)

As I say, while I don't disagree that the show hasn't matched previous seasons, many of the hands thus far have been intriguing to watch.

The first episode featured an inordinate amount of action, with no less than four all-ins in the first six hands shown. One of those saw Ruffin stack Selbst in a hand in which the former made a set of treys against Selbst overpair of queens and they managed to get it all in on the flop. Talking with Kara Scott about the hand afterwards, Selbst admitted that table talk with the businessman had caused her to push all in on the flop despite Ruffin's very strong-appearing flop play.

Four players were in the hand when the flop came nine-high. Esfandiari, having made a pair of nines, led into the field with a bet and Ruffin just called. Brunson folded, then Selbst raised. Before Esfandiari can act, Ruffin suddenly announced he was raising. The table laughed in response, with a smiling Esfandiari saying "that's okay" regarding Ruffin's having acted out of turn. Truth be told, the amateur's jumping the gun made it a lot easier for Esfandiari to release his top pair.

The limp-reraise having finally been made, Selbst then asked Ruffin how he liked his hand. "It's okay," he said, and after some more thought Selbst said she was all in. Ruffin quickly called, and when asked about running it twice he declined, MacDonald commenting only half-jokingly that it was possible Ruffin didn't even know what running it twice meant. His set of treys held up and he won the large pot.

All three of the amateurs were interesting in different ways. Of the group, Klein lost the most by far, and though he didn't necessarily play his hands perfectly, he was the victim of a run of poor luck on the two episodes, including being dealt A-A, K-K, and Q-Q and losing all three hands.

Klein occasionally was outplayed, too, such as in one hand in which Greenstein cleverly check-raised him on the river in a spot where Klein had top pair (the best hand) but couldn't call in the face of a possible flush or other better hand. Croak, meanwhile, was shown repeatedly folding better hands to others' bets, sometimes reasonably, sometimes not.

Of the trio, though, Ruffin was the most curious to watch. An actual billionaire (he's among the Forbes 400 list of the richest persons in the world), Ruffin constantly overbet post-flop -- often more than twice the size of the pot -- which after showing that set of treys early on appeared to put his opponents on their heels. For example, in one hand near the end of the first show, Ruffin held As-Kc versus Brunson's Qs-Qd when the flop came 7c-3d-4s, and when Ruffin bet 2.5 times the pot Brunson hastily let his queens go.

The second episode found Ruffin involved in the most interesting hand so far on Season 7, one against David Peat that vividly illustrated the unique dynamic being demonstrated by this group of players of wildly varying skill.

Dealt Kc-3c in middle position, Ruffin limped in for $800 (an obviously amateurish move), then Peat raised to $3,500 from the cutoff with 9c-2c (something we might expect of a pro). The remaining players folded and Ruffin called without much hesitation.

The flop came Ks-Ah-8d. Again, without pausing at all, Ruffin bet $5,000 with his second pair of kings. Peat quickly tossed out a call. "Obviously he has larceny in mind," was MacDonald's comment. The pot was now $19,000.

The turn brought the 4h, and again acting quickly, Ruffin bet $20,000. Peat stacked some chips and raised to $50,000, and appeared slightly taken aback when Ruffin immediately called. Pot suddenly up to $119,000.

The river brought the Qh, completing a possible flush draw while putting a third Broadway card on the board. Ruffin checked, and Peat set out more chips as well as a brick of bills. "How much you have there?" asked Ruffin in response, pointing at the bet. It's $100,000, he was told.

"Call," Ruffin said. Just like that.

Peat's face suddenly drooped in response. He sunk his head, checked his cards, and said "You got it" as he flipped over his hand. Meanwhile Ruffin continued to count out his chips to call, seemingly unaware of anything else. Finally finished he looked up, glanced at the table on which sat Viffer's upturned cards, and (needlessly) turned his hand over as if he hadn't seen anything at all.

"Kings," he said. Again, just like that.

"Wow! What a call!" said Esfandiari. Peat's look on seeing the kings was highly entertaining to see, his mouth hanging open, seemingly exhaling as if he'd just been gut-punched. Clearly he expected Ruffin to turn over something more substantial than second pair.

"You don't bluff people with more money than you," Greenstein cracked. And in Ruffin's discussion of the hand with Kara Scott afterwards, that appears to have been the key factor in the hand -- not what Peat might have had card-wise, but what Ruffin had chip-wise (and in the bank, too). Having $600K, he says (actually more like $700K), it was an "easy call... not a problem."

It looks as though new players will begin to be rotated into the show starting this weekend. And while some may be ready to move from HSP to other shows like Poker After Dark or The Big Game, I for one will continue to order what remains (for me) an interesting item on the poker television menu.

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Comments (1)

1. GuiFromFrance | 23 March 2011

   Nice analysis.
   Ruffin is like a noob on a $100 game.
   Don't bluff noobs...

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