GSN’s High Stakes Poker In PokerStars/Full Tilt Wrangle

Popular TV show ‘High Stakes Poker’ may leave their viewers feeling a little bit underwhelmed in the upcoming season, if the host of pros usually associated with the show are not allowed to participate.
At the heart of the wrangle is the fact that PokerStars has recently acquired the sponsorship rights for the new season, much to the annoyance of Full Tilt Poker.
Apparently, Full Tilt feel that their impressive roster of pros was being leveraged unfairly by PokerStars through the poker show and so may refuse to allow such players as Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Mike Matusow et al to join the action.
Summing up Full Tilt’s concerns, Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein commented:
“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.”
GSN’s High Stakes Poker used to be the most popular of all the live cash poker shows but changes to its format in series 6, including replacing AJ Benza with Kara Scott, got a few fans worked up over the flatter feeling to the show. High Stakes Poker has also had to contend with increased competition from such shows as FTP’s Poker After Dark and PokerStars Big Game.
Filming of GSN’s High Stakes Poker is due to start on December 15th, with an official from GSN stating recently: “I currently don’t have a firm lineup of players yet for this season, but rest assured that we’ll have another great cast of world-class players this year!”
One thing for sure is that PokerStars will need to announce some top attractions soon to picque the interest of fans. Team PokerStars boasts such players as Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Barry Greenstein, and Vanessa Selbst but doesn’t have quite the cash playing pedigree as Full Tilt.
This might, however, be PokerStars opportunity to bring out the big gun and release their latest signing Isildur1 onto the show. That would be sure to grab the attention of poker fans everywhere.