Just watching a little WPT on GSN (for the first time in forever?) and saw the promo spot for an upcoming poker schedule change: World Poker Tour and High Stakes Poker blocked together, Sunday eves, 7pm/6 central.

Hmm. Seems like a smart move — grab all the poker dorks viewers at once, on a day where they’re likely camped out in front of a TV somewhere … and if they happen not to really care about the Sunday night NFL game … golden.

Only semi-related, was previously watching some election coverage and can’t help but wonder if the best of what McCain/Palin are offering is simply a matter of too-little-too-late.

HSP was gone, and then back again, and then not really at all … but now Bluff Europe is reporting that GSN has picked up the option for a fifth season of High Stakes Poker. Apparently GSN just had to get rid of the WPT before they could renew? That seems plausible enough — that the new brass at GSN may have decided they had room for only one poker show, and they wanted to dance with the ones who brung them. Considering GSN’s extended dealings with the WPT before bidding them adieu, that might make sense with why they left Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza in the dark without letting them go.

Rumors that the new season will include Pot Limit Omaha are just that … rumors … but how cool would that be, though, if they did include that game?

UPDATE: AJ Benza confirms, “I’m back baby! Looks like we’ll start taping in early September. Cant wait.”

Despite previous reports suggesting the possibility of otherwise …

High Stakes Poker is not moving to the Golden Nugget — and it hasn’t yet been renewed for a new season. At least not for now on paper in any way. This comes from a well-informed higher-up involved with Poker PROductions — the company that produces both High Stakes Poker and Poker after Dark.

To be clear, HSP has not been canceled … it just hasn’t been renewed yet. You know, fine line, kinda like “collateral damage”/”mass slaughter”. However, hold your breaths, HSP fans … because supposedly a more official announcement about the show’s renewal or lack thereof is coming, in about a week-and-a-half. From whom — GSN, NBC, HSP, Poker PROductions — we’re not so sure.

Where GSN’s relationship with the World Poker Tour fits into all this also is unclear — but obviously a relevant component.

But for now, Poker after Dark is definitely back on … rumored to have a cash game component, too … and will be moving from South Point Casino to the Golden Nugget. But that’s the least surprising, since this show is really a Full Tilt time-buy/infomercial with no reason to go away.

Related:
Rebuy! High Stakes Poker Back in Action? (6/8/08)
High Stakes Poker Canceled? (5/13/08)

GSN has issued a press release to pimp their Father’s Day programming. There will be an eight-hour marathon consisting of three two-hour World Poker Tour episodes and ending with the world premiere of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Isn’t this the network that has declined to renew High Stakes Poker and the World Poker Tour? Hypocrital is the word that immediately comes to mind. Watch our great poker shows on Father’s Day, and watch the current season of the WPT on our network, but when it’s over, good luck with that poker fad.

I guess GSN has to get the viewers before all of us downgrade our cable packages after the WPT season is over. I know I’ll save about $20 a month by getting rid of that tier of channels, and though I do love me some nostalgic episodes of Match Game, I’ll gladly say goodbye to GSN for their refusal to consider their loyal poker viewers or give an honest answer about why they’re dropping poker from their line-up.

photo: Steve Hall / Pokerfolio

There probably wouldn’t have been a Chris Moneymaker without this guy. The same might be said about a new season of HSP.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day we learned the future of the World Poker Tour. No such luck. However, WSOP stalwart monopodder Steve Hall hears from Eric Drache, who was playing in Day 1 of the $10,000 7-stud World Championship, that High Stakes Poker will be back. The word is that HSP, along with Poker after Dark, will be moving from the South Point Casino back to the Golden Nugget. High Stakes will reportedly begin filming new episodes in August.

No info yet on time-buys or even what network will be airing the show(s) — but all indications point toward NBC. Drache is one of those important poker people who few of us have heard of — his last cash coming in 1991, where he finished 5th in a 7-stud event in Laughlin. But since then he’s gone on to manage all sorts of card rooms — including the Golden Nugget — and most recently has served as a consultant for NBC.

Drache is also the guy credited with creating the concept of tournament satellites and the “must move” table, according to Wikipedia.

UPDATE: It’s possible but not likely we are wrong on this. Less traceable thirdhand sources are saying no way this is happening at the Golden Nugget.

It seems that way. The show that pioneered Poker on TV 2.0 hasn’t filmed a new season for ‘08 — they usually did so in March or April, I believe — and there seem to be no plans to do so any time soon. Reliable sources tell us:

Far as Gabe and I know….the show isnt coming back. Apparently…the network is going to go in a different direction and that aint good news for our show, especially since we skew a higher-aged audiuence. Never mind that we’re the network’s No. 1 show. Still and all, no one calls us from the network to say squat. Only Kevin Bellincoff checks in periodically, but it just don’t seem like good news. If you ask me…they’re treating us like shit. All we ever did was make them a bunch of money.

Wow, so there you have it. I also remember seeing promos for a cool new show where some pros crashed a home game, MTV-style, and covered the action with hole-card cams and presumably rawer HSP-style banter. Was looking forward to it — damn, can’t remember its name — but supposedly that show had inked a two-year deal with GSN. But haven’t seen that show pimped in weeks.

NOTE: GSN seems to have seriously downgraded the High Stakes Poker web presence, too.

Garth Brooks was once described as looking like “a thumb wearing a cowboy hat.” Here Tom can be seen trying to establish himself as the Garth Brooks of Poker.

The latest post about Donkey Bomber’s troubles on the Iberian Peninsula reminded me … he was also on the cover of CardPlayer magazine recently. Perhaps this honor is a curse? Three covers ago, CP featured Brian Townsend — and inside was an interview where he explained how one can go from a small-stakes online player to a monster buy-in new-guy on High Stakes Poker. Of course, at the same time, Townsend, known as SBRugby in the online world, was chronicling on his own blog how he had been in the midst of a multimillion-dollar downswing and was considering giving up poker altogether. Oops!

Click here to read the really good interview with Tom. My favorite line from the first Pokerati blogger ever to grace these pages:

Over time, the one thing I learned is that I’m going to surround myself only with people who make me feel good. It’s amazing if you do that how much more successful you can be in everything.

Is anyone else watching reruns of High Stakes Poker right now? They’ve got some newfangled “Do you want this card?” text thingy where you can text-message in some card you may or may not want to see for an undisclosed charge to your cell phone bill.

So what’s the over/under on how long it stays, and whether or not it will reappear when Season Four begins airing later this month? Like seriously, is GSN’s greed in making a few extra cents off the text-horny worth ruining the best poker show on TV? Apparently so, because they’ve given whateverdafug game they are inviting you to play prime real estate on the screen — it covers up the chips and fingers handling them, and the side-game cards they’ve added are bigger than the real hole cards being shown.

Terrible.

UPDATE: It’s called “High Stakes Poker - Play like a Pro.”

Still annoying.