Why High Stakes Poker won’t end up like WPT - Poker Pages interviews HSP staff
Related Articles
Remember when you used to like watching the WPT? Remember when you could actually tell the difference between shows and seasons? Ever find yourself watching High Stakes Poker and wondering how they could avoid a similar fate?
The top staff at HSP sat down with Poker Pages for an interview and answered some of those questions regarding the future of the show, how they keep it fresh, and what’s in store for the upcoming seasons. Highlight: if you didn’t already know, the last 7 episodes of this season feature a $500,000 minimum buy in.
On amateurs in the game:
“We always have an overflow of players,” says Henry Orenstein, Executive Producer and inventor of the revolutionary in-table hole card camera. “We try to pick just enough to have tremendous conversation, and so far we have been able to get a great mix. This season, in the last seven hours you’ll see two billionaires play. Strangely enough, they played very well. People didn’t expect it. Guy Laliberté, who owns Cirque du Soleil, is a good example. He actually turned out to be a very good player.”
“We like to ask the players who they like to play with on the circuit and in the no-limit hold’em games,” says Eskandani. “The amateurs that love the game and show up two or three times during the year to play with the pros, those are the amateurs we’re interested in. They know the pros, and they’re not too shy to speak up either verbally or financially during the games.”
On how Chris Ferguson is so boring on screen he seems to stop time:
“Chris is Chris,” commented Eskandani. “That’s always going to attract viewers. Does he talk much? No. But if we made players go out of their character, it would look phony. What Chris does, that makes it. What Sammy Farha and Daniel Negreanu do is natural. I don’t think that they’re putting on an act. That’s just who they are.”
