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Norm McDonald New Host of High Stakes Poker, No Full Tilt Pros, Airing in 3-D
- Kevin Mathers | February 7, 2011
The announcement of the seventh season of High Stakes Poker, presented by PokerStars, brought a series of changes to the show. Comedian Norm McDonald has replaced Gabe Kaplan for the upcoming season, debuting February 26th at 8pm on GSN. The former “Weekend Update” host on Saturday Night Live has also appeared in the films “Dirty Work”, “Grown Ups” and was also the start of his own TV series, “Norm”. The comedian has played in several World Series of Poker events, along with taking part on Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown. Kara Scott returns for a second season as co-host.
The list of players participating were also announced, and this year no members of Team Full Tilt will appear on the show. That means no Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius or Mike Matusow. Here’s the list of poker professionals who will appear on the show:
Johnathan Duhamel
Daniel Negreanu
Barry Greenstein
Antonio Esfandiari
Phil Laak
Andrew Robl
Doyle Brunson
Johnny Chan
Phil Galfond
Jason Mercier
Vanessa Selbst
Haralabos Voulgaris
David “Viffer” Peat
Several amateur players will also try their hand at some cash game poker. Mike Baxter makes his return to the show. Six players make their High Stakes Poker debut:
Mike Baxter – Hedge fund manager
Eric Boneta – Rolex watch dealer and wholesaler
Robert Croak – Creator of SillyBandz
Bill Klein – Retired businessman/philanthropist
Julian Movsesian – Life insurance executive
Phil Ruffin – Owner of the Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas
Bill Perkins – President of private equity and venture capitalist fund
The high-stakes cash game taped at the Bellagio for the first time features a minimum buy-in of $200,000 with a maximum of $500,000 with $400/$800 blinds and a $100 ante.
For DirecTV viewers, High Stakes Poker will provide a place to watch in 3-D on their n3D channel, powered by Panasonic.
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Why the restriction of Full Tilt players? It would make sense if you restricted ALL OTHER website pros, not just Full Tilt pros. By doing this, you’ve gotten rid of some of the most exciting cash game players from your t.v. roster. I won’t be watching this year – your line up is extremely boring. Not to mention Norm McDonald is irritating.
I agree with Danny…probably won’t watch
Danny —– FTP is the one restricting, not HSP (appaently FTP won’t allow their pros to participate in anything sponsored by PS).
Liars!! You will watch and you will enjoy it like any other season of High Stakes Poker. You are just overracting to a story.
I didn’t like last year’s color commentary – I don’t think Karla brought anything interesting at all to the table, and having Gabe have no foil to bounce off of was boring.
Not sure Norm will be able to do any better…
what the hell….so disapointing, the best part of the show is tom dwan and he wont even be involved? Norm Macdonald over Gabe??? Really??? Reminds me of the disaster Monday Night Football tried a few years back.
Poker Stars players do not play in the TV special events Full Tilt arranges, like the one in Lithuania being played right now. Why would one company help promote the other? Just good business sense.
So only the players that are most fun to watch are going to be missing? And all of the fun fish aren’t going to be there either? oh and no Gabe….as well as no A.J. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. The only saving grace is laak and esfandiari…they are entertaining. And God bless doyle and chan, but they don’t talk much. And when was the last time Negreanu won anything?? He gets beat by amateurs on tv one on one all the time.
Dave,
There is a big difference in “TV special events” and shows one site “sponsors”, i.e., is the lead advertiser. PS players play on PAD (Poker After Dark) even though it is sponsored by FT. No…. FT is playing the little bi*ch with HSP.
It’s too bad about FT Pros. I think Howard Lederer is the one responsible. He has a huge issue with the “face” of PokerStars, Daniel Negreanu.
FT is shooting themselves. The few new promos they offer, suck. They are restricting their players by not allowing them to play in the best TV poker events (The Big Game and HSP) and they don’t come up with any of their own TV events. I mean, come on, Poker After Dark needs a face-lift big time.
I think PokerStars is making a mistake by choosing Norm McDonald as a host. He is pretty annoying. Gabe had his annoying moments but was a good host overall.
ok its bad enough that Dwan can’t play. I love Norm Mcdonald but Gabe Kaplan is hands down the best host I’ve ever watched. He’s entertaining and makes insightful and frankly, educational, commentary. I don’t really care how much poker Norm plays, but I’ll bet 10:1 he knows nothing next to Gabe.
At least he’ll be less annoying than Ali Nejad.
What happens when you take the air out of a room? No fire!
This show is dead! First AJ, then Gabe, now no Ivey, durr ,or elezra. Why not just scrape the show,the format,norm, Kara and the producers of the show.
You can’t ride a dead horse.
“I was stunned by it,” MacDonald said, explaining his trepidation for filling Kaplan’s shoes. “‘High Stakes Poker’ is my favorite poker show, so I was shocked that Gabe Kaplan wasn’t coming back. I thought he was the best announcer by far. I was a little reluctant to do it because I didn’t know if I’d be as good as him, so that was a little daunting.”
You said it all for us Norm.
There may be a lot of suck-outs on Poker Stars, but the GSN is drawing dead after this. Too bad, it was my favorite poker show on TV.
Down hill, and no , I will not watch. One show was enough!
NORM IS NOT GABE AND THAT IS A DOWN THING FOR THE SHOW. I COULD NOT WATCH IT, SHUT IT OFF. LOL
cannot follow Mcdonald’s prattle…..he uses players first names and they are ID’d on screen with their last name.
There is too much unnecessary talking by the host and the players not in the action.
The whole thing is a MESS