I stopped watching around episode 3 and I just dipped into this thread to see if I'm missing anything.

HSP is the metaphorical Krusty Hamburglar in the following clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAZ8xwXE5UY

I liked this exchange:

Laak: Can we make the game smaller?
Barry: If you aren't going to play a hand, wouldn't you rather watch a bigger game?

Norm was funny again this episode (2nd ep str8) but the poker was boring and overall the show was not entertaining.

There are no words for this season. I'd tune in to hear Gabe's jokes about the old timers at this point.

norm mcdonald sucks so hard i'm bleeding from my ****ing ears.

we definitely need gabe back.

This this this.

This show is all about entertainment... and this season has largely failed to deliver on that.

I fear that the next step will be that the show is canceled after this season due to poor ratings.

Thats true, they turner very enternaining show into zzz-fest. I mean, when you remember the good old times with Hansen, DN, PA, PI, Farha, JG, Durrr, etc. and then you watch this. It is disgrace to HSP.

Gus appeared in about 1 episode lol, maybe 2 at most. Although I do miss those old seasons of HSP and think first 5 were the best. I saw some of the old HSP on TV the other night and really missed it.

Gus played in season 2 (3 ep) and season 6 (5 ep) where he delivered some of the best lines ever on HSP, sadly most got bleeped out...

Hansen: season 2 and 6
DN: every season, also this season (but we still haven't seen him)
PA: season 3-6
Farha: season 1-4
Jaime Gold: season 3-4
Durrr: season 5-6

Of course it's a shame FT pulled its players but you can't really blame GSN or PS for that. They still feature familiar faces like Doyle (season 1-7) Barry Greenstein (season 1-7), Esfandiari (season 1-7) and Laak (season 2-7). the amateurs are also some of the best in a long time. Personally I think the play had mean better with 2 instead of 3 amateurs but it certainly makes the games more juice for the pros and make the pots bigger.

They're featuring the current WSOP champ (Duhamel) like they used to with Gold and Eastgate. They've got some pretty well known cash players in Viffer and Galfond. The brought back "old" pros like Chan and Haralabos. Unfortunatly for HSP Bloom is too young and interesting PS-names like Elky and Lex didn't participate (wasn't invited/declined?).

There aren't that many known names that could be invited that are missing (Hellmuth and Tony G springs to mind), but we don't actually know who got invited but declined/couldn't make it.

By hastely calling DN in for the last sessions it seems they knew their lineup was growing too weak, but it's difficult to know what could have been done. It's partly lineup difficulties that give pros like Robl tv-time. Robl is willing to put up the money and show up on short notice. I know people hate him and critise him for boring/slow play, but he does know what a cash game is, can afford to play and I think he's actually growing into a nice "villain" on tv.

The line-up simply is balanced horribly.
If the mix between LAGs and amateurs is not good, it simply doesn't make good TV.

They're all too nice. Moments like when the players paid Matusow to stay or table talk about stupid bets make good TV. Superficial conversations about nothing on the other hand really doesn't.

Maybe a player like Dario or Lex could spice things up, but so far almost nobody tried to really outplay another player (apart from viffer who got snapped or ruffined).
On the Big Game they had players like Reynolds or Seifer who made great TV.
Players like this are totally missing from this season.

The Partypoker Poker Den Cash Game (or whatever they call it now) was way superior to this season of HSP because there's way more action.

For this line-up maybe they should decrease the blinds slightly to create more action since most pokerstars players are not really rolled for this one. The ones that can afford it can always buyin deeper, no harm done.

I don't know about the bets. Esfandiari doing push ups on HSP was one of the worst HSP moments ever. I can only hope that something like that isn't repeated & I don't really care to hear about this lodden thinks crap.

Which season/episode is this?

Cheers

Until this season I thought the participation of Antonio, Laak and Cassavettes was the worst ever. At least they had PA, DN and Hachem there to keep poker in the mix. The push-ups were like watching your kid brother and his stupid friends try to figure out how to have fun when they're left alone with booze. And the 'Lodden Thinks' stuff may have just been the most boring conversations in the history of television. If they had wasted any more time betting on insipid cr@p like 'what would P Hellmuth say is the age Durr lost his virginity?' I think I woulda puked.

I'm pretty sure that's what they were getting at when Gabe said that prop bets were no longer allowed.

I've watched every single episode of HSP and this is by far the worst. Hands are mostly boring. When you are playing against fish, aren't you suppose to see a lot of flops vs fish IP? You see a lot of flops with fish IP, make better decisions than they do, profit. Bring back players who are willing to mix it up with amateurs.

Honestly you just need one person to kind of run over the table (via godmode or not) to keep me entertained. I was expecting Viffer or Barry to be that guy but kind of amusing it ended up being Ruffin.

This session looks like it probably won't have that dynamic so it'll probably be meh. Definitely looking forward to seeing Galfond though, hopefully he can continue his streak of no longer looking really bad on TV poker.

Level? lol tell ya what ill take Antonio and Laak(goofballs that they are) and you take DN and Hachem in a deep stacked cash game and see who wins...ready? gogogogogogogo

Please take them, take them far away where they won't bore me to death.

i cant believe anyone is complaining about the show, even if you dont like the people playing, its still fun to watch the high stakes action, its 400/800 with 200 ante, their blinds and/or antes are more than what 99% of people buy into a poker game with, the rediculousness of the stakes on this show is what makes this an awesome show, anyone who complains is just spoiled

Dude the stakes are not the biggest deal here. They could be playing 1million-2million and the play could still be boring.

this ^_^ most of these hands are standard at any stake.
lineup has been so boring.

Booooorrrrring. Please bring back some interesting players.

I was mistaken, this is now the dumbest thing I have ever read. GTFO

Bill Perkins is at least splashing around and chatting with players. I can't imagine what reaction this lineup would get if you replaced Perkins with Todd Brunson.