I still like it. I think Nick did good and I'm glad HSP is still around. You could see AJ isn't used to it being so quiet but other than that they seem to be a great fit.

However they have no interesting poker minds on this season. I could care less about players like Tilly, Persson and such. Give me Dwan, Garret, Koon even a tight Ivey. But half of the people in here says the opposite and this is a poker forum so I get that it isn't easy knowing what the audience wants.

Also, now a bit after the fact, it's pretty obvious they wanted to let Gabe have a final honorary goodbye instead of just cutting him during the season break.

We should be calling him "appearance fee Ivey" at this point. Phil hasn't brought anything to TV poker in 5 years. The lineups are fine but you will see a shift once Esfandiari is on the show later on. There are certain players who are good enough socially to lighten the mood up and hes one of the best at it. I don't think this season has been that bad but I remember the same complaints at the start of the new season from HSP 7 and beyond and it takes the rewatching of the whole season to really get an appreciation for it. We were insanely spoiled with seasons 4 5 and 6.

Actually, I know I am in minority, I find AE grating. To me he seems to push way too hard to liven up the game.

But on the AE topic, it seems to me he has been much more back into tv poker recently. Is that impression correct? Any ideas or insight to why that is?

Schulman actually talked this past episode and did adequate job

His first episode was almost like a moment of silence for the departed Gabe.

Another thing that I personally feel “taints” the show is that it’s no longer high stakes compared to the streams running daily

People on HCL Wednesday shows are sitting with $100k, $125k, $200k etc
And Fridays are bigger than anything HSP has been as of late.

Back in the day it was like “Holy Sh-t, they just put in $200K pre…” it was “special”
As others said they actually need more pros, I might be in the minority but who cares about watching a billionaire Uber kid play 200/400 with Perrson 3 business whales like Hanks(?) and Bill Klein types? You need at least a Dwan and Jungle at the table or like a Scott Seiver DNEGS

Poker has changed .. of course. As stated previously in this thread by a few it's very difficult to put together 'TV hands' the way they used to. There just isn't a way for these Players to 'make up' losing 200k on these shows when they head back down the hall to Bobby's Room or equal. Poker is a lot harder than it used to be .. and as stated, there are multiple options for high rolling Players to think about if they want to do a 'live' setting show.

Without Hanks and Persson I'm not sure they could fill the shows with any 'action'. As in last year's showings .. the stars and stacks will get bigger. They didn't even tout 'a new lineup' the way they used to as I see Door Dash Guy took Persson's spot. Rheem was saying he wanted to play a big pot, but you heard them .. buy in for more and play more hands. That's how it works even down in my 1/2 cash games, if you nit it up you get no action (from me) when you do try to enter a pot. I just give them my $6 and 'next hand'.

Once AE got married and started to have kids he just didn't feel the need to play. He also got blitzed when he did and if you're not playing that much I'd lose the taste for it as well if I got pounded each outing. Give a listen to the Nick V show on YouTube and he opens up a little bit. IMO he's to the point now where he wants to get out a bit more and it's great that he can do that at his own pace. They play it up like he's got all the money he needs .. but most folks need 'something' to do to stay active. What's Jason Mercier doing in Florida?

I am surprised that some of the young guys, like Sean Perry, haven't popped up on HSP but it may not be attractive to them. Not sure who it was, but one of the high rollers at PG said at a FT that they just didn't want to go through the long days to get to a FT. Well that sounds like a perfect candidate for HSP .. the problem is that they don't mind putting out 10-30k to win 200, but they DO mind putting out 200k and maybe losing it all.

Are there appearance fees? How much do Players get catered to? HCL says they don't partake in that (other than food/room .. maybe), Ryan just does a great job building games?

As for Nick, I think he's just trying to figure things out and he's definitely going to error on the side of silence. He's been asked plenty about 'young Nick' by Ali and others. Perhaps he thinks he's talking to a different audience?

I would hope that anyone would consider the whole package of PGo .. I'm not going to sub for 'just' HSP. They've come a long way but have they also saturated themselves. When you can get poker 'anytime' then the excitement value will tend to lesson for some folks .. not me .. but some. GL

They've had the Owl the past few episodes

HSP has always been about the personalities rather than the biggest stakes. When you play for too much people nit up. The issue is a lot of the old HSP names aren't good enough anymore and/or don't have enough money to play. The other huge issue is that it was super +EV to play on GSN where you got to be a celebrity even outside the regular poker bubble so even playing over your head might have been worth it. Pokergo ain't making anyone a household name so there isn't as big of a reward if you do play knowing you are a fish in that game.

In general there is barely anything "new" in poker. HSP 1 and 2 we saw a clash of what was the newer generation tournament players back then playing cash against the old guard for the first time. S3 we saw Jamie Gold going broke playing 80% of the hands which drove insane action that won't ever be created again and also the start of the internet players switching to live. S4 was the birth of the 7 2 game, 500k buy in and Sammy Farha's last appearance who was the star of the show up to that point regardless of how well he played. S5 and 6 was all Dwan owning agitated boomers with huge egos and after that the show and poker in general fell off a cliff. After this point the best tourny players were also crushers in cash games so we even lost the dynamic of tourny players getting destroyed by cash pros. Now that I think about it more PokerGo should spend Gabe's money on Farha.

The times have changed and sometimes you just can’t go back to the way it was.

Might be a little thing but going back to the original set with the fancy room, the food, a few hot girls milling around in background probably wouldn’t hurt. And if allowed to put bricks of money on table. Raise stakes if possible

Good post-on the money. Totally agree on Farha. My impression from talking tv poker with loads of players i play with regurarly,is that Sammy on HSP is the most entertaining player on any tv/streamed game.

Everybody has different views on fav pros and so on,but everybody just loves Farha.

Farha vs Persson would be insane to watch. A big part of the reason Persson comes off as awkward or too much now is because no one on HSP can match him verbally so he does 80% of the talking and everyone else just smiles and backs down. If anyone went out of their way to listen to the recent WPT cash game with Haralabob and Persson you would have heard some of the most hysterical table talk in any televised event and thats because Bob doesn't back down from anyone and the 2 had a friendly rivalry going on. Biggest issue AGAIN which drives me ballistic was the sound from the table talk being too quiet at times even though I thought the announcers did a great job letting the players do their thing. Haralabob is the perfect mix of entertaining ahole and hes been playing high stakes streamed games lately so HSP should be asking him back as well.

Lol,all this Farha talk makes me want to go back memory lane to old seasons once again and be entertained.

I get new fav quotes and comments/jokes everytime i do this. Unreal really.

I think I just might do that tomorrow.

Need to put this PokerGo subscription to use in someway.

So what would be everyone's dream lineup if they could set it up? I am talking about a lineup that can actually happen and be somewhat possible as of today. It can't be Stu Unger, Chip Reese, Doyle, etc.

I will have to think about it more, but off the top of my head I would like to see something like this:

Ivey
DNEGS
DWAN
Salomon
Hellmuth - for the entertainment lol
Esfandiari - I still like what he brings to the game
Matt Kirk - for the action
Kevin Hart - for the entertainment and we need a fish or two pumping money into the game
Alan Keating - same as above

Haralabob
Persson
Tony G
Keating
Dwan
Salomon
Mike Baxter
Galfond
Guy Laliberte

Perfect mix of action players and **** talkers.

Ivey has been rock recently and that doesn't include all his time walking. If he would actually play (doesn't even need to LAG it up) but how he has been recently just sucks.

Guy would be great but not sure he has any desire to go back on HSP after how he was hunted online by those pros. He can afford it fine but not where he wants to drop in $'s now.

Expect Kirk is busto. Even if he could put together couple of buyings would either bust quick on completely nit it up on others $.

Dwan was nothing special (better than Ivey for sure though) last time on HSP.

Hellmuth sucks at cash, knows it and will be a 1 bullet nit.

Already shared my opinion on Esfaniari

DNEGS would be good. Especially if he left his GTO behind him

Persson would be fun to include. Expect he would get @ss handed to him AND some of these guys would not only handle his talk but out do him at it.

Bill Klein maybe, but his game is likely too improved to be interesting now. He was nittyh enough 15 yrs ago.

Galfond is always great to see imo. But not really his thing.

Tony G. is not a fav of my, but would love to see him hand it to Persson (def a better player than Persson)

Would add Bill Perkins.
He can't afford it and would get eaten alive but Mike 'Kiddie game is down the street' Matusow was always fun to watch. Just need to make sure he gets staked with at least 3 bullets

Phil Laak if Jen will stake him

Love this question.

Here's my dream lineup.


Linus Loeliger - You need to have at least 1 world class poker player on the show
Daniel Negreanu - One of the biggest names in poker
Alan Keating - Great action
Rick Salomon - Super loose style with some solid reads
Garrett Adelstein - I'd love to see Linus make Garrett's head explode, should also have a world class "live" pro in the game
Kevin Hart - for laughs, action, and bringing more casual viewers
Talal Shakerchi - One of the few high stakes recreational players who plays very well and takes the game seriously. He'll put pros in tough spots and "keep them honest"

Keep the game 7 handed with 2 blinds and big antes

I think a lineup like this would make everyone happy. You have DNegs and Garrett for the casuals, Linus for the internet nerds (me included), and Keating and Salomon for the degens.

Decent lineup,especially Tony G and Keating. Tony G is the closest entertainment level to Farha of the players still playing big these days imo. Absolutely love it when he needles robotic online players in the game.

As for todays top pros i would love to see what Linus Loeliger could do in a HSP game.

And yes:seing Linus battle against Adelstein would be the nutz,mixed with Tony G,Keating and possibly one of the vlogger young guns Mariano/Rampage.

Basically a product like HSP has alot of unfilled potenial when it comes to lineups,and putting games together with the right names. Alot.

This first lineup this season is the by far the worst lineup on HSP ever. If I had to rate the players on how much I would like to see them in a lineup again it would be something like:

Hanks 8/10 - the type of player you want filling the "recreational" role, yes I know he is a "homegame pro" like Keating and wins overall.
Chino 2/10 - no
Bobby 1/10 - no
Eric 9/10 - drives the action in any lineup
Tilly 4/10 - mostly just a filler player
JRB 6/10 - only with mostly real pros, not when he is one of the better players in the game
Emma 1/10 - no

What makes HSP is the dynamic between the cash pros and the recreationals, not when almost every player at the table is straddling the line between "live pro" and not terrible recreational.

Tony G and Persson would be good for the game. I just can't stand Tony G and think he is the nut low of human beings, so it is hard for me to watch him for an hour straight. He still would make for a good game though. Persson is going to bring the action no matter what, so you do need that if you have the Ivey/Dwan types in the game as well. Would have to figure out who to remove in my lineup to add one or both of these. I know Hellmuth is a nit, but I still love to watch his meltdowns and how he embarrasses himself pretty much anytime he speaks lol.

If Hellmuth is gonna play the game structure has to be in such a way that he simply woudnt be able to sit around with 50 blinds+nitting it up.

200 bb min buyin,8 max (or even 7 as someone suggested),forced straddles++.

You can turn on any random vid of Helmuth or Matusow from the last 15 years and you'll get the same song and dance. Two giant nits with even more giant egos telling everyone else how bad they are playing. Polk soul reading Phil as the mega nit that he is when he folded that straight should be the end of his career and perfectly demonstrates why you shouldn't want Helmuth in a game over a 20k buyin.

Lol,reminds me of a classic exchange in an earlier season between Matusow and Negreanu. Mike have KK on K99 flop and Negreanu hit trip nines. They raise and get stacks in on the flop.

Mike then asks Daniel after he called the allin shove "What do you have,you got a nine?"

Daniel instantly fires back: "I got pocket fours Mike-what do you think i have???"