The high-stakes room at the Bellagio will be the new locale for GSN’s popular show High Stakes Poker, and that isn’t the only change fans of the telecast can expect this time around. In addition to a new locale, the show will also have a new main sponsor in PokerStars.com; a move that has led to some of the upheaval I will detail below. And the final change is that there will be ZERO media presence during the taping, so we will have to wait until the show airs to see precisely who is playing, and what the results are.
One of the biggest changes is that Full Tilt Poker pros will be missing in action for Season 7 of HSP. That means fans will not see familiar faces like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan at the High Stakes Poker table. The speculation of Full Tilt Poker boycotting the show stems not only from PokerStars sponsorship of the show, but also from their purchase of the HSP archives.
As PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein detailed on 2+2: “Full Tilt has two major concerns. First is they don’t like their players playing when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show… Secondly, they were unhappy that PokerStars bought the HSP archives. In the early seasons of HSP, the players didn’t wear logos, so FTP is concerned that viewers will be able to go to PokerStars.tv and see the FTP players without logos and be confused by their affiliation.”
Other top players who we have become accustomed to seeing on High Stakes Poker will also be MIA for Season 7, but for a variety of different reasons. First and foremost is Daniel Negreanu, who tweeted, “Sad news: at airport headed home means trip is over 
have a commercial shoot when I land which means no HSP for me this year”. This will mark the first time in the history of the show Negreanu will not be a competitor.
According to PokerNewsDaily.com, players that are scheduled to appear include, “Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, recent World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Antonio Esfandiari, David “Viffer” Peat, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Phil Galfond, and former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen.” This will be Scotty Nguyen’s first time on the show, and it should be interesting to see how the ‘Prince of Poker’ plays cash games.
Season 7 of High Stakes Poker will be filmed over three days at the Bellagio.
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