New Episode of High Stakes Poker Has $500,000 Minimum Buy-In

The godfather of poker, Doyle Brunson, showed up with his $500,000 to play in the episode of High Stakes Poker that will air on Monday. (Bodog Beat Image)

Long thought of as one of the best poker shows on television, mainly because it is the only televised cash game, High Stakes Poker is upping the ante for the episode that will air on Monday, November 5. The buy-in for the nine players who will be at the table was raised from the usual $100,000 to a whopping $500,000, meaning that at there will be at least $4.5 million on the table at all times.

The cast of characters includes the usual high-limit poker suspects: Doyle Brunson, Sammy Farha, David Benyamine, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius. 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold will also be joining them, and while he's not considered a consumate high stakes player, the $12 $6 million that he got for his win gives him the funds to sit down with the big boys. The only true outsider will be Guy Laliberte, an amateur poker player who finished fourth at the WPT World Poker Classic but also happens to be the founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil. That also probably makes him the only one who can actually afford to play in this game and he has demonstrated this by pledging whatever he wins to charity.

The show will air on the Game Show Network (GSN) at 9pm ET with encore presentations at 7pm ET on Saturday and 2 am ET on Thursday.