When I reviewed High Stakes Poker during its first season, I wrote, "GSN starts out with a very strong hand, but misses the flop entirely. The show is only a few episodes in, though, so maybe they'll pick up a draw on the turn, and make a winner by fifth street. I just hope that the audience ends up caring enough about the players to stay in the hand."

I haven't watched every episode since then, but I have tuned in a few times, and I think the show did improve dramatically, both in production and dramatic value. During the 2006 WSOP, I met Gabe Kaplan, and spoke with him briefly about the show. He told me that they do their commentary live, while the hands are actually playing out, which went a long way toward making High Stakes Poker's commentary that much more interesting to me, and addressed one of the issues I raised in my review. (On all the other shows, WPT and ESPN included, they edit the hands in advance, so the announcers know exactly what's going to happen, but on HSP, when someone wonders what's going on, they're really wondering what's going on; it's a small point, but significant enough to warrant a long parenthetical statement.)

If you enjoy High Stakes Poker, or if you're the type of person who waits until you can see, oh, four shows in a row before you'll tune in, you'll want to watch GSN tonight, from 8pm to midnight Eastern, for their High Stakes Poker marathon, which will include interviews with the stars of the new James Bond film Casino Royale.