On December 19-21, some of the top stars in the poker world will invade the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Las Vegas for the fifth season of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker.” The marquee televised cash game can regularly be seen on Sunday nights on the cable station, which also owns the rights to air the sixth season of the World Poker Tour. The brains behind the show are Executive Producers Henry Orenstein and Mori Eskandani. Orenstein is a World Series of Poker bracelet holder, Holocaust survivor, and the inventor of the poker hole card camera. PocketFives.com sat down with his partner in crime, Eskandani, to talk about the fifth season of the show as well as the process that went into finding a host casino.

The very first season of High Stakes Poker was filmed at the Golden Nugget. Since then, the ring game’s set has traveled to other locales such as the Palms and South Point Casino. On going back to where it all started to film Season V, Eskandani told PocketFives.com, “The Golden Nugget has always been the birthplace of poker. All of the big games used to be played there and it has such a rich poker history. It’s nice to be back.”

Since High Stakes Poker last stepped foot in the Golden Nugget, the casino has undergone major renovations. Eskandani explains, “They have a new hotel right now with the renovations they’ve done. We can film inside of a beautiful ballroom with all of the amenities that we need. They contacted us and said that the renovations were completed and that they were eager to have more poker there.”

This time around, the minimum buy-in will be $200,000. Players risk their own money, so Ekandani believes it’s possible that the table minimum or maximum may be changed as filming progresses. On the cast of characters lined up for Season V, he revealed, “There are so many come players that come from the internet. They play fast and fearless and we’ll have new faces coming into High Stakes Poker. To match them, we have new recreational players that have a lot of experience playing No Limit Hold’em. I’m very excited to see how it works out.” Play will take place over three days for eight to nine hours per day and the goal is to edit the season down to 13 one-hour episodes.

High Stakes Poker is an invite-only event, as opposed to an open tournament like what you’ll find on the World Poker Tour. As such, it is more focused on providing entertainment to the viewing audience. Eskandani explains, “We are in a different poker business. We’re constantly looking to see what we could do to make it better. We’d like to bring in people who know each other, so that when they sit around the table, there is a fun conversation going on in case the cards go dead.”

Orenstein has an extremely diverse background. A WSOP bracelet winner in a Limit Seven Card Stud tournament in 1996, he also holds patents for a number of well-known toys, most notably Transformers. His creation of the hole card camera and overall contribution to the industry earned him a spot in the Poker Hall of Fame. He was inducted during the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table along with poker legend Dewey Tomko. On working with this influential poker personality, Eskandani quipped, “Henry is an amazing person. To him, it was black and white. If you showed hole cards, poker would be more interesting. To pros didn’t want it. They said that it was their livelihood. Needless to say, the majority was wrong. We are so glad that he stayed the course and actually went ahead and put in a patent for it.”

Eskandani could not comment on the lineup of players expected for Season V, but told PocketFives.com to expect top high-limit cash game players. Past seasons have featured a veritable who’s who of the poker world, including Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, and Gus Hansen. PocketFivers Barry barryg1 Greenstein and Brian aba20 Townsend have also appeared on the show.

No air date for Season V of High Stakes Poker has been announced, but we’ll keep you posted. We’d like to thank Mori Eskandani for taking the time to talk with us.

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