The High Stakes Poker Episode That Only Showed Seven Hands

I believe the November 19th High Stakes Poker episode (S04E13) set two records. The seven hands it showed were the fewest hands ever in an hour-long poker show; and the Sammy Farha/Jamie Gold aces versus kings hand was the longest ever televised, at 11 minutes and 42 seconds (the show is 43 minute long, not all of which is used to show hands).

Let me refresh your memory about that first hand (click the image for a larger version):



Better yet, let's remember what Doyle Brunson said during the twelve minutes the hand took:

What has poker come to?
Dumb and dumber.
(Doyle leaves the table)
(Jamie Gold: "This is for TV.")
My daddy knew I was a loser in this poker game he'd come out of the grave and beat the heck out of me.
(commercial break)
Fellows, we're playing poker. My God.

... and the last hand, also between Jamie Gold (with 7 10 on a 789 board) and Sammy Farha (with QQ), which took another 7 minutes and 35 seconds:

That's a good idea. Let's do it. Let's play poker. Or let's get some TV time in first.

I recently re-watched an episode of High Stakes Poker from the first season (S01E07) where the players were complaining about Dr. Amir Nasseri slowing down the game. Do you remember Nasseri slowing down the game? Me neither... and that episode had time to show 13 hands.

Would Jamie Gold or Sammy Farha be hamming it up like that if they weren't on TV? Gold wouldn't even be playing those stakes if it weren't televised. It seems to me that High Stakes Poker has become less poker and more TV (specifically, "reality" TV), a parody of its former self. As Doyle Brunson said "what has poker come to?"

There's more discussion of this topic on the Full Contact Poker forum.

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