If you are a fan of poker but haven't heard of the show High Stakes Poker, you definitely need to continue reading because you are missing out on a very enjoyable television watching experience.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the show called High Stakes Poker, it is a popular poker game show that appears on the Game Show Network.  Getting ready to begin its fifth season, High Stakes Poker has gained a lot of popularity among poker players and non-poker players alike. 

Even if you don't have a lot of experience with the game of poker (although I'm guessing that you do actually have at least a fair amount of experience, given the fact that you are spending your time reading a poker blog), you can still get a lot of enjoyment out of watching all of the action and excitement that High Stakes Poker features.  Also, whether you are familiar with the big names in poker, or are interested in getting some exposure to the people who are at the top of the poker world, you can find many of them on this television show. 

Some of the top names who have appeared on the show before and are planning on returning this year include Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Eli Elezra and Doyle Brunson.  In addition to these veterans of the show, this season will introduce some new faces to the High Stakes Poker audience, including a mix of professional poker players (such as Peter Eastgate, who won the Main Event of the WSOP in 2008) and celebrity poker enthusiasts (like Sam Simon, who is responsible for co-creating The Simpsons).

One of the cool things about this season of the show is that it will be filmed at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.  If you watched the first season of this show, you will remember that this is the same location that was used for filming back then.  Although you may be curious about whether or not High Stakes Poker actually lives up to its name, I can assure you that it does.  The bar has actually been set even higher this year, with the minimum buy-in being $200,000.  Since this is twice as much as last year's minimum buy-in, and previous seasons have seen buy-ins that have gone as high as half a million dollars, it will be very interesting to see just how high the stakes get during the newest season of this thrilling show.