There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the High Stakes Poker livestreams on PokerGO – and whether or not the players in that game are playing for real.
I’ve seen plenty of posts about it. Jason Calacanis said he thinks they’re doing it just to advertise so they can make money later. Allen Kessler posted a poll on X asking: ‘Do you think this is real? Or is there something else going on?’
I don't have any insider information about these particular games, but I do have life experience when it comes to poker, and I can tell you that I have personally dealt games that were the same size or bigger.
Some of the same players who were on High Stakes Poker were in that game playing for the same stakes or more. There were million-dollar pots and multimillion-dollar pots. There was a player who bought in for a rack of $100ks. That’s $10 million brought into some of the games I’ve dealt.
These games were in a casino, but they were in a back room, with no cameras. It wasn't for show, and people were playing for the same amount.
So, from my experience, I can tell you that players definitely play in ways that might shock you for amounts of money that seem impossible to be real.
And in my opinion, these players on High Stakes Poker are playing for the exact amounts you see on stream.
How much action was sold?
In poker, you never know how much of their own action a player has. I run tournaments where it’s common for none of the players at the final table to have all of their own action.
Someone like Allen Kessler should know better than anybody. Allen plays lots of tournaments and does not have all of his action. When Allen shows his Hendon Mob stats and how close he is to $5 million, how much of that is money he actually got to keep? Probably a very small percentage.
If a player decides to do something like minimize their risk or variance by selling action in a tournament or cash game, more power to them. That's a great way to play this game.
Do I think some people are doing that in the streamed High Stakes Poker game? Probably. That would seem like the safe move, the right move, and the responsible thing to do.
I assure you, however, there are people in this world with amounts of money that we can’t fathom, who play poker the same way you or I would at a $1/$3 NLH table, and they just add a bunch of zeros to that and keep doing it.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Who cares? The money is real
If the way we get to experience these cash games is that some people sell action while others with ungodly amounts of money simply want to sit down and play, what’s the issue?
As a poker fan, I'm very grateful to see this type of poker back on PokerGO. It reminds me of the old days, when we got to watch them play with cigarettes in their mouths and big stacks of cash.
It is a lot of fun and hugely entertaining.
Some of the players have all of their action; some of them have none. As always, that's none of my business.
Who cares? The money is real, they're playing for it, and I’m glad we get to watch these games.
Justin Hammer is the Live Events Director for PokerAtlas, an online tournament director for the Texas-based poker app Hijack, and a tournament director at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He also works as a consultant and is a minority owner of Desert Bluffs Casino in Kennewick, Washington.
For more info visit PokerAtlas.com, HijackPoker.com, and bluffs.poker. Follow Justin on X.
