GSN

After a moment of suspense the Game Show Network has announced it will be airing the fifth season of High Stakes Poker, which is scheduled to begin filming in September.

The announcement comes as a bit of a relief for the largest cash game shown on TV because GSN had already opted not to renew the contract of the World Poker Tour.

“GSN has picked up the option on the fifth season of ‘High Stakes Poker’ and continues to enjoy poker on its air,” said Jennifer Minezakil, director of public relations at GSN.

Many High Stakes Poker fans will be happy to hear that Gabe Kaplan and A.J. Benza will be returning as hosts, offering their dry yet witty humour to the programme.

The World Poker Tour and GSN have agreed not to continue their broadcast partnership starting next season.  In essence, this means that the WPT is without a home.  Probably not for long though!  When the World Poker Tour first started airing on the Travel Channel a few years back, it became that cable network's

According to numerous media reports out this week, America’s Game Show Network (GSN) looks set to stop broadcasting two of its most popular programmes, High Stakes Poker and World Poker Tour.

Both shows are currently nearing the end of their pickup windows and GSN has already axed Lingo, its fourth highest-rated show for adults aged 18 to 49.

'Far as Gabe (Kaplan) and I know, the show isnt coming back,” Alfred ‘AJ’ Benza, one of the hosts of High Stakes Poker, told BodogLife.com.

The last few weeks have likely brought some restless nights for executives of the World Poker Tour, especially Steve Lipscomb. The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the World Poker Tour (Symbol: WPTE) has watched as tens of millions of dollars in market capitalization have evaporated in the past year. To say that the World Poker Tour is in a troubling situation right now would be an understatement - the publicly traded stock is currently going for $1.16, which gives the entire company a valuation of just $23.77 million dollars. A far cry from the "glory days", when it was worth more than a half of a billion dollars.