It is the sixth season for the GSN (Game Show Network) poker show, which will be in production from Nov. 11-13. And as previously reported, Kara Scott is officially replacing AJ Benza alongside Gabe Kaplan as co-host of the program.

The show, which will be filmed at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, is set to premiere on February 14 of next year. It will air at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Sundays.

A list of players set to play as a part of the show, which features a minimum buyin of $200,000, was released, although it is subject to change:

Patrik Antonius
David Benyamine
Doyle Brunson
Tom Dwan
Eli Elezra
Antonio Esfandiari
Sammy George
Barry Greenstein
Phil Hellmuth
Andreas Hoivold
Phil Ivey
Mike Matusow
Allan Meltzer
Daniel Negreanu
Dennis Phillips
Lex Veldhuis
Yevgeniy Timoshenko

Brunson, Elezra, Esfandiari, Greenstein and Negreanu have appeared in every season of HSP. Ivey returns after a two-season hiatus.

Among the newcomers are George, a London businessman and regular high-stakes cash game player; Hoivoid, an Englishman residing in Norway who won the 2007 European Poker Tour stop in Dortmund; Phillips, a 2008 November Niner; Veldhuis, better know as an online cash-game player under the name “RaSZi”; and Timoshenko, who won the 2009 World Poker Tour Championship for more than $2 million and the World Championship of Online Poker Main Event in 2009 for $1.7M.

The High Stakes Poker cast for Season 6 continues to take shape. With a few names already confirmed (Eastgate, Greenstein and Phillips), news of the latest addition to the lineup hit this week when it was confirmed by UK Poker News that Andrew Feldman will have a seat at the Season 6 table. Feldman, a Full Tilt Poker pro, told UKPN that he was apparently recommended to the show’s producers by Tom Dwan.

Vegas news: the latest installment of the Venetian Deep Stack Series is about to get under way. For full details on the schedule, structure, etc, click here. Their neighbor a bit down the strip – Harrah’s – was also in the news today, as word emerged that a woman was suing the casino for what she claims was unauthorized use of her image to promote the WSOP Academy. Complete details on Sally Anne Boyer v Harrah’s, et al here.

Pokerati’s got a rather grim but nonetheless instructive recap of the recent robberies and homicides to strike the pokerverse, including updates on the professional hit on PokerListings founder Andreas Oscarsson.

The PPA was in MA yesterday to testify before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies regarding the benefits of legalized, regulated online poker. Randy Castonguay, Massachusetts state director of the PPA, played the skill card, arguing to the committee that: “We are advocating regulation of Internet poker, not Internet craps or roulette. And as every member of this Committee knows, unlike craps and roulette, poker is a game of skill that has been played in the home since Americans have been playing it. Regulating poker on the Internet is simply recognition of the game’s 21st Century place in American culture.” More quotes and info at the PPA website here.

Wonder why Antonio Esfandiari wasn’t repping any room for the first few days of the WSOP and how he ended up sporting a Doyles Room patch? Gary Wise has an exccelent article over at ESPN that tells the story of Antonio’s road to the house of Doyle and gives up some interesting insight on sponsorship of tournament players to boot.

Finally, it appears that the beginnings of the latest online poker scandal may be brewing over at bWin. A video (and accompanying blog) purports to have discovered a security flaw in their poker client that allows a user on one machine using one IP to sit at multiple seats with multiple accounts. Details are still emerging, but you can follow the developing story in a 2+2 thread here.

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Early speculation favored Vanessa Russo. Lending credibility: Russo has been very high-visibility this year, had mentioned involvement in an unnamed television show on her Twitter. Further support: PokerStars has reportedly been added as the primary sponsor for HSP, and Russo is a Team PokerStars pro.

That rumor was quickly denied by Russo and several other sources.

Benza had indicated that his replacement was to be female, so the usual suspects followed Russo as speculation continued: Lacy Jones, Amanda Leatherman, Tiffany Michelle and Shana Hiatt. Hiatt’s publicist told PokerNewsDaily that the former WPT hostess will not be reprising that role for High Stakes Poker. Daniel Negreanu went on to rule out Leatherman, Michelle, Jones and also Sabina Gadecki, Kimberly Lansing, and Jennifer Harman.

The latest name with some steam: Kara Scott. Her name was floated by A.J. on a recent episode of the Mediocre Poker Radio show and also by a separated article over at Poker News UK. Scott certainly has the experience, having done televised tournament work for the EPT during the first five years of their run as well as Matchroom Sport, along with hosting work on Poker Night Live and Sky Poker.

Scott is probably most familiar to casual poker players for her semi-deep runs in the 2009 and 2009 World Series of Poker, which inspired a great deal of typically creepy attention from ESPN WSOP commentator Norman Chad. Scott took 104th in 2008 and 238th in 2009, making Scott only the second woman in history to cash in back-to-back Main Events.

Scott has also played under the PokerStars flag at a number of tournaments as a sponsored player.

Whoever they’re hiring, HSP better do it soon, as taping for Season 6 is set to get underway within a few days.

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Barry Greenstein was the first name to be confirmed when he told PND that he’d do his best to work the internet poker catchphrase of the moment – bling blang blaow – into a HSP episode. Previous Greenstein classics have included “math is idiotic” and “lol donkaments.”

Peter Eastgate will also be returning to HSP for Season 6 for additional abuse. From a blog entry he recently posted: “Finally, it looks like I am going to Las Vegas for High Stakes Poker season 6 around the time of WSOP Main Event Final table.”

Joining Eastgate will be fellow 2008 November Nine member Dennis Phillips – potentially, anyhow. Phillips revealed on his radio show this week that he’s been invited to play in HSP Season 6, but hasn’t confirmed that he’ll be attending. It does seem a little out-of-character for Phillips, but maybe PokerStars is giving him the nudge (and some financial support) to wring a bit more mileage out of Phillips before his WSOP halo fades.

Phillips also revealed another piece of information that will make for a potentially new-look HSP in 2010: the addition of PokerStars as the primary sponsor for the show. There’s no word on what influence, if any, PokerStars will have on the show, but early speculation is zeroing in on one area: the co-host seat.

With AJ Benza now officially out as Gabe Kaplan’s sidekick, and word that GSN will be tapping an as-yet-unnamed female for his replacement, some people had been floating Vanessa Russo as a likely candidate. With Russo, a PokerStars sponsored player, mentioning on her Twitter last week that she’s been discussing some TV projects and now news that Stars is backing the show, Russo is starting to look less like a rumor and more like a lock.

We’ll be posting HSP Season 6 Episodes as they’re released.

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Early rumors have Vanessa Russo filling the slot, which would make sense on a number of levels: she’s easy on the eyes, has some name recognition with the general public, and can presumably hold her own when it comes to play-by-play. That said, there doesn’t seem to be much backing up those rumors besides wishful thinking at the moment. We’ll keep you posted.

Benza was, as you might expect, less than thrilled by the news and how GSN went about breaking it to him. From his blog (in an entry titled: A FLOP, A TURN and a RIVER of Shit):

“What really bugs me – and I’ll be sure to tell this to Barry Nugent (who wants to have a lunch with me for other opportunities at GSN for me) is that I spoke to both Schiff and Nugent and I asked them if they were fathers. They jubilantly said they were. So surely they would know the hardships of losing a top-rated gig while raising little children in the process. (Oh and did I mention that I have a son who is a Freshman in college, So armed with my track record on giving GSN 5 seasons of a No. 1 rated show,I decided to hit them in the spot where it’s supposed to make a father go mush.”

“I said….”Let’s talk man-to-man and father-to-father.” They said,”Absolutely.”

I unashamedly told those two guys that if I dont get my gig back…..”your basically putting a man and his family on the street. Is that what you want on your concience?”

Apparently it was.

High Stakes Poker Season 6 is set to film over the next few weeks at the Golden Nugget. The lineup for the next season isn’t set yet, but at least one player is confirmed: Barry Greenstein, who has promised to work in at least one utterance of the now infamous “Bing, Blang, Blaow” catchphrase during the show. Other cast members we wouldn’t be surprised to see: Tom Dwan, who had a real breakout performance in Season 5, Patrik Antonius, who has been a regular fixture at the HSP table, and some combination of Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari.

The high stakes poker online mostly takes place at Full Tilt Poker. Read this before creating an account at FTP!

While no details of the complete player lineup have been released, Barry Greenstein has confirmed that he’ll be at the table, and also that he’ll be working again this year to integrate another catchphrase into the show in an attempt to raise some money for charity.

In past seasons, Greenstein has uttered references to 2+2-speak such as “math is idiotic” and “lol donkaments” in exchange for donations from forum posters; this year he’ll apparently be looking to work in “Bing, Blang, Blaow” (no word yet on whether or not he’ll also sneak in the related bits about the cashing out and rubbing. If none of that makes sense to you, google “Bing, Blang, Blaow”).

Filming for Season Six is set to get underway in November, with episodes likely airing around February 2010.

Other than Greenstein, viewers can probably expect a smattering of the usual HSP suspects, including Laak, Brunson, and Esfandiari. Given his near-omnipresent status on poker tv these days, it would be surprising if Tom Dwan didn’t put in an appearance as well.

The top three money makers in FTP cash games were all pros at the site, with Richard Ashby, Cole South and Phil Ivey all earning big hauls at the tables last month.

The first two of those three banked more than a million dollars, while Ivey had a nice month with about a quarter of a million in profit.

But the big winner was Ashby, who was up about $1.8M, all of his play coming in pot-limit Omaha over the course of more than 28K hands. The Englishman and cash game specialist, also known as “chufty,” had about $600K more profit than South.

South’s accomplishment, however, might be more impressive for the money. He was up about $1.2M, also playing PLO, but he played less than half the hands that Ashby did (about 13K) and raked in 2/3 of his profit. The team Cardrunners pro had played little in the high-stakes area at FTP prior to this month, losing about $300K in about 3,500 hands in the previous six months.

Wrapping up the best performances of the month is Ivey, fresh off reaching the final table of the main event of the World Series of Poker. Ivey played just over 5,000 hands but still took in about $700K.

Also taking in more than a half a million at the tables: “howisitfeellike” ($669K), Brian Hastings ($636K), Brian Townsend ($615K) and John Juanda ($514K). Hastings played just over 1,500 hands for his profit.

On the losing end in July: Tom “durrrr” Dwan posted a bad month, down $1.2M over about 12,000 hands. Despite the bad month, Dwan has had a lot of great months in 2009 as well and is still up $1.5M for the year.

No one else posted a million-dollar loss, but David Benyamine ($969K), “KObyTAPOUT” ($717K) and “trex313″ ($647K) all had poor months as well.

Despite the loss on the month, Hac “trex313″ Dan is still up $3M for the year. Patrik Antonius, who didn’t play much in July (-$80K) is still the leader for the year with about $4.7M in profit.

You can watch all of the high stakes games at Full Tilt, or jump into cash games at any limit by creating an account. Read this before you make an account at Full Tilt Poker.

Other notes: Hachem continues to come off like a shady dude and Antonius actually participates in a couple of conversations. Below find the full episode without commercial interruptions:

To be fair, there really aren’t ‘terrible’ episodes of HSP, and these episodes hold up well against past seasons. It’s just that the first few episodes set the bar for the season pretty high, and the new lineup just isn’t hitting it.

It’s our opinion that putting soft spots in the game may make the game more appealing to the players, but it results in a slower, more boring game as the pros look to avoid big battles with each other and focus on pulling down the easier money. The good news: A leaked version of Episode 9 revealed the impending return of …. durrrr.