High Stakes Poker has ended, and I can’t wait until they starts to air a new episode, and I’m certain that it will be a fourth season with the growth of watchers and the rising popularity of the show. And what will you remember from Season 3 then?

Well for starters, the viewers got to know some more of the more or less unknown in the poker circuit; as the latest World Series Of Poker Champion Jamie Gold. But his play didn’t overwhelm me here in High Stakes Poker, as it didn’t do as well in World Series Of Poker. In my opinion, he is way too easy to trap as we saw Doyle Brunson did with him a couple of times. Furthermore he is way too loose and aggressive with mediocre hands that put him in difficult situations that he can’t handle.

The old schools of High Stakes poker played good most of the time, and most of them went out with a profit. Except for Sam Farha; I don’t know how he thinks sometimes, and it almost seems like he is playing for monopoly money, couldn’t care less if he loose or wins. But I want to add that with both Gold and Farha on the table, the action looses up, making a more entertainment show to us viewers. With Gold on the table, it’s becoming a limp table, with much 4-5-6-7-8 way action. With Farha it’s more coming up over the top on each other, making large pots pre flop.

The weakest player on the table has to be Victor Ramdin in my opinion. He makes some weird moves sometimes, and for what I can see, he has a hard time reading the situation occurred. Apparently he is not ready for this kind of high stakes with these kind of opponents, when the cameras are on.

The second Canadian at High Stakes Poker, Brad Booth, did on this season what the first one, Daniel Negreanu did on the first season; sat down on the table with a million dollars in front of him. He both played very well this season, but he had much help from the poker god as well. But the hand against Phil Ivey, when Booth had 4 high versus Ivey’s pocket kings and went all in will be a classic scene from High Stakes Poker. He stirred up his game wisely and when he had the chance, he used his buy in as a weapon, just like he did against Phil Ivey.

When Paul Wasicka entered the show, he started to his play quite conservative and waited for premium hands. But when the show went on, he became more aggressive and more unpredictable with his play. It almost seemed like he sat down with a game strategy, and played it good. For you who don’t know Wasicka from before, I can tell you that he is the runner up in the latest World Series Of poker main event, lost to Jamie Gold heads up.

The latest new comer to the table was the young up and comer Patrik Antonius, born and raised in Finland. He is already well known on the poker circuit on internet, playing at the high stakes table versus some other professionals already seated on High Stakes Poker. He is well know for his aggressive playing style, but not so easily to trap as for example Jamie Gold. I like Patrik’s way to play poker, and I feel if you can manage it, your poker play will be profitable. Also one of my absolute favorites out there, Phil Ivey sits down to try his luck on the show. For the time he sat down, I felt he was quite unlucky with his game, but you can see that he is well known to these kind of stakes, and if he gives the show some time, he will for sure make profit on this table.

Who of the players did the biggest impression on me then?

I have to go with Antonio Esfandiari; he mixes up his game as no one on the table. His reading skills and his gutsy moves makes him my personal favorite of High Stakes Poker season 3. It seems like he always know where he is on a hand and what the other players is holding, and is not afraid shoving a lot of money in to the middle with only rags. And what player did the least impression on me? It has to be Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. I think he said two words overall on all the airtime he got on the show. I will not say he played bad, because I think he made a small profit when playing on High Stakes Poker. It’s more his way of play. It felt he played exactly the same he would have done as in a big tournament game. He played a really solid game, not really mixing up his game, just play the nuts.

This was mine reflections of the season passed at High Stakes Poker, and as I said I’m already looking forward to the next season of High Stakes Poker.