Tournament poker as you see on TV many nights is a lot of money paid for by the players fronting their $5,000 to $25,000 buy in amounts for a chance at a million dollar pay day at the end of several days of play. The World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker are well-known for minting millionaires after their tourneys are concluded. Players of all skill levels can take their shots at this high stakes tourneys via satellites and even freerolls.

But, GSN introduced the bread and butter of many poker pros to the national audience with its High Stakes Poker show that was an instant hit and will be continuing its feet curling bet amounts on season seven due to air on August 27th. Many of the "name" pros will be returning for our viewing pleasures and risking every hard earned dollar they decide to place onto the table.

For a twist this season read the report from PokerNews.com about how the seriousness factor getting multiplied for the last seven episodes:

One of the more popular poker shows on TV is returning with new episodes, and a serious twist. GSN's High Stakes Poker will roll its new season out starting at 9pm on August 27th.

The first half of the season will have a familiar feel, as players will put up $100k of their hard earned money to play no limit holdem for big stakes. The players will seem familiar to you, but one addition is notable. Phil Hellmuth will return to HSP, after a two season hiatus. Joining Phil will be Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and many other pros including Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Eli Elezra, Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, Sammy Farha, and Todd Brunson.

The real action heats up in the last seven episodes of the season IV. Beginning with the November 7th episode, High Stakes Poker should be called really High Stakes Poker, as the minimum buy in to sit at the table is $500,000 - which means that there will be $5 million in play as the cards fly.

The action on those $500k buy in episodes is really fast. GSN was kind enough to invite me down to the set to watch one of the $5 million games be filmed. While I don't want to give too much away, I can tell you I saw one guy get stacked, and then almost stacked again (after he reloaded) within a span of about 20 minutes. Needless to say, the person in question was none too happy about it, and the table were merciless in bringing the needles out.

It's all in fun, but with the money so high with the new elevated buy in, the tensions run kind of high as well, and that makes for good television. Be sure to check out the new season of High Stakes Poker on GSN. In early 2008, the World Poker Tour will start to air its season VI shows on GSN as well, so it looks like fans of Poker TV will have plenty of new poker to watch this fall.