The new season of High Stakes Poker has people already buzzing with how they dislike the new format that they have. Among the comments were things such as, "It just plain sucks. Bring back AJ." to "The amount of ribbing and antics at the table is really a let down. It's as though they put some sleeping pills in their drinks."

The starting lineup, usually being very talkative in the previous seasons, has been really toned down as far as amusement. With Hellmuth busting out right away, the entertainment factor on bashing him is also gone as well.

The people that have made High Stakes Poker in previous seasons, in my opinion, for entertainment value, has been Sam Farha, Phil Laak, and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow. With the coming in of Eli, hopefully the season will at least take an upwards turn in talking at the table.

Also this season brings a couple of more changes as well. AJ Benza has left his post at the side of Gabe Kaplin in the booth, exchanged with Kara Scott coming in and doing her "Poker After Dark" - type interviewing. This change has brought boos from the masses as well. With AJ leaving, many feel that Gabe can't hold his own with making dry humour with AJ back and forth. And so far, the poker community has been spot on with this read.

And where's the prop bets? Oh yeah... that's gone too. In the first episode of the new season, people at the table were joking saying stuff like "Wanna bet?" or "I'll give you 10:1 odds" were a few of the comments.

The one interesting change is that this season Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey are going to be playing in every episode in High Stakes Poker, the longest people have played at the table, since Daniel Negreanu did a lot in the first couple of seasons of the show.

All in all, this season of High Stakes Poker has been a let down for the crowds. In poker terms, it's probably leaning on a 3-9 offsuit here. They better bring in something good very soon, or else they aren't going to have a lot of viewers for next season.