Jeff Haney antes up with the producer of ‘High Stakes Poker,’ which is entering its second season on GSN

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

Mori Eskandani was outlining the differences between poker the game and poker the sport.

"I could take any one person in this restaurant," Eskandani said in the coffee shop at Red Rock Resort, "work with them for a day, and give them a legitimate chance to beat Doyle Brunson in a heads-up, no-limit tournament."

By "legitimate," Eskandani meant a 20 percent chance of winning - as long as the blinds and antes were to increase at regular intervals, as they normally do in tournament poker. That ensures an element of randomness, enough to allow an average guy to go from eating steak and eggs to beating a poker legend in short order.

"That's the game of poker," said Eskandani, who made his living solely by playing poker in Las Vegas from 1986 to 2003.

But say the ground rules were changed.

"Could I take anyone in here and give them a legitimate chance to beat Doyle not in a tournament, but in a cash game?" Eskandani said. "No way. Doyle would grind 'em right down. That is the sport of poker, rather than the game."

Now the coordinating producer of "High Stakes Poker" on GSN (Cox cable channel 344), Eskandani said he was attracted to the project because it presented an opportunity to showcase poker the sport, where subtle maneuvering and pure card skill outrank luck. Most televised tournaments, with their high blinds and antes toward the end, show poker the game, in Eskandani's view.

"High Stakes Poker," which portrays a no-limit, cash Texas hold 'em game, begins its second go-round at 9 p.m. Monday on GSN. The series, taped in a couple of marathon sessions over two days in April at the Palms, will air in hourlong episodes for the next 16 weeks.

As in the first season of "High Stakes Poker," which concluded in April, players who were invited to participate had to buy in for at least $100,000, though some opted to bring as much as $1 million to the table. That's real money, not tournament chips.

The game's origins can be traced to a dinner at Jasmine, the high-end Cantonese restaurant at the Bellagio. Eskandani, executive producer Henry Orenstein, poker pro Eric Drache and some GSN representatives were discussing ideas for a new poker show when Johnny Chan stopped by to say hello.

Chan, a former world champion, told a quick story about a huge loss he had just sustained to Phil Ivey involving a $700,000 pot.

"The next day, I got a phone call from an executive at GSN," Eskandani said. "He wanted to know, do you think something like that could be made for TV?"

Although the big hand between Chan and Ivey took place at a "mixed game" table - in which various forms of poker are played in a set rotation - Eskandani knew a TV show would have to focus on no-limit hold 'em.

"People weren't going to understand (an exotic game such as) deuce-to-seven triple-draw," Eskandani said. "The public likes no-limit hold 'em on TV. It all goes back to what they remember from the old movies, where you can bet everything on one hand ... like when the deed to the ranch goes into the pot."

Eskandani approached some of his old friends from the poker circuit - including Brunson, Chan, Sam Farha and Jennifer Harman - and found that the demand to join the game exceeded the number of available slots.

With blinds of $300 and $600 and a $100 ante, the "High Stakes Poker" competition is substantially bigger than any no-limit game regularly spread in poker rooms. Players were paid a stipend of $1,200 for each hour they appeared, a token sum given the amount of money in play.

Among others competing were Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil "the Unabomber" Laak and Mike Matusow, who lived up to his nickname, "the Mouth," during taping. Verbal sparring and psychological gamesmanship are hallmarks of high-level poker - especially poker the sport, Eskandani said.

"You'll hear a lot of table talk that's funny and very clever," Eskandani said. "But underneath it, there's an ocean of emotions."