PokerStars is putting Doug Polk and Antonio Esfandiari in the same cash game, throwing in a comedian who once beat Polk heads-up, and giving a Loose Cannon $50,000 to try to survive the lot. That sounds like a decent Sunday evening’s viewing.
The Big Game on Tour returns on Sunday, 8 November 2026, at 5pm UK time (12pm Eastern), with a new episode due each week on YouTube. Alongside Polk and Esfandiari are Esther “E-Tay” Taylor, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, television personality and poker player Princess Love, and Loose Cannon Scott Gaughan.
Full Big Game on Tour line-up
PokerStars Ontario has confirmed all six players for the opening instalment. There are proper high-stakes credentials around the table, but the most interesting seat might belong to the player who has the least experience at these stakes.
| Player | Background | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Doug Polk | Heads-up specialist, three-time WSOP bracelet winner and poker creator | His history with Tony Hinchcliffe |
| Antonio Esfandiari | High-stakes regular and 2012 Big One for One Drop champion | Live reads and televised cash-game experience |
| Esther “E-Tay” Taylor | Mixed-game pro, third in the 2025 $50K Poker Players Championship | Decision-making against a mixed line-up |
| Tony Hinchcliffe | Comedian and Kill Tony host | Whether he and Polk get tangled up again |
| Princess Love | Television personality with substantial live tournament winnings | How she approaches the established pros |
| Scott Gaughan | This series’ Loose Cannon | Whether he turns the stake into a personal payday |
Polk and Hinchcliffe have history
Hinchcliffe isn’t a random comedian drafted in to make the other players laugh between hands. In 2025, he beat Polk in a $20,000 heads-up encounter before Polk got his own back in a double-or-nothing rematch. The unusual prize was a minute performing stand-up on Kill Tony, which Polk went on to do.
Whether that history changes anything at the poker table remains to be seen. It does give viewers something better than a manufactured rivalry, and it will be interesting to see whether either player starts taking marginal spots simply because of who’s on the other side of the pot.
Polk built his name taking on the best heads-up players online, before branching into training, poker commentary and YouTube.
Esfandiari and E-Tay should keep the table honest
Esfandiari needs little introduction to anyone who watched poker during its television boom. The three-time WSOP bracelet winner collected $18,346,673 when he won the 2012 Big One for One Drop, and he’s played more than enough filmed cash games to know when somebody is putting on a show.
He also featured in an earlier 2026 Big Game on Tour line-up, recording a $118,900 profit across his featured 150-hand session according to Pokerfuse’s results tracker. That isn’t a guarantee he’ll book another win, of course, but he’s comfortable in exactly this setting.
Taylor is no passenger either. She finished third in the 2025 $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship for $595,136, a result that says plenty about her ability to compete in multiple poker formats. She was named a BetMGM Poker ambassador in June 2026 and now joins the action on a PokerStars production.
Princess Love has poker results of her own rather than being there solely for a celebrity cameo. Her Hendon Mob record shows nearly $300,000 in live tournament earnings, while her previous appearances in celebrity poker events should help with the cameras, even if the opponents here present a different sort of test.
How does the Loose Cannon’s $50,000 stake work?
The Loose Cannon is the reason this format works. Under the show’s established rules, PokerStars puts up a $50,000 bankroll for a selected player, who competes against professionals and other big names in a televised cash game.
The Loose Cannon keeps anything won above the original $50,000 stake. If the player loses the stake, PokerStars takes the loss. That is an attractive freeroll, but it doesn’t make the decisions any easier when a player across the table is betting the equivalent of a decent annual salary.
Previous runs have featured $100/$200 no-limit hold’em and 150-hand sessions, sometimes with straddles. PokerStars has not separately confirmed the precise betting limits and hand count for this November instalment, so those figures should be treated as the established format, not a newly announced rule sheet.
- Starting bankroll: $50,000 provided by PokerStars under the usual Loose Cannon format.
- If the stack grows to $75,000: that would mean $25,000 profit for Gaughan to keep.
- If the stack falls to $30,000: there would be no profit to take home, but he would not owe PokerStars the $20,000 loss.
- At $100/$200: a $50,000 stack would start 250 big blinds deep before straddles.
That last point matters. There is room to play poker without immediately getting committed, but one big cooler or ill-judged hero call can eat a huge part of the bankroll. Gaughan has to decide when to fight for pots and when to let a seasoned pro tell a story he has no reason to challenge.
What time is The Big Game on?
The first episode goes live on PokerStars’ YouTube channel on Sunday, 8 November, at 5pm GMT. That’s noon Eastern, and new episodes are expected weekly, although an episode-by-episode running order has not yet been published in the announcement.
There’s no result to report from Gaughan’s session yet and no reason to pretend we’ve seen hands that haven’t aired. For now, the big draw is a table with actual poker ability, a pre-existing heads-up grudge and a Loose Cannon who could walk away with a meaningful payday. If you want more poker video content in the meantime, you can browse PokerType TV.
