$1/$2 No-Limit Hold 'Em was popularized by "the Moneymaker Effect " after accountant Chris Moneymaker turned a $28 online satellite entry into a $2.5 Million first-place victory in the 2003 World Series of Poker. The honeymoon is over. Players still enjoy the game of NL Hold 'Em, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to fill the seats. 
Long after Celebrity Poker Showdown and the Heartland Poker Tour fizzled off the air waves, the Game Show Network's High Stakes Poker has so far stood the test of time as a game that is still worth watching. The players in the game are some the best of the world, playing for more money in a single hand than most average Americans make in months of labor at a nine-to-five.
The format for HSP is a cash-game, $300/$600 NL w/ a $100 ante per player, each hand. Minimum buy-in is $100,000. Last time I was in Vegas, I was going to play, but I had left my Bellagio $25K Cranberries in my other pants.
While it's a hell of a game to watch, the stakes are beyond astronomical. It wouldn't even be conceivable to play $3/$6 NL w/ a $1 ante per player. Such a game would suggest a $500 minimum buy-in and no scarcity of $4K-$5K all-in confrontations.
As I wipe the druel from my mouth thinking about playing in such a game, even that would be hard to come by. But with a little imagination and willingful suspension of disbelief, a game could be pulled together.
The game is played as $10/$20 NL with a $3 Ante. In order to speed up the game and hold smokers accountable for their missed antes, antes will be posted when in the big blind, $3 per active player. Antes placed in the middle of the pot are "dead," not counted towards bets placed in the pre-flop round.
Wait a minute, wasn't it just addressed that a game as small as $3/$6 w/ a $1 ante would be hard to come by? Why would it work to make the stakes higher? Elementary Math, my dear Watson, that is how.
Don't sell the chips 1:1. Let the players get an exchange rate for the chips. Instead of a brick of $100K in hundreds, a little $80 bundle of singles can get you 1,000 in chips. $200 for 2,500, you get the idea.
Put a cap on the game, 10K max buy-in ($800) - and keep out the riff-raff by insisting upon a 500 minimum buy in ($40).
The first day is sure to be hell, but with the right chip set and a check-and-balance procedure for the purchase and re-sale of player's cheques, it will turn into quite the donkfest.
In the meantime, some fun with numbers:
PDoggie1995
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