Tuesday, August 18, 2009

2 months 2 million dollars, 2m2mm episode 10

Two months Two million dollars is a television show on G4 chronicling the summer of four poker players, Dani "Ansky" Stern, Emil "WhiteLime" Patel, Brian "Flawless_Victory" Roberts and Jason "Krantz" Rosenkrantz.

Episode 10

This is the final episode for this year and depending on who you believe possibly the final episode forever. All in all I think it was a good thing that this project saw the light of day. I will write a synopsis of both the final show and the season Thursday morning.

Episode 9

It is official this show is kind of whack. It has had it's moments but there are way more misses than hits and with only one show left the title of the show seems weird. In this episode they had a home game that was seriously stupid. Firstly everyone was patted down worse than they do at the airports, for people you know this was a bit excessive. Once again this all seemed staged, especially since the game broke almost as soon as it started. Presumably the game was built around David Williams, Jason Rosenkrantz called him a "fish" on live camera and when David left the game broke up soon after. I really have a problem with this, apparently David was reluctant to come but then just "decided" to show up, I would bet there was a little coaxing involved. If indeed they had to convince him to come I highly doubt he would have shown up if he knew he was going to portrayed in such a poor light. So that part came off a bit "dickish" to me. At another point in the show Emil tried to get Krantz back for his prank in a previous episode. Instead of water balloons he did tomatoes. The prank did not go over too well but the best shot was when a wayward sling shot tomato popped one of AEJones crew in the nose. It was a serious blow (the slow-mo was very good) causing a bloody nose and a swollen face. All in all this episode was a downer, they had some of the best personalities in all of poker and did not capitalize on that for various reasons. Possibly the game was just too tight or the atmosphere just was not comfortable enough for people to relax (being stripped searched at the door will sometimes have that effect).

Episode 8

People have wanted more poker on 2m2mm and that is what they got in episode 8. The players decide that with the show coming to an end they need to gamble more and Brian Roberts proposes a 36 hour lockdown. It was mostly uneventful until David Peat shows up (Amosa online), he is much better known as Viffer. At first David is getting the best of Jason Rosenkrantz but then Jason spots a "tell". The tell is like KGB's oreo cookie, really too simplistic to be believable, especially from a player as good as David Peat. The tell was that David bets full pot on big bluffs. In one crucial moment Krantz waits on a 50k call and decides to go with his read and he is correct. Slowly the tide turns and Krantz wins $350k playing $200-$400. The swing though was well over a half a million dollars. Which is not uncommon in these big games but very uncommon at limits like $200-$400 No Limit Holdem. Because of these factors many people believe (myself included) that the sessions was staged. It certainly seems suspicious, if you are not familiar with the gambling world these types of staged events happen all the time. Personally I think the 2m2mm boys were reeling a bit from a bad summer and found a patsy. That is just my opinion (but also the opinion of many in the online community).

Dani Stern won $550,000 right before the show began taping

Anksy did the penalty stunt as the only loser in the house for this week. A little backstory would help in the case of Ansky (Daniel Stern) since he has done 3 of the 8 penalty stunts. Ansky came in 4th at the $40,000 event at the WSOP earning almost $550,000, so if he seems unmotivated that's probably the reason. This was supposed to be the best show in the series, if you aren't familiar with online poker I am sure all of this is just amazing. The reality though is that online poker has giant swings and many of the games played are much bigger than what is being shown on 2m2mm. So in a sense the show really has no audience, sure the subset of online poker players will watch it and enjoy it but regular people are probably turned off by the gratuitous nature of all of the prop bets and the amounts being won and lost. I am glad this show made the air because there were many projects did not but as we come into the last shows I just feel like they missed the mark on casting and the premise of the show. It comes off staged in most cases and if indeed the session was fixed with David Peat (I believe it was) that is likely going to be a sad final chapter in what could have been a good idea.

Episode 7

Just wanted to remind everyone that the show has switched to Wednesday's at 8pm EST on G4. It is usually available faster online at Itunes the following day. Synopsis of Episode 7 should be relatively easy.  If you watch the show basically a few things happen each week, there are hot girls in some fashion, normally by some pool somewhere.  This weeks episode was essentially meant to pimp deucescracked (the poker training site that the 4 guys own).  They do a charity connect 4 tournament that looks basically to be a flop, the show has Dani being shot down by strippers (he wanted strippers to come to his connect 4 tournament for free, apparently Dani needs to Google stippers to find out their motivation).  Brian setting up a rap group (which was surprisingly good) and Emil doing the food.  The show is less and less about poker and more and more about pimping Striker and Deucescracked.  Which is killing the buzz in my opinion. Krantz does the penalty stunt this week and it looked to be an after thought.  Probably the best part of this show for me was Brian all up in their grill about a prop bet where he would ultimately win a watch.  His incessant teasing I thought was funny.  All in all Brian is coming off a lot better as the season has gone on. Lastly, we appear in google for most things related to 2 months 2 million, there are lot's of reasons for that but mostly people are looking for the show, not my write up of the show.  The lawyers at comcast (the people who own the rights to the show) sent me a warning about displaying the content on my site and even linking to the copyrighted content.  Previous to that interaction no one had said a word to me.  In most cases I could simply point everyone in a direction by simply telling them how I find the information.  It appears that will not be necessary, the shows are almost done and frankly I doubt their will be a second season.  There is strong interest in the poker community but I doubt their is strong interest elsewhere.  If anything changes I will point everyone in the right direction, if not, I will just write a synopsis of each show and hopefully that will do.

Episode 6

The link containing the video content for this show are no longer available online at the moment.

Episode 5

As always the show is available on ITunes the very next morning, I would encourage anyone that is a fan of the show to use this avenue. Unfortunately it is not available on ITunes everywhere (I believe it is just in the United States). I fully expect the shows to end up online tomorrow at some point (though I don't expect them to stay up very long).  So for now I will recap the episode.  In my opinion tonight's episode was the best by far, it seems obligatory at this point to have scenes of their baller lifestyle that always seem to come off a bit fake.  Sure credit card roulette for dinners at nice restaurants is a common occurrence in Vegas amongst high stakes players but everything just seems so staged it just kind of bugs me.  The interesting part though was that their collective struggles really started to show.  Brian Roberts has been getting crushed on 2+2 and has not served himself well in his responses to people.  In this episode his cockiness was countered by a nice serving of humble pie and I for one really felt for the guy.  I have been there for sure as has many people who gamble for their living.  You can literally go from the most confident person on earth to wondering if you will be broke soon. Jason Rosenkrantz went home but that was mostly uneventful (though close circuit to my mom if I ever tell you I am coming home clean the fucking house).  Dani played the drunken partier again and at one point was compared to "Big" from sex in the city, which is a huge compliment for him in my opinion.  Emil is just so awkward to watch around women if you have ever seen the show "Big Bang Theory" the character Raj is positively an extrovert around women compared to Emil. Their was some sly editing that suggested Emil got laid on this episode which is probably a little embarrassing for the girl watching at home in retrospect. (Just as a disclaimer on a scale of one to ten I am about a 3, maybe a 5 when you add in the confidence but I didn't put myself on television.  I am just speaking as I would with friends and so if anyone is offended by my characterizations that's on them.  This is my blog and these are my opinions.)

Episode 4

As expected the whole Erica Schoenberg and David Benyamine storyline did not deliver. "Oh wait, that is Erica, she is all mic'ed up and has Full Tilt Poker emblems, right next to a pool, go figure". It always surprises me when reality television shows expect that the viewers are so dumb as to believe a scene like that one. They also played it up like Dani would be shanking Erica in a strip poker-esque type of challenge that also did not deliver and came off awkward. Jason Rosenkrantz's penalty stunt at the male strip club was solid gold though and every week it seems they have something that keeps the audience entertained.

Episode 3

The first show of the week is played on Sunday nights on the G4 channel at 9pm EST and 8pm CST. You can pretty much expect episode 3 to be up and down like a roller coaster but usually the first day is the best day to see it as it is uploaded virtually everywhere. Once the videos show up online we will direct you to them or embed them. As always the shows are available on Itunes as well.

For people that are not able to watch the show online I will write a synopis

While we are waiting for the shows to appear online I figured I would throw up a synopsis of Episode 3. So far Jason Rosenkrantz and Dani "Ansky" Stern are the show. This episode had "Krantz" losing big and whining most of the time, which did not make for great television. Most people have crticized Brian Robert's ego and Emil's non existence. Brian was actually featured in this show with his girlfriend. He also displayed much more athleticism than I thought he was capable of (in the football challenge), so this show was a bit better for him. Emil continues to make you feel uncomfortable watching him. This weeks episode had the guys competing with another house in Vegas doing various challenges, football, a "night club" challenge and of course poker. The 2m2mm guys ended up winning but watching Emil asking a girl to take off her underwear was simply frightening (they lost the club challenge, basically Dani was alone on that one). Many people were disappointed that Krantz wimped out on the penalty stunt for the week and rightly so. Ultimately though he probably would have whined his way through it and it would have been less fun than the two with Dani. Dani is the big star on the show with Krantz looking like a distant second if he continues to come off as a whiner. Brian is coming off as a villain and is taking major heat in the forums for being egotistical and slightly effeminate (Emil is taking some hits on the effeminate thing as well). This was the show that kind of lost me a bit and a teaser where these 4 dorks are going to try and take David Benyamine's girlfriend (Erica Schoenberg) looks like it could be one of the dumbest shows up to this point. If episode 4 delivers I will be shocked. Overall I think the concept for the show is fine and the production quality has been great. I just think they have the wrong four guys, Dani is obviously a keeper, I do not really even mind Krantz or Roberts but in the rotation they need to be down the list. If they do this show again next year they need to replace Emil with someone like Jeff Madsen and the show would be infinitely more watchable. Another undercurrent of discontent is the fact that you can not watch them for free online. Personally I do not have a problem with them charging $17.99 through Itunes but I am not sure the show is really worth that. I also think that limiting your audience at this point is a mistake. Online poker is a big business and the show is popular amongst a segment that is wanted by the online poker companies. It seems that is a synergy that is being ignored in an attempt to try and make this show viable financially. I think the good people at G4 need better salespeople for this show to see it's full potential. While it has been frustrating that the show is not available to be embedded into websites (apparently G4 has been sending cease and desist orders to many of the poker sites that host the videos) the shows can be found by simply googling terms like 2m2mm rapidshare or 2m2mm torrents.  Most people are uncomfortable with torrents because of viruses and often they are incomplete or not what you were looking for, even so it appears we will not be seeing many of these episodes pop up online.  Here is an article I found entitled "All you need to know about Torrents".

Episode 2

The show has been up and down on pokertube and youtube more than any other show I have seen in a while.  If you have not seen the second episode it is available for download on Itunes.  If it does come back somewhere online for free I will point everyone in that direction or embed the videos.

Episode 1

Tags: Articles   Episode 10   2m2mm   jason rosenkrantz   dani ansky stern   brian roberts   emil patel   torrents   rapidshare  

22 responses to 2 months 2 million dollars, 2m2mm episode 10