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Interview: Jay Rosenkrantz of 2M2MM

The world of traditional poker programming got a serious shakeup this summer when G4 unleashed ‘2 Months, 2 Million’, a show that deviated from the typical poker tv model – show a (usually distilled) version of a tournament or cash game – by filming the adventures of four high stakes pros living in Vegas for a summer pursuing the basic goal that gave the series its name.

Cast member, high stakes regular and Deuces Cracked co-founder Jay Rosenkrantz was nice enough to offer some insight into what its like to be a member of the first serious show to delve into the world of online poker players.

To read more of Jay’s thoughts on the show, DC and poker in general, visit his blog here.

PTP: How did the group for 2M2MM come about? Were the four of you the group from the word go, or did the lineup evolve over the process of pitching and developing the show?

JR: In late 2006 I had recruited Emil to coach for my first company, 3-bet.net. I had known him by reputation from twoplustwo.com, and only after a few months did I actually meet him in person via a mutual friend in NYC. The lease on my apartment was running up and Emil and his roommate John had an open room, so I jumped in. Emil was semi-retired from poker and focusing on finishing his last year at NYU, but when I moved in my grinder work ethic stirred a sleeping beast and the two of us just started talking and playing tons of poker, destroying all comers. We had won so much money the week before we were set to head to Las Vegas for the summer that we didn’t pack suitcases!

That summer, we lived with Brian and Ariel (FoxwoodsFiend) for the first time… we were both mutual friends with Ariel but I had only known Brian from his infamous “lol” strategy posts on 2p2. Dani wasn’t 21 yet so he had to sit that first summer out… this was the summer we all destroyed the 200/400 NL cash games online… the online poker community coined us Team Israel. At the same time, we had begun developing the idea of 2M2MM (at this point it was a short TV special called “House of Cards”). Over the next ~2 years or so, we all became best friends and got much, much better at poker and the concept for the TV show evolved around us. In 2008, Dani moved in with us over the summer and later that year, Ariel decided to quit poker for law school (this was after he shot the pilot with us) and Dani took his place. Who knows what the show would have been like with Ariel in place of Dani!

I’ve read a lot of feedback along the lines of “2M2MM would be so much better if you subbed urindanger for this person and durrrr for that person.” Sure, they might play higher stakes poker but one of the main reasons the show works (in my opinion) is that we have been friends for so long… we are like brothers to each other by now.

PTP: There’s surprisingly little mention of DeucesCracked throughout Season 1. Was that a conscious choice on your part or just the way it worked out?

JR: I mean, there are t-shirts and ducks in every episode It’s just the way it worked out, DeucesCracked is a huge part of my life but aside from the charity event in Episode 7, there’s just not much that would have made for a good storyline on the show. Joe Tall and Chuck (danzasmack) came by the house once to shake Emil down for a video (this is why Emil is not present at the harp penalty stunt) and we heavily recruited Brian at one point to make training videos… but those sequences are now on the cutting room floor :-/

PTP: Talk a little about the challenge you faced in constructing and promoting the show, knowing the you had to straddle two audiences – casual poker players and the 2+2 crowd – who likely have very different reasons for watching (and enjoying) the show.

JR: Well we’ve known and worked with Park Slope (the production company) for years now, since the beginning. You can see that they really have a good feel for who we are and they’re also really good at what they do and at finding the funny in the situations we wind up in. We shot a pilot in late 2008, after seeing that all of us just had tremendous faith in their ability to make this show. I would say the biggest challenge was in not compromising our roots — the cast was always thinking about the poker community first and the bigger audience second. I mean, the online poker community is the bigger audience, they’re going to clearly be the harshest critics. We knew that if we approached everything with that mentality we would be making a great show, regardless of how close we came to the goal. Other than the occasional notes that would say “more girls EVERYWHERE” and the sometimes-cheesy (if you saw that Playmates-visit-2M2MM house video, you know what I mean) marketing campaign, G4 surprisingly let us just do our thing. Which was good, because we shot down terrible ideas left right and center! What you see on the show is pretty damn close to reality, as every time the producers would say “so how about you guys do this this week” they’d be greeted with a barrage of “why the fuck would we ever do that?!?” I’d say the biggest challenge overall was in realizing that this wasn’t just going to be the same old summer in Vegas for us again… we were making a TV show, and that became a full-time job.

PTP: No Tommy Angelo cameos?

JR: It wasn’t in the cards! Maybe next time.

PTP: All of you are obviously very experienced poker players. That said, was there any discussion during shooting about how the presence of the cameras and the idea of the show itself was impacting anyone’s game (for better or for worse)?

JR: We got used to them quickly but it clearly wasn’t optimal playing conditions. Sometimes, you just want to play a session all by yourself and unless you woke up really early we really couldn’t do that. Also, it’s kind of tilting to have to go write your big, 6 figure loss in bright red on the tally board before you leave the room when all you want to do is take a golf club and put it right through the video cameras!

PTP: If there is a Season 2, what would be the big changes you’d personally suggest to g4 / Parkslope? Also, will it be enough to just run it as 2M2MM V2.0, or will there need to be a new hook?

JR: If we get the go-ahead to go back rest assured I’ll be spending a full week or two ingesting pot brownies and just writing things down. I already want a fire pole in the war room and a flamethrower in the tilt room… I like the idea of opening Episode 1 in Monte Carlo for Emil’s birthday before we head to Vegas…

In all seriousness though, I think we will see some small structural changes and some really big, publicized high stakes matches. Everything will be way bigger and crazier. Massive explosions everywhere. We didn’t hit the goal (hope that’s not a spoiler!!!) so we’ve had ~10 months to think about it, come up with a better plan, train…

PTP: Chances of a Season 2?

JR: We won’t know for a little while, but everyone is happy with the ratings.

PTP: How different do you think this show would have been if you made it in 2007?

JR: 2008 would have been the best year to do it. In 2007 we were too fresh-faced and out of our element…. but in 2008 we were more mature, confident, and still crushing the biggest stakes. I don’t know though… we made $2mm in the past two summers and didn’t this summer. If we had made it this time then doesn’t it make a Season 2 less eventful? We’re all cocky as hell, I wouldn’t bet against us next summer… who knows, maybe 2010 will be our biggest year yet!

PTP: For people who have missed the show to this point, how can they catch up?

JR: iTunes is the best way, get a Season Pass for $18 in HD. If you are reading this interview and haven’t seen the show, you need to see this show. I’m (obviously) really proud of it so do me a solid and watch!

Read our recap of 2M2MM Season One here.

Visit the G4 page for the show here.

Most of the 2M2MM high stakes online action takes place on Full Tilt Poker. Catch the guys in action – sign up for Full Tilt here.

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