The premise of this poker show was that 4 online pros were living in a fancy Las Vegas house while trying to accomplish the tough feat of making $2 million in just two months of online poker.  In addition to the whole money making aspect, the trials and tribulations of the players was also an element to the show.  The players involved were Brian Roberts, Dani Stern, Emil Patel, and Jay Rosenkrantz.

Rosenkrantz was of particular interest since every major heads-up challenge saw him taking on some a poker pro.  In one episode, Rosenkrantz was pitted against David Benyamine in a heads-up battle that saw him lose over $60,000.  But Rosenkrantz redeemed himself in an online heads-up match against David “Viffer” Peat where he took Peat for over $351,000 after discovering a cyber tell.  Unfortunately for Rosenkrantz, he couldn’t redeem the whole four person team as they fell short of the $2 million in 2 month goal.

By the end of the 2 months the team earned a solid $676,000 total, which would definitely satisfy plenty of four-person online teams out there.  However, in the spirit of this challenge the money wasn’t quite enough to make ends meet.  And the ratings weren’t high enough to give the group a second chance at their goal since G4 made it clear that the show is done.  2 Months, $2 Million ended up lasting for 10, half hour episodes.

The negotiations between the Canadian Poker Tour and Jones started last year during the Costa Rica Poker Showdown and the World Poker Showdown. The Costa Rica Poker Showdown was especially significant for Jones since she managed to take third place and show that she’s more than just a pretty face on camera. And Jones will no doubt be more than a poker sex symbol in the CPT since she’s traveling the world as their main spokesperson.

The president of the CPT, Kelly Kellner, spoke on signing Jones by saying, “We believe that by having Lacey attend many of our events, and the fact that she is about to move to Vancouver, the partnership couldn’t be stronger.” In addition to the Costa Rica Poker Showdown, Jones also attended the CPT Kickoff Poker Series last year too, which showed her growing interest in the organization.

Besides the signing of Jones, other big news for the Canadian Poker Tour is that they will be featured on CanadianPokerPlayer.tv. As the name implies, this new website will be showing a lot of poker-related content with a heavy emphasis on the CPT. It will also have other interesting poker content such as a heads-up match between Huck Seed and Brad Booth (in the Canadian Poker Open) along with plenty of extra Lacey Jones coverage.

Democrats (Mayor) Stephanie C. Rawlings-Black and (Senate President) Thomas V. Mike Miller have issued their support for additional games to be added to the recently permitted slots casinos. These casinos are not yet open, but the powers that be are already looking to pump up this potential revenue stream.

Profits from the casinos will be used to fund public education – that’s a win for poker players and students in Baltimore (win, win).

States like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware offer legal poker, and state officials are worried that Maryland is losing out on local cash that is crossing state lines.

During trying economic times, states have fast-tracked the construction and legality of casinos, leaving gamblers (and kids) thankful.

As of now it’s up to the public to decide, but this is still America, right? Let people choose what they want to do. It’s not like Baltimore doesn’t have poker games going on right now. Regulate the games and start padding education funds.

Did I do this post to show a screen cap from The Wire? Yes. Yes, I did.

Lunkin really stepped his game up this year after earning $2,743,441 and a second World Series of Poker bracelet.  The Russian player cashed a total of six times in the 2009 WSOP, and highlighted his incredible performance with a win in the $40,000 No-Limit Hold’em 40th Anniversary event.  Before 2009, Vitaly’s previous best year was in 08’ when he won his first WSOP bracelet and earned $629,714 in live winnings.  He wasn’t as involved before 2008 since he was primarily known as a backgammon and Renju player.

Other awards given out at the 2009 European Poker Awards included Internet Player of the Year (Patrik Antonius), Rookie of the Year (Antoine Saout), Europe’s Leading Lady (Sandra Naujoks), Poker Staff Person of the Year (Edgar Stuchly), and Outstanding Tournament Performance of the Year (Jeff Lisandro).

Lisandro figured to be Lunkin’s closest competition to see who would be named the European Poker Player of the Year after he captured 3 different WSOP bracelets and won the WSOP Player of the Year.  Lisandro also became the first person to win a WSOP bracelet in all 3 Stud variations at the same Series. However, Lunkin’s all-around finishes, which included a couple of high EPT cashes, helped him to earn the title in 2009.

Mershon spoke about his new song by saying, “It’s just my way of saying ‘thank you’ to those fans who like my new song.”  Mershon continued by saying, “I wrote the song to humorously tell what it’s really like being a professional poker player, the sarcastic attitudes of many professional poker players, and the monotony of actually playing poker for a living and grinding out the long hours in a casino card room.”

And while the tone of Jason Mershon’s song may not be serious, the actual song itself is definitely getting some good praise from players and poker insiders who say it’s the best poker song in years.  Mershon has spent most of his working career in the entertainment industry, and he has already put out a hit song called “Rock and Roll Heaven”, which won two awards at the 2006 Los Angeles Music Awards.

Since winning the awards for Rock and Roll Heaven, Mershon has put much of his focus towards his professional poker career.  Jason commented on his poker abilities by saying, “I probably spend 90% of my time playing in cash games, but I’m also considered a pretty good tournament player as well.  So, I don’t want people to think I’m dead money in the World Series of Poker.”

Mershon finished summing up his chances at making a run in the 2010 WSOP by saying, “I think I’ve got as good a chance as any in making the Final Table.  I used to play with World Series of Poker champ Jerry Yang on a regular basis in California before he won the Main Event in 2006, and I’ve also held my own with many of the other well-known pros in tournaments and cash games alike.  I think the past few years have proven that almost anyone has a chance in The Main Event.”

However, that hiatus has ended since Phelps was recently seen playing in the Borgata Winter Open in a $2,000 heads-up event.  Phelps was one of 64 people who played in the tournament, and he beat a couple of well-noted pros in Adam Gerber and Paul Wasicka.  Unfortunately, Phelps run came to an end when Jeff Madsen defeated him in heads-up play.

Phelps best poker finish came back in 2008 when he made the final table of a $1,500 buy-in event at the Caesar’s Palace Classic.  He was able to maneuver his way through a field of 150 players to finish in ninth place and cash for $5,000.

Many believe Phelps has cut down on his poker playing because he’s trying to shed a bad boy image that formulated when he was pictured smoking out of a bong at a party.  He was also photographed in strip clubs, and was rumored to have invited strippers over to his house to dance for money.

Another reason for Phelps’ absence in poker is definitely the amount of time he dedicated to training for the 2009 World Championships of swimming.  He lost his first race to Germany’s Paul Biedermann before going on to win 5 straight gold medals.  Phelps is best known for his performance at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics where he won a world-record 8 gold medals.

The future of High Stakes Poker was in question last year after new management took over the GSN and canceled the World Poker Tour broadcasts. GSN officially announced its return in a press release last November.

The Golden Nugget reprises its role as the meeting place for the cash game goliaths. Returning for the sixth season are the familiar faces of Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Eli Elezra, Allan Meltzer, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, and Daniel Negreanu. New are the faces of many notable European names in the world of poker, including European Poker Tour winner Andreas Hoivold, Sammy “Any Two” George, Lex Velhuis, and 2009 WPT Championship event winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

The beautiful Kara Scott also replaces Gabe Kaplan’s commentating antithesis, A.J. Benza. In a format similar to other Poker PROduction shows (NBC’s Poker After Dark and National Heads-Up Poker Championship), Scott will be on the floor for hand analysis and insight from the pros, instead of reprising the play-by-play commentating role Benza leaves in his absence. How Kaplan leverages the brunt of the load without Benza as a crutch remains to be seen.

Relive one of the most memorable moments across five seasons when Barry Greenstein and Tom “durrr” Dawn battle for a $919,600 pot, the second largest in High Stakes Poker history.

Tom “durrr” Dwan vs. Barry Greenstein for $919,600 pot on YouTube.

While the piece doesn’t feature too much of our boy, it’s just another feather in his cap as he rolls along, looking for Aussie glory.

The Greenstein interview that follows is pretty dull, as the guy seems pretty bummed for someone that just won $20,000.

Later on, Smith also doubled up his stack through chip leader Kosmas Dratsas to end Day 3 of playing. Nice.

Thanks to PokerNews.com for the great vid. Their reporting and production value are awesome, as usual.

Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas is drawing blanks after the league flop-slapped him with a season-long suspension following his earlier firearm indiscretions.

Agent Zero is set to lose $7Million in cash after pleading guilty to a felony weapons charge on Jan 15. Arenas was reportedly involved in a $25K argument with Jarvaris Crittendon over a poker debt (ed: I would love to see an NBA plane. I imagine them as a 1970s party). This lead to a Texas-Hold’em-Mexican-standoff, where Crittendon and Arenas waved guns around in a Wizards’ facility. Surprisingly, The Association looks down on team-based gunplay, and I’m sure this falls in line with Stern’s anti thug appearance movement.

Both players are out for the year, and this altercation puts Arenas’ (ridiculous) $111Million contract in jeopardy.

Losses like this on a poker game even make Isildur1’s crazy swings look reasonable.

The seller has a gold bracelet from the 2005 WSOP listed on eBay, and is claiming that it’s the same one T.J. Cloutier won in a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.  A description for the item also mentions that it has 13 round-cut diamonds and is made out of 14K gold.  The auction ends on January 24th and the bidding starts at $2,999; so far, nobody has made a bid yet.

The fact that Cloutier was willing to part ways with the bracelet raises more speculation about his previous money problems.  T.J. is known to gamble in casinos quite frequently, and is especially fond of the craps tables.  Cloutier is also backed in many the tournaments that he plays in despite being ranked 10th on the all-time poker winnings list with $9,787,199.  Cloutier is also ranked 16th on the all-time WSOP winnings list with $4,322,186.

In addition to the WSOP bracelet he won in the 2005 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, Cloutier has also captured bracelets in the 1987 Limit Omaha, 1994 $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, 1994 $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em, 1998 $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2004 $1,500 Seven Card Razz events.

Cloutier has also finished in the top 5 in four different WSOP Main Events; he placed 2nd in both the 1985 and the 2000 Main Events.  Recently though, Cloutier has had a string of bad luck at the WSOP since he has only cashed once in the last two years.