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.

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.

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.”

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.

Nejad was often the center of attention in his own show as he got involved in lots of action, and produced some really fun moments.  During one part of the episode, Nejad jokingly celebrated Joe Sebok’s appearance on TV by saying, “I had something special to do today in honor of Joe finally making a TV table.”

After delivering the quote, Ali Nejad gave each one of the players a champagne glass in order to toast Sebok’s ‘accomplishment’.  The joke is a reference to Sebok busting out right before the final table in numerous live tournaments.  Some of the tourneys where Sebok has busted out just before the final table include the Bay 101 Shooting Star, the WPT Fiesta al Lago, and the 2007 Legends of Poker.

All joking aside, the game was pretty competitive during Commentators III.  Each player began the game with 20,000 chips, and the blinds were set at $100/$200 so nobody was taking anything lightly.  Sebok quickly grabbed the chip lead after taking down a pot worth 7,900 chips against Gabe Kaplan.  Sebok hit trips queens during the hand, which prompted Kaplan to wisely fold.  The chip lead didn’t last long though as Mark Gregorich came out firing against Sebok with pocket aces.  Eventually, Gregorich forced Joe to fold with a bet of 3,000 chips.

This pretty much concluded the main action in the first episode of Season 6.  However, there is plenty of good poker to be played on Poker After Dark with 35 more scheduled episodes.

For years, poker players only appeared on TV if it was related to the actual game of poker.  However, we’ve recently begun seeing poker players appear in a lot of mainstream television shows and movies.  Daniel Negreanu appearing in the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, Annie Duke being one of the finalist on “The Apprentice”, and Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho appearing on the hit CBS reality series “Amazing Race” are just a couple of the latest examples.  Popular poker pro Erik Seidel added his name to the list this week.

Seidel made his mainstream television debut on the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” which revolves around the fictional life of Seinfeld producer Larry David.  The episode that Seidel appeared in was entitled “Officer Krupke”, and Erik is prominently featured in a shot where Larry and his onscreen wife Cheryl Hines are talking at a restaurant about a Seinfeld reunion.

Many have wondered how/why Seidel was on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  The 8-time WSOP gold bracelet winner explained that he is a huge fan of the show, and had been looking for a way to appear on it.  So basically, being able to appear on Curb Your Enthusiasm was a dream for Seidel since he is such a big fan of the show.

It has also been rumored that another poker pro might be making an appearance on a HBO show.  Daniel Negreanu will appear in an episode of the hit show “Entourage” along with fellow poker player/actor Ben Affleck.  Aside from his role as a poker player in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Negreanu also recently appeared in the “Body Issue” of ESPN: The Magazine.  Being on HBO’s “Entourage”, which is a drama based on the fictional life of a movie star and his friends, would only further cement Negreanu’s mainstream status.

According to many sources, GSN dumped Benza because they were looking to bring in an attractive female co-hostess.  At the time, rumors were swirling that poker pro Vanessa Rousso was the first choice by the network to fill Benza’s shoes.  Eventually, GSN would state that Rousso was not going to host HSP so former World Poker Tour hostess Shana Hiatt become another name thrown into the mix.

However, we now know that Hiatt won’t be the hostess either since it has been reported that poker pro Kara Scott will become the new commentator on High Stakes Poker.  Scott is one of the rising female professional players since she has earned $453,000 of her $500,000 career winnings in the last years and she’s also finished within the top 250 players in the last two WSOP Main Events.  In addition to her playing exploits, Scott has also done broadcasting work for the European Poker Tour and Poker Night Live.

The only thing that is standing in the way of Kara Scott being officially announced as the new HSP hostess is that she needs to obtain a permit which would allow her to work in the United States.  Without this permit, it would be illegal for Scott to work as the new HSP hostess according to US laws.  But it’s almost a given that Kara Scott will be able to get this permit since GSN is counting on it.

Walken is on a British show called Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and absolutely kills the delivery.

Enough talking, here’s the Christopher Walken Poker Face Video:

The bubble has burst for Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho in the Amazing Race. The girls were eliminated in The Netherlands, cutting the field of competitors down to 5 teams.

Ho and Michelle were eliminated when they failed to make it through a series of Dutch challenges that involved a strength testing carnival game (72 unsuccessful attempts for the girls while most teams did it in 1) and a par-8 version of clog golfing.

At the end of the competition, the girls didn’t finish that leg of the race and were eliminated by host, Phil Keoghan.

Ho and Michelle started this leg of the race in 2nd place, but had these ominous words to say before it began:

“Second place is awesome, but we’ve learned from poker that it’s really easy to get comfortable and get involved in pots that you shouldn’t.”

Foreshadowing! I guess that clog-golf was a pot that the girls should have stayed away from.

With the girls eliminated, I’ll probably stop posting about The Amazing Race, but I will continue watching it… only for the Globetrotters. Those guys are awesome.

However, one key ingredient which won’t be returning for season 6 is A.J. Benza who was informed by Game Show Network representatives that his services will no be needed.  Going even further, GSN has decided to get rid of Benza so that they can add a younger female host to go along with Kaplan.  There has been no official word as to who this younger female host will be as of yet.

Regardless of whom the woman host turns out to be, Benza is definitely not happy about the decision and has let his opinion be known.  Benza made a good point on his blog (where he was talking about a conversation he had with GSN suits) when he said, “if you got the best pizza in town for 5 seasons, why try and add licorice to it?”  Benza’s argument is definitely a good point since him and Kaplan were an excellent announcing duo throughout the first 5 seasons of High Stakes Poker.

Now everything is up in the air for High Stakes Poker with a potentially much younger, model-like host being brought to the table.  Sure GSN is banking on the move attracting a wider audience, but they could lose some of the existing audience too.  If things don’t work out, then there is definitely the possibility of Benza coming back.  A.J. put this into perspective when he said, “And look on the bright side: if she stinks….I might be back for HSP 7”