2 Months, 2 Million: Boot Camp
Episode six of 2 Months, 2 Million opened in the parched Nevada desert where our fearless foursome let off some steam by riding dune buggies. Well, everyone except Emil "whitelime" Patel, who "didn't want to get sand in his eyes" and elected to pass on the experience. While attempting to buzz past Patel and shower him with dust, Brian "Flawless_Victory" Roberts crashed his buggy into a dune and got hopelessly stuck in the sand.
This week, Jay "Krantz" Rosenkrantz, who has a flourishing side career as a poker coach, decided to host a poker "boot camp" for a group of young players at their house. He hoped that it would also reinvigorate his own game as he, Dani "Ansky" Stern, Brian and Emil remain well behind pace to make their $2 million goal. Before the quartet of young online players descended on the house, Krantz and Co. were forced to clean up several weeks' worth of foul-looking garbage that had accumulated around the house and in the backyard.
Upon their arrival, Krantz had the boot campers introduce themselves to the group. Eighteen-year old New Yorker Harry "UgotaBanana" Kaczka had just attended his high school prom but was already earning more more than his parents do. Dave "NLsoldier" Schnettler was already a successful player but wanted to fix some leaks in his game. Russian-born Wladimir "Insyder19" Taschner traveled all the way from Germany and Ben "pokiethepanda" Middleton came from Manchester, England. Rosenkrantz led everyone into the war room where the students sat at the computers and played online while their instructors observed. The lesson, however, quickly disintegrated as Stern and Roberts got into a heated debate about the merits of three-betting 5-6 offsuit.
After taking a break for some sushi at Naked Fish, everyone reconvened in the war room where the instructors went over hand histories with their students to help them identify mistakes. Later, they all hopped online to play side-by-side, the students watching the instructors play and vice versa. Following the session, Middleton felt a bit steamed, so Rosenkrantz took him to the tilt room and showed him the joys of letting one's frustrations out on watermelons.
That night, everyone rented a party bus and went out to Blush nightclub at the Wynn. Well, everyone except Kaczka who was unfortunately confined to said party bus because he was underage and unable to get into the club. As a consolation, the guys sent some (working?) girls back to the bus to keep him occupied. Inside the club, Patel succeeded in bringing a beautiful girl over to chat up Middleton, who scored a big "FAIL" when it came to flirting
Patel: Do you know what his screen name is?
Attractive girl: Yeah, it's Pokie the panther.
Middleton: Pokie the panda.
Attractive girl: Oh, pan-DA. Why panda?
Middleton: Uh... I like pandas.
On the last day of boot camp, Rosenkrantz, Patel, Stern and Roberts all played online in front of their students and all four booked winning sessions. It went a long way toward the group regaining their confidence when it came to meeting their $2 million goal. Later on, Stern offered some words of wisdom to Kaczka, who came to camp facing a $100,000 downswing.
"Losing $100k feels a lot worse than winning $100k feels good," Stern said.
As Kaczka related his plans to postpone college for poker, Stern made him think hard about what his actual day-to-day lifestyle would be if he carried out his plan. Would he be grinding it out while living at his parents' house? What about his social life? Where would he meet people and who would he hang out with?
On a lighter note, Rosenkrantz enlisted everyone's help in pranking Patel with water balloons. After forming a complex battle plan and staking out the driveway, they managed to nail him good, Stern landing a balloon squarely in Patel's face.
Finally, the students were given their "final exam" — a single-elimination heads-up tournament between the campers. Each camper was paired with his instructor, with the losers earning that week's penalty stunt. Stern and Kaczka were able to defeat Rosenkrantz and Middleton, then Schnettler and Roberts took down Taschner and Patel. Taschner and Patel were left to play Rosenkrantz and Middleton, who lost the match and were stuck with the stunt.
Roberts went to work tallying up the week's earnings:
Week 6:
Jay: +$29,100
Brian: +$32,500
Emil: +$17,900
Dani: +$26,500
Total: +$106,000
Total to date: +$141,100
Dressed as conjoined twins, Rosenkrantz and Middleton were forced to panhandle for donations for a separation operation (holding a placard that said "Donate 2 Separate!") on the Las Vegas strip while hula-hooping. The hooping didn't exactly work out, though many of the passers-by were too eager to try it themselves.
Oh, and once again, Stern picked up a whole bunch of hot girls. He should start marketing those secrets along with the poker lessons.
2 Months, 2 Million airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. EST on the G4 network. Check your local listings. To start your own million-dollar quest, open up an account on Full Tilt Poker today.
