Jay Rosenkrantz Talks 2 Months, $2 Million on G4

Debuting on Sunday, August 16th at 9:00pm ET on cable station G4 is the brand new online poker reality franchise “2 Months, $2 Million.” As part of the show, four players must earn $2 million collectively over a two-month period. “2 Months, $2 Million” participant Jay “Krantz” Rosenkrantz sat down with Poker News Daily to share his thoughts heading into Sunday’s premiere.

Poker News Daily: Tell us how you guys are connected. How did this group of four that will compete on “2 Months, $2 Million” come about?

Rosenkrantz: I was concentrating on taking a year off from poker to finish up at NYU. Then, I moved into the house and started playing high-stakes. I would be playing sessions and Emil Patel would mention how’d he play hands differently. It opened up a whole new way to play.

Brian Roberts is the most brilliant poker mind of anyone I know and he’s managed to maintain a lot of anonymity. People started calling us Team Israel. Three of us are Jews and Emil is a token Jew. Dani Stern moved in with us the following summer and we had been friends with him for a while. He stepped up and filmed the show after Ariel Schneller didn’t want to do it. Dani was always one of our friends and is the heart of Team Israel.

PND: Can you give us some insight into your strategy for “2 Months, $2 Million”?

Rosenkrantz: Heads-up poker is the easiest way to make money. We’re all Heads-Up No Limit specialists. It’s easy to make a lot of money playing directly against another player. You don’t have to fight other opponents at the table as well. You become really good at getting money out of pots. You become really good at folding big hands and making big bluffs.

Our general strategy was to play as big as possible as often as possible. You’re also adhering to G4’s production schedule, so you can’t always be around for every game. It quickly became apparent that big games weren’t running as often as they had in past summers, so we had to plan. We had to make sure that one or two of us were playing all of the time. We also started playing a good amount of Pot Limit Omaha. Emil and I have been learning that game and Dani and Brian played a lot of high-stakes Mixed games.

PND: How did you get started in poker?

Rosenkrantz: I’ve been playing since I was 12 years-old and we all have the same general story. Brian dropped out of high school, won $100 in a private club, and felt he was God’s gift to poker. He believes he’s the best and, to his credit, he’s good. For me, I didn’t know what I was doing. I started talking about poker to lots of people and then started grinding.

PND: What has been the reaction from your family and friends to your appearance on “2 Months, $2 Million”?

Rosenkrantz: It’s being billed as a quest show. It’s a documentary-style reality show, so it’s more about what life is like as an online poker player. All of these young people play professionally and have the freedom to travel the world. Now, the veil is being peeled back. My family and friends are supportive. We’re in a strange situation for people in their early 20s. Most people with money at our age are independently wealthy or world-class athletes. We just became good at a game. You’ll see every common theme about poker explored in this show and I’m proud of what we did.