Needs some love.

No. He was banned for making numerous personal insults. Also, it was always made clear that if the insults would stop he would be able to post again.

MM

In the old style Texas gambling joints where I spent so much of my life, the houseman was King. There was a final pronouncement that meant the discussion was over, "Hey. I pay the rent on this joint!"

This is Mason's business place, and he is most tolerant. The title of the thread is false to start with, and I had never heard that before, and I have been rather active blogging and writing about poker. Some folks on here are looking for small reasons to confirm the false headline of the thread. Mason is a bigger man than me for allowing it. I'd of locked it, and thrown away the key.

lol

whats the hubbub bub about hate on the big MM?

Is it also the Texas style to ass-kiss the guy in charge?

Mason = cranky (as in cantankerous)

Malmuth = just (as in fair, equitable)

All in all, I think Mason Malmuth is ok.

I think the fact that this thread exists proves that.

But as for Malmuth Mason, watch out for him, he's just cranky.

i guess mason has no comment on this

The title is subjective so how can it be false? Are you saying nobody in the poker community hates MM? Pretty sure at least Gary Wise does as well as everyone at Bluff Magazine.
I try to respect old people but jfc you're annoying, imo

Back in the ol rgp days everybody hated everybody, or so it seemed. Poker discussion moved to 4 wear Malmuth could rool the roost by censoring the fourm, but that doesn't make the hate go away.

BTW, the archives of Rgp are still there (google grooups) and full of names like Daniel Negr, Doyle Brunson, Joh Juanda, Malmuth, Sklansky, Badger, Gary Carson, and a bunch of others. etc before anyone had heard of them. Reading their catfights is hilarious when you think about their celebrity personae.

lol so true

Sounds like he doesn't suffer fools gladly. No shortage of them!
Good trait in my opinion.

There is an inherent tension between the open forums and the paid products of 2+2. As a poker author with books published by others (including one Mason Malmuth has mentioned favorably on this site), I've run into this a number of times.

Obviously this isn't just a 2+2 problem. It's an issue in all media, to a greater or lesser extent. The issue is more what we expect. Local weekly papers aren't expected to do objective restaurant reviews. The New York Times is.

In the books forum it's somewhat understandable that 2+2 books will be promoted and others will not. I've debated this with TT and others.

The bigger issue is in the strategy forums, which are still very good but increasingly intermingled with semi-promotional content from coaches who also have sponsored content on 2+2. I think it is probably to be expected that when someone is paying $5,000+ a month in advertising fees, their voice may also speak a little louder in the free areas.

lol

Mason's bark is worse than his bite, even when it's up the wrong tree.

<VBG>

I'm happy to say he really is a sweetheart, even if he would adamantly deny it. Mason gets a bad rap, mostly from people who have never met him. If he were as some think, this thread would not exist. ...and he's been baited by far better than this.

I think that just the very nature of 2+2 (both the forum and publisher aspects) makes it obvious that Mason is the nuts. I've even had a couple of small arguments with him in these forums, and I felt honored that he participated in them.

Edit: whoever compared Mason to Jacob and David to the nemesis/smoke was making a very apt analogy in some ways. Not that David is evil or anything, but just a mysterious evil genius. Mason is the benevolent dictator.

Lol... although not at Northrop, this is pretty much describes my job.

Careful reading of this thread and the background material, with an eye to reading between the lines and for not accepting everything at face value, should answer OP's question.

Most likely because he is insecure and hates to be critisized. My take on him.

What he said.

Is he the most personable human on Earth ? I don't know that I'd assign him this label - though to be fair, my three (3) interactions with him all occurred during red chip LHE games (two as an opponent, one as a drooling admirer who approached him during a deck change to say "hi" and introduce myself).

In all three instances he was polite, attentive, and [appropriately] modest. I hope I'm afforded the opportunity to run into him again.

- C

he's liked, but not well liked.

You have to give credit to Mason. He has been around a long time. When he started writing poker books along with David Sklansky it was unprofitable. I remember David's original hold-em book being sold in in Gamblers Book Club for a few dollars. Poker exploded and 2+2 was there for ride. Now the poker publishing business is highly profitable. New players come along every day. Wonder what would happened to poker if California and the Internet didn't come along. I remember many days in Las Vegas when they couldn't even spread a 10-20 limit hold-em game between the downtown and the Stardust. The days when Phil Helmuth would come into town from Michigan and the locals would sent him home broke every weekend. Phil had the last laugh. Many of those old time limit hold-em players from the Stardust are broke or dead. Phil is eating Sushi in a penthouse suite at Aria.

LOL. The couple Masons I know are pleasant to be around for about 3hrs tops.

Actually this isn't true. Our business was profitable from the time I self-published my first book in 1987.

Best wishes,
Mason

Mason > Eric Morris x 10000