its pretty obvious, but ill let others elaborate

Look at how he responds to posters in this thread.


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...n=&page=0&vc=1

What's your point? His comments seemed rational and articulate to me. He waited four pages before even responding the first time.

Im sure MM is lamenting the fact that there may be some ppl in the poker industry that don't like him. Then he realizes that he is part of the reason there is a poker industry...

I've listened to a bunch of podcasts and never heard anything like this. Which shows are you referring to?

Hi Everyone:

First off, I'm asking the moderators to keep this thread up but to apply our standard moderator rules when it comes to any specific post.

Years ago, I worked as a professional statistician, first for the government at the United States Census Bureau, and then for the Northrop Corporation. In both of these jobs, part of my responsibilities was to make sure that the work produced in the areas I had responsibility was concise and accurate. This meant part of my job was to correct other people's work and not tolerate anything inaccurate that was being presented, or prepared where my job responsibilities reached. This included correcting work done by high level managers as well as high level people who represented our customer.

In 1987 I said goodbye to my friends at Northrop and left my career behind to pursue poker/gambling which included writing about poker/gambling. David Sklansky was already working with me and we agreed that we would not only produce top notch stuff and attempt to move the state of knowledge forward, but would also put distance between ourselves and others, and there were a lot of them back in 1987, whose material was not at the standards we required.

This, along with steering our readers towards material that is also good, even if it is not a Two Plus Two product, and away from anything that we felt was questionable, has been our policy since the very beginning in 1987. We also are very conscious of treating others fairly and this includes paying our authors royalty rates which are almost unheard of in the publishing industry, but we are also willing to stand up when others take shots at us.

One aspect of this is that while we have become appreciated first by the players and now by most others in our industry, there are still some out there who are not pleased with the growth and success of Two Plus Two and have found it difficult to deal with us. And since it is already mentioned in this thread, I assume that this has something to do with our being left out of the Bluff Top 20 even though the past couple of years they included us and in the past year this website has almost doubled in size.

Anyway, over the years, especially once the Internet became important, I have read an amazing number of things concerning myself and the company that just isn't true. This includes reviews of our books where the material is misrepresented as being different from what it is along with explanations as to why the (misrepresented) material is wrong, to attacks on the small apartment I once lived in and the old car that I once drove. On the other hand, I consider this part of the price to pay for the level of success we have had.

By the way, one of the possible reasons that you may hear negative comments concerning me on other radio shows is that it is my policy, with only a few exceptions, not to appear on any of these shows. I prefer to work quietly behind the scenes and do not seek major publicity for myself. This goes back to our original attitude which I formulated with David, and that was to produce top notch stuff and let the product do the talking.

Best wishes,
Mason

He has integrity and sticks to his principles. I think that might be part of what other people perceive as being unfriendly, but on the other hand, I think it is also why there are so many people who respect him.

I think he's better off doing what is right than what is popular.

so this thread got really good

Makes a lot of sense. Bluff Magazine is terrible anyways I prefer Cardplayer.

2+2 not making top 20 is ridiculous sure, but I mean some of the people/entities that did make up the list were absurd.

How does Ivey not get #1. Dude has legit power. If he decided to leave full tilt I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of their customer base did as well.

Plus Joe Cada? Doubt he will have much more influence than a Jerry Yang

You didn't read the whole thread, did you?

no

This is like preferring herpes to AIDS.....

But if you had to choose....

Funny, but actually very true analogy. Nh.

Mason refused to shake my hand years ago because I said something on 2+2 that hurt his feelings.

Yeah, I pretty much dislike anyone who's name ends with "th".

The latest time was 2/5/10 The Poker Beat. When talking about the BLUFF Power 20, it was either BJ Nemeth, Dan Michalsky, or Gary Wise. Their comment on MM seemed very personal.

The bad press he gets is mostly bitchy people being bitchy about mason being a bit of a bitch sometimes.

I dont get the impression anyone hates him.

It was Gary Wise who said that he despises Mason. He did not elaborate, but he also gave Mason credit for his achievements in the poker world.

dutch boyd loves him.

If you want to thrive in this industry you are going to make enemies. Think of the interwebs (or even publishing) as a street corner selling crack. To make sure no one sells crack on your corner occasionally you have to get your hands dirty.

The biggest reason why 2+2 is a success, this is my opinion so take it for what it's worth, is the fact that they took advertising from third parties when others wouldn't. So they didn't come off as a shill for anyone and that allowed them to be perceived as the leader on allowing controversial subjects. Whether they are is debatable but the fact is if you want to talk about important things in poker 2+2 is mostly where you do that. If you are a competitor building a business model you can have phenomenal content and great poker tools but it will be hard to gain traction because when people want to talk about poker they want to do it on 2+2.

If you are a business owner maybe that's frustrating. If you are a player with 8,000 posts maybe you might feel under-appreciated. If you are a pro you are typically treated as one of the larger group. If you are a big honking deal elsewhere getting treated as a commoner might rub you the wrong way.

Overall though the forums here are similar to most places on the internet, they are mostly negative. Let me give you an example, let's say you are Annie Duke and every time you went on 2+2 people were ripping you, you might blame Mason or David for that culture. Other sites openly kiss up to these people but truthfully where has it gotten them? Sure they have had some success but nothing like 2+2. Now that is in terms of numbers of people. Profit is a different thing altogether. Certainly there are many more profitable sites on the internet, some of which climbed on 2+2's back to get there because of this sites policies towards advertisements.

Like most things you start with a plan and adjust to see what's working. What mostly works here is a culture of negativity. People mostly come here to complain, which just so happens to be a perfect fit for our hobby. Most people either are losers or lose big occasionally. If you just lost 20k, reading about Phil Ivey losing 2 million might just cheer you up a bit. Does anyone think that if Howard Lederer were to call up Mason to ask him to get rid of that thread because it devalues our skill argument that he would do it? I think the overriding assumption is that Mason would let Howard know that it isn't his place to ask him that (total assumption on my part obv but likely true). If you think every site works like that you are wrong, grossly wrong in fact.

When I think of every successful operation within poker their is someone that carries the big stick. Here that is Mason. The only places that I know of that don't really have anyone who is a bit abrasive also are only mildly successful or are losing money.

Really old durrrr post (and disagreeing with Malmuth):

jj> AQs, until your over 500or so BB's deep. Then it starts varying greatly depending on how your opponents play.

He gives us fairly wide range on these forums though and he doesn't have to. Not that I necessarily particularly like him much but I've also never met him so what do I know .... though the limited contact I had with him here as well as the ignoring of my PM on a certain subject .... neither endeared me to him ... but it doesn't matter much at all.

Most poker "insiders" know that Mason loves to pick fights.

This.

Wish this would be the standard in any business. Should be emphasized more in business/management schools.