Mason Malmuth stupidly posts never-before-seen emails between him and Pokernews involving trying to cover up Sklansky/Hawkbaker story

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:21 PM

Background

Brandi Hawbaker, a pretty girl in mid-2000s poker who had some serious psychological issues (and also dated Brandon), had been pursued by much older perv David Sklansky. She tolerated David for awhile, but his e-mails became increasingly aggressive and gross when she wouldn't do what he wanted, and she brought those to Micon. Micon posted some of these e-mails, and it was incredibly damaging to both Sklansky and the 2+2 brand, as Sklansky was Mason's most popular and prolific author.

Sklansky was aware Brandi was posting his e-mails, and in fact made reference to them when sending her further e-mails. However, he kept firing out more e-mails to her, and Micon was posting them in real time on his Neverinwpoker site, where I was an admin.

Neverwinpoker, started by Micon in 2004, was mostly owned by Pokernews when all of this took place in early 2008.

One of the worst e-mails to Brandi was one where David told her that she would be better off killing herself. Another e-mail threatened that David had loyal followers who would throw acid on her face (basically a threat to disfigure her), and that they'd do it simply to impress him. Brandi tragically committed suicide a month later.

Shortly after that, Brandi threatened to reveal sordid details of David's sexual relationship with an early 20s, mentally handicapped girl named Sue, which at the time was ongoing. David beat her to the punch by posting himself on 2+2 regarding the long story of Sue, as well as his dealings with Brandi. This blew up into a huge controversy until Mason basically shut it down. However, Mason was furious.

I did not have a role in the e-mail posting. That was Micon's thing. I was simply an administrator on NWP at the time, and I was banned for guilt by association.

Since Mason recently sold 2+2 (but still posts there), I have recently been calling him out for his previous behavior, including various past unjustified bannings of myself and others. Most notably, I called out the 2008 banning, which was simply for being associated with the guy who was (accurately) exposing 2+2's biggest author.

Mason has also been listening to the recent PFA segments about him.

In a bizarre attempt to "prove" that my banning were justifeid, Mason started a weird thread today entitled, "Why Was Witteles Banned Four Times".

In that post, Mason revealed a never-before-seen e-mail exchange between himself and the then-GM of Pokernews, John Caldwell. We get to see some interesting pieces of info in these 2008 e-mails.

The e-mails follow.

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:34 PM

The Emails

The e-mails were between Mason Malmuth, Tony Guoga ("Tony G"), and John Caldwell, in early March 2008, just after Micon had posted the David e-mails to Brandi, and posted commentary on them.

Mason apparently wrote to Pokernews in attempt to force them to take the story down!

We don't get to see the first e-mail Mason wrote to Tony G, but Mason described it today.

Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth

In the first email I have from March 6, 2008 Tony G tells me that "Micon runs the site independent of PokerNews and that the matter should be taken up with him," and that he "would like to sort this thing out." Tony then asked me to detail the true story and send it to him so that he could post it on neverwinpoker.

Mason then responded to Tony G:

Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth

It's a hate site, and Micon and Druff are the ones leading the hate charge.

You need to clean it up.

MM

Here's the rest of the e-mails:

From: Mason Malmuth
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 11:49 PM
To: tony guoga

Subject: Re: NeverWinPoker

Hi Tony:

Thanks for getting back to me. I have met John before and he has a good reputation, so I agree that's a good person to consult with. Now let me be a little more specific addressing the problem.

Simply put, Micon knows that the stories about David are not true. He is pretending to expose a wrong that he knows does not exist. It will become obvious that his accusations are nonsense when we release specific information about David and Sue which we plan to do in the near future. But we are not going to dignify Micon and www.neverwinpoker.com by offering explanations to him and dealing with him in any direct way since Mr. Micon is the problem.

As for Two Plus Two, there is nothing "wrong" at our site. I asked David to stop posting for a few days because he was under extreme stress due to your people making fun of those in his family, I was not happy with the accusations that there was something seriously wrong with him -- we have been working together for over 20 years and if there was any sort of problem I would be the first to know, and I was also totally disgusted with thefilth that had entered www.twoplustwo.com via the Never Win Poker people.

Also, for your information the two people I included on the cc list are Mat Sklansky, David's son, who is the general manager of our company and who also is in charge of all moderation on www.twoplustwo.com, and [redacted] who is our marketing director and who also works closely with Mat on many issues inside our company.

Best wishes,

Mason Malmuth
Owner and Publisher
Two Plus Two Publishing LLC
www.twoplustwo.com

From: John Caldwell
To: Mason Malmuth
Date: March 7, 2008

I try to stay out of NWP things, but this is something that needs to be addressed, and addressed now. I will speak to Micon today, and resolve it.

From: Mason Malmith
To: John Caldwell
Date: March 7, 2008

Hi John:

Thanks for getting back to me. If you would like to talk, our office number is, and my cell number is XXX. I'm usually in and out of our office, but am able to answer my cell most of the time. I'm also up very late.

Again, I want to emphasize that www.neverwinpoker.com is simply a hate site (that masquerades under the pretension of no censorship) and that this Micon person is the problem.

For instance, when Micon writes in his latest blurb at the top of the home page: "The guy that started inbredsue.com (please make it more topical) has done this piece on David Sklansky's Sue."

it is nothing but hate, and serves no other purpose. Also, when they state we are doing massive bannings, there's no truth in that. The only people banned related to this issue from www.twoplustwo.com are Micon and Druff, and some gimmick accounts that came on our site just to cause problems.

(There were a couple of people mistakenly banned as associates of neverwin.com who were quickly reinstated.)

Best wishes,
Mason

From: John Caldwell
To: Mason Malmuth
Date: March 14, 2008

I tried to create a solution here, but the solution I desired was not possible.

Ultimately, it came down to this. PokerNews has a financial stake in NWP, but the deal with them specifically states that they have 'complete creative control'. I tried to inject some common sense into said 'control', but Iwas not successful.

You will note that we have removed PN branding from NWP, and removed Tony's face from the site. His name will also be removed.

It's no secret I was not a fan of this deal, and in fact I was never consulted. I'm not sure what else I can do here, except to try to facilitate some type of solution between you and Brian.

You can see these posted at: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...times-1794373/

However, note that they are a bit hard to follow on 2+2 due to how Mason posted them, so I cleaned them up for readabilty (without removing/editing any content).

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:37 PM

Mason Explains It All

Mason just posted this in the same thread a short time ago, in response to a user critical of him brinigng this up.

Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth

Lou:

I'm willing to answer legitimate questions in this thread. And again, I'll mainly be sticking to facts that are easy to point to -- usually posts.

13 years ago Witteles was banned from this site and the reasons should be clear from my email that was posted in Post #2 above. On their site, at that time, neverwinpoker.com, they were promoting another website called inbredsue.com, and pictures of Sue's mother also appeared on their site. Clearly, they were trying to hurt innocent people.

Witteles has claimed that Micon was the one responsible for all of this. But he had his picture on the top of neverwinpoker where this stuff appeared. He either should have gotten this stuff off the neverwinpoker site or disassociated himself from the site. He did neither, so he was banned from 2+2.

And this stuff hasn't stopped. ON his current site, you can find pictures of me photo shopped into a Nazi uniform. I find these pictures quite insulting. How he can allow stuff like this on his site is hard to explain, but he claims it's a free speech site. Perhaps you should ask him.

Also, Witteles now has a new theme in that I was trying to cover up David's actions -- listen to his latest podcast. Again, from my email that appears in Post #2, it should be clear that this was not the case.

Mason

**dwai** · 08-19-2021, 04:41 PM

MASON BODYING DRUFF

**NickyPipes** · 08-19-2021, 04:46 PM

Brother this was interesting to read, interesting email exchanges. Was hoping to read some from Tony G

Brother are you jealous of Mason MoulMouth?

It seems to me you might be. You are using this opportunity to attempt to disgrace him, probably as a reaction to the news that he sold his website for a massive sum of cash in a deal with Russians

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:47 PM

Analysis/Response

In his e-mail to John Caldwell, Mason wrote, "Simply put, Micon knows that the stories about David are not true. He is pretending to expose a wrong that he knows does not exist", and also said, "I was not happy with the accusations that there was something seriously wrong with him -- we have been working together for over 20 years and if there was any sort of problem I would be the first to know..."

These are both false.

The stories Micon posted were indeed true, and in fact David confirmed it. Micon was posting true and correct copies of e-mails sent to her by David Sklansky, some of them in real time.

David also confirmed (in 2007, 2008, and very recently) that he first had an underage girl named Saura living with him, and then he had a mentally handicapped young woman named Sue living with him. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with both girls, and admitted to being decades older than both of them.

Also, Micon posted various e-mails in 2008 from David where he threatened to have acid thrown on her face, and told her she would be better off killing herself. As I mentioned, Brandi did indeed commit suicide a month later, yet Mason apparently wasn't bothered enough about this to disassociate from David.

Instead, the approach was to e-mail Tony G and Pokernews and demand the story and evidence get removed from Neverwinpoker.

Additionally, both myself and Micon were banned from 2+2 because Micon brought this true story to light.

Furthermore, Mason admits that I was NOT banned for breaking any 2+2 rules, nor was I banned for any role in this situation. Mason instead claims that I was banned because I had my face on the top of NWP, and that I should have disassociated with the site because Micon posted a true story about David's bad behavior. What?!

In any case, I would like to thank Mason Malmuth for exposing that, yes, he was trying to cover up David's vile actions because he wanted to protect his own income stream from David's books.

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:53 PM

Other Facts of Note

I was not fully aware that Micon had a discussion with John Caldwell about this. Micon may have mentioned to me in passing that Mason complained to Pokernews, but I was never given the full detail, and I presume Micon never saw this e-mail exchange.

I also never knew that Tony G made the NWP deal without consulting Caldwell, and that Caldwell was unhappy when Tony broke the news that they had already made the purchase. I'm surprised Caldwell admitted this to Mason at the time, but I believe it.

The NWP/Pokernews deal was directly negotiated between Micon/Dustin and Tony G, though Robbie Davies was probably also involved behind the scenes, as he immediately got involved and started posting on NWP as soon as the sale went through.

Finally, while I knew that Tony G reverted his initial plans to be a big part of NWP (and had his picture taken down), I was never aware it was specifically because of this particular controversy. I thought that he just underestimated the level of degeneracy there, and thought better of putting his face to it.

**NickyPipes** · 08-19-2021, 04:53 PM

Brother what do you mean: “ then he had a mentally handicapped young girl named Sue living with him. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with both girls” young girl!!??

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by NickyPipes

Brother this was interesting to read, interesting email exchanges. Was hoping to read some from Tony G

Brother are you jealous of Mason MoulMouth?

It seems to me you might be. You are using this opportunity to attempt to disgrace him, probably as a reaction to the news that he sold his website for a massive sum of cash in a deal with Russians

Brother I am not the slightest bit jealous of Mason. He is a bitter old man, and everyone's true feelings are coming out on 2+2, now that he is no longer in power there.

If Mason had even a modicum of dignity, he wouldn't have sold his baby to the Russians and allowed everyone to expose the years of sordid behavior over there, and his role in it. His one legacy (being at the helm of the world's biggest English speaking poker forum during the poker boom) is being further tarnished with each passing day.

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by NickyPipes

Brother what do you mean: “ then he had a mentally handicapped young girl named Sue living with him. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with both girls” young girl!!??

Sue was both mentally handicapped and decades younger than David. He was over 60 when his 2008 relationship with her came to light. She was early 20s, and by David's own admission, "mentally handicapped".

There were also bizarre pictures shared of her posing with dolls (as a young adult in her early 20s), and dressing like one herself, indicating a perpetual childlike state.

Whole thing was really sick.

I believe David met her when she was underage, as well.

**NickyPipes** · 08-19-2021, 04:59 PM

Brother didn’t also have an extremely successful publishing house?

**NickyPipes** · 08-19-2021, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Originally Posted by NickyPipes

Brother what do you mean: “ then he had a mentally handicapped young girl named Sue living with him. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with both girls” young girl!!??

Sue was both mentally handicapped and decades younger than David. He was over 60 when his 2008 relationship with her came to light. She was early 20s, and by David's own admission, "mentally handicapped".

There were also bizarre pictures shared of her posing with dolls (as a young adult in her early 20s), and dressing like one herself, indicating a perpetual childlike state.

Whole thing was really sick.

I believe David met her when she was underage, as well.

Brother I think it indicates more than just her childlike state which I am sure is true. I would not be surprised if this David fellow wasn’t into some really nasty stuff.

Brother a guy like Nicky Pipes isn’t happy to hear about something like this. I’ve heard the rumors about this but not heard so many details until now.

Brother it’s very disrespectful that your team made a website called inbredsue

Do you regret that?

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by NickyPipes

Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Sue was both mentally handicapped and decades younger than David. He was over 60 when his 2008 relationship with her came to light. She was early 20s, and by David's own admission, "mentally handicapped".

There were also bizarre pictures shared of her posing with dolls (as a young adult in her early 20s), and dressing like one herself, indicating a perpetual childlike state.

Whole thing was really sick.

I believe David met her when she was underage, as well.

Brother I think it indicates more than just her childlike state which I am sure is true. I would not be surprised if this David fellow wasn’t into some really nasty stuff.

Brother a guy like Nicky Pipes isn’t happy to hear about something like this. I’ve heard the rumors about this but not heard so many details until now.

Brother it’s very disrespectful that your team made a website called inbredsue

Do you regret that?

Brother, I had completely forgotten about the "inbredsue" website, but I believe it was made by a user of NWP, and not any of us. I definitely had nothing to do with it.

As I said, this was all Micon's thing, and while some users behaved in a crass fashion regarding the entire story, the bottom line was that the information being exposed about the situation was true.

**country978** · 08-19-2021, 05:09 PM

were you in fact responsible for the inbredsue website as it was suggested?

**NickyPipes** · 08-19-2021, 05:11 PM

Brother the “guys” who ran two plus two have something seriously wrong with them

No business man would continue to write damaging emails knowing they were being posted on a troll forum if he was right in the head

These are sick and perverted fellow, deranged

Brothers, we can only imagine how annoyed the fellas at PokerNews were to be receiving these emails? But they still handled it professionally. You think they want to spend their time brokering some deal about forum drama?

Compare that to the weirdos at two plus two

**Dan Druff** · 08-19-2021, 05:15 PM