Comments on: Changes At Noted Poker Authority

By: Ed Miller

Ed Miller — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:18:04 +0000

Well, it seems painfully naive at this point, but I never intended with my original post to stir up controversy… just wanted to give you guys a little heads-up about some changes.

As I said above, I appreciate those of you who have been supportive, and I hope to win back those of you who are upset.

I’m going to lock this thread because I’d like to get back to the poker strategy. If you guys still want to talk about it you can go ahead and do that on the message board.

By: EGJ

EGJ — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:50:25 +0000

Presumably Ed cannot say where the threats are coming from either because he has been threatened not to or because part of his agreement to stop the threats was to keep the source anonymous.

But this has Mason’s fingerprints all over it, IMO:

1) Mason has a history of zealous overreactions in protection of 2+2: see Dan Druff, Gary Wise, Andrew Brokos incidents etc.
2) These overreactions include threats; e.g., according to Gary Wise, Mason delivered this message to him: “If he in any way does anything to harm me or my company, he will feel the full wrath of 2+2.”
3) Mason has a history of prevaricating about these overreactions.
4) Mason locked the 2+2 thread and posted misleading information that seemed to implicate stoxpoker.
5) It’s possible that stoxpoker requested that Mason lock the 2+2 thread, as Mason claims, but it seems unlikely – notice that they haven’t locked the thread on their own site (http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13129).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:37:29 +0000

Stoxpoker are nazis who steal candy from babies and beat up old women!!!

This speculations quite amusing. I just worry all this bad PR for stoxpoker may reduce the likelihood of seeing more Ed videos.

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:33:11 +0000

So who’s behind all of this now? I just want to make sure I hate the right ppl (and possibly boycott their products).

BTW Ed, I’ve gotten a lot out of your articles, great site!! THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORT!!

By: jamleeco

jamleeco — Sun, 18 May 2008 17:50:51 +0000

Hey BetMax, I think you missed the beginning, the site is staying up. =)

By: Bet Maxim

Bet Maxim — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:58:42 +0000

Wow, very disapointed to hear . You are without a doubt one of the best poker author and coaches and I have enjoyed this site very much . I followed you to Stox poker and have enjoyed your video’s . Sorry to hear you are shutting down the site, good luck in your ventures.

By: jamleeco

jamleeco — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:39:14 +0000

Hey Ed,
Sorry for your troubles. Your vocabulary set off quite a tempest. Hey, for my $.02, you know from my past statements that I have always thought highly of you as an instructor and as a human being. Nothing’s changed. =).
Your private dealings really have nothing to do with anyone here. For whatever reasons, now if someone wants to read an archived article, they pay, if they don’t think it’s worth it, they don’t pay. I face these decisions everyday, at the poker table and at the uhhh, store. Free enterprise or some shit like that.

You have provided a lot of free info for a long time, and put el mucho work into your site, not to mention your own $. It doesn’t really matter where the pressure came from, things change, and you do this or close the site. I’m just glad you chose to keep the site open.

One last thing I didn’t really catch, how the hell did poor Elaine get dragged into this. Sad as that is it actually made me laugh, as in, what the hell? I guess someone is trying to infer you are not a moneygrubber, just henpecked? Hee hee =)

Hang in there Ed. You still have plenty of old-time loyal supporters around. Keep up the good work.

By: Str8

Str8 — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:25:37 +0000

“Ed, would that be the speculation and innuendo that you started by by making vague references to threats and pressure without saying anything about it.

Surely someone with your IQ would know this would stir up some traffic on 2+2?”

Exactly my reasoning. I love your blog, but the first post was pretty much a self-inflicted PR-desaster. You gave everybody with sinister fantasies a lot to speculate about.

I think it would be about time to make clear the exact reasons behind your decision to stop the free archive.

By the way: I have no problem whatsoever that you try to make money out of precious content of your own making. That is perfectly fine. As I said, I really love your blog.

I just think that many people, including myself, think that one thing does not make sense: Usually, you seem really frank and outspoken, sharing all your thoughts and even some of your feelings with the readers.

What on earth happened that you do not do exactly that now? Why so secretive?

By: Digi

Digi — Sun, 18 May 2008 04:21:12 +0000

Ed,
I’m not sure what you’re saying in your last comment. Were you threatened, just not by Stox, or did you miss-use the word in the first place?

I don’t really follow “internet poker gossip”, and I barely even know what Stox do, so I was never jumping to that conclusion. I’ve seen you mention once or twice that you have other literary enterprises, so if anything I was vaguely assuming it was some publisher getting twitchy somewhere, but I’m not clued up enough to know who that would be.

As for the comments thing Nuggat, how would that work? A bunch of forum post disjointed from the original article? How would anyone know what they meant, or weight their value?

By: Nuggat

Nuggat — Sun, 18 May 2008 03:48:58 +0000

Digi,
Just speculation here… I’m guessing the comments will move to the forum instead, where they will stay in perpetuity for all to read without having to by subscriptions. That’s how a lot of these kinds of websites work so I’m guessing that’s what NPA will do, too.