Normally one would expect poker rooms to provide all the action in online poker.

But of late the action has shifted to two poker forums. Mason Malmuth’s “2+2” and Bryan Micon’s “NeverWinPoker” (NWP) are involved in an ugly brawl that has the online poker world sitting back and watching. Speaking in poker terminology, 2+2 has upped the ante and has started banning everyone associated with NWP from its forum.

The latest to get the sack was Jennifer ‘Jennicide’ Leigh. This is the second time this month that Jennicide is in the news not for poker reasons. The first time was for baring it all for Playboy Jennicide issue currently on the stands. In her post on NWP Jennicide has revealed that she has been banned from 2+2. The reason is her long association with NWP, which she did not want to give up. She even made an appearance on the NWP radio show hosted by Micon. Jennicide is the latest in the list of celebrities associated with NWP that include Dustin ‘NeverWin’ Woolf, Todd ‘Dan Druff’ Whittles and Bryan Micon himself.

The trouble between the two forums began with revelations about David Sklansky’s questionable sex life, which on poker blogs is being labeled as Sklanskygate. Sklansky is Malmuth’s partner at 2+2. The tale as has been detailed at the NWP forum makes for an X-rated movie, as does the mud-slinging match that follows. It reportedly deals with Sklansky’s sexual exploitation of his handicapped girlfriend, Sue. Malmuth’s reaction was furious. He has gone on record calling NWP a “hate site”, “ticking time bomb” and damaging to the “poker industry”. Malmuth even contacted Pokernews and asked them to use their influence to squash the story from circulating.

Micon has retorted by calling Malmuth arrogant. He says Malmuth has no business to try and censor stuff written at NWP. Unlike 2+2, NWP is a democratic organization and people can write what they want. Micon claims that Malmuth is getting worked up because the Sklansky stories are damaging to only 2+2 and not to the entire poker industry. Sklansky threads are all over poker blog sites such as ‘Advantage Gamblers’ and ‘Internet Texas Hold’em’. The thread has been picked up on French sites as well.

Recently posts related to this issue began appearing at the 2+2 site as well and that is when Malmuth began seeing red. He began removing all pictures and deleting all threads that even mentioned Sklansky and Sue. It appears that for now even Sklansky has been stopped from responding to the charges because that is only fanning the story.

NWP is an uncensored forum that is admittedly and unashamedly degenerate. It does not discuss poker in an erudite way that is the hallmark of 2+2, but is geared to help online poker players find the best poker rooms. It does offer a number of deals and freerolls at many online poker rooms. But its principal objective is to provide a forum to online poker players where they can speak of their experiences at poker sites without hesitation. After all poker players are the best judges of poker rooms.

Author:  Renee Kingsley