The end of an era is often the result of a new one taking its place. Mason Malmuth recently announced the sale of the Two Plus Two website. And the new owners subsequently announced a new era for the site, one that won’t change anything drastically, at least immediately.
After 24 years in the hands of Malmuth and friends, a newer and younger generation of poker minds will revamp the forums and grow with the input of the poker community. The duo of new owners is already involved in Discord and social media channel discussions about the future.
Malmuth’s Announcement
It actually happened on July 13, ten days ago. Malmuth took to his own forum and created a new thread entitled: “Important Announcement: This Website Has Been Sold.” He started with some reminiscing.
“It’s hard to believe that it was 24 years ago when twoplustwo.com was launched, and at that time, when we started with just one forum, we thought it was only fifty-fifty we would get a post. But here we are many years and over 60 million posts later, and it’s time for new younger people to take over and make this site better than it has ever been.”
He only teased the new owners, mentioning that they created the Hand2Note HUD.
Malmuth did note that he will soon be 70 years old, and the offer for the sale was a good one. He didn’t mention any financials, but he did say that the new owners have the programming knowledge to upgrade the site. He acknowledged the need for change.
Meanwhile, he will consult with the new owners during the transition, as will Mat Sklansky and Chuck Weinstock. Other than that, they will simply become contributors to the site alongside the general poker public.
https://twitter.com/pokerprojones/status/1415203164664614913?s=20
Who are the New Owners?
Two people introduced themselves in a new thread on the forum. Andrew, posting as Andrii Plakhotnyi, claims to be a poker pro, though his focus is now in the technology field. His business partner, Max, is more well-known as a high-stakes poker player.
As disclosed, Plakhotnyi created Hand2Note, a HUD self-described as innovative, PokerStars-approved, and for professional poker players. He and his fellow software developers on the HUD project claimed to be poker pros in high-stakes online games for more than seven years at the time of launch. Among ten companies listed on the Hand2Note website as partners, Two Plus Two shows up next to Sharkscope, Poker Strategy, and World Poker Deals.
Plakhotnyi’s Linked In page indicates that he attended from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology from 2005-2009 and now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He worked as a professional online poker pro from 2007-2013 began working on Hand2Note in 2012.
A bio of Plakhotnyi on a Canadian entrepreneurial website called Launch Academy explained that he has always been an entrepreneur. He started his career as a software engineer but transitioned into poker and then to running Hand2Note. He lived in Thailand for several years but moved to Vancouver for access to legal and banking support that would foster his dream of building a “B2B service that provides game integrity for poker rooms.”
Future of Two Plus Two
The new ownership duo explained some of their visions for Two Plus Two going forward, though most of it is on a long-term basis. Some of the goals are fairly broad, but they will become more streamlined as the takeover proceeds and they receive input from customers.
The primary components of their vision are:
-Build an AI-powered forum platform hosted on twoplustwo.com (without prefix forumserver).-Build an international community of professional poker players.-Focus on user growth.-Address the problem of strict moderation and bans, possibly removing bans altogether.-Prioritize user experience over profits.-Grow social network channels.
Already, the new owners removed all banner ads, and they plan to quickly make the marketplace forums free for all visitors to the site.
On the other hand, Andrew vows not to use the site to market his own Hand2Note product.
For now, they are welcoming people to their social media channels and a special Two Plus Two thread dedicated to improving the site.
https://twitter.com/twoplustwoforum/status/1416182840723611652?s=20
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