Mason Malmuth

Mason Malmuth was born and raised in Coral Gables, Florida. In 1973 he received his BS in Mathematics from Virginia Tech, and completed their Masters program in 1975, also in Mathematics. While working for the United States Census Bureau in 1980, Mason stopped overnight in Las Vegas while driving to his new assignment in California. He was immediately fascinated by the games, and gambling became his major interest.

After arriving in California, he discovered that poker was legal and began playing in some of the public cardrooms as well as taking periodic trips to Las Vegas where he would play both poker and blackjack. In 1982, he went to work for the Northrop Corporation (now Northrop-Grumman) as a mathematician and moved to Los Angeles where he could conveniently pursue his interest in poker in the large public cardrooms in Gardena, Bell Gardens, and Commerce.

In 1983, his first article “Card Domination — The Ultimate Blackjack Weapon” was published in Gambling Times Magazine. In 1987, he left his job with the Northrop Corporation to begin a career as both a full-time gambler and a gambling writer. He has had over 600 articles published in various magazines and is the author or co-author of 20 books. These include Gambling Theory and Other Topics where he tries to demonstrate why only a small number of people are highly successful at gambling. In this book he introduces the reader to the concept of Non-Self-Weighting Strategies and explains why successful gambling is actually a balance of luck and skill. Other books he has co-authored include Hold 'em Poker For Advanced Players with David Sklansky, Seven-Card Stud For Advanced Players with David Sklansky and Ray Zee, and Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big with Expert Play with Ed Miller and David Sklansky. All of these are considered the definitive works on these games.

Mason has also written a book on poker psychology titled Real Poker Psychology and is a co-author with Antonio Carrasco on a history book titled The History of the World from a Gambler’s Perspective. Both of these books are among Mason’s more recent works.

His company, Two Plus Two Publishing LLC, has sold over two and a half million books and currently has 46 titles to its credit. These books are recognized as the best in their field and are thoroughly studied by those individuals who take gambling seriously.