Due to whatever form of mental illness he suffers, Martin develops these obsessive narratives in his head which, once established, can never be shaken.

It does not matter how many times you demonstrate that these beliefs are untrue. Martin will keep insisting his beliefs about you are correct.

This dates way back to the beginning. At first, it encompassed both myself and Micon.

He believed Micon to be a massive fish in poker, who undeservedly got stakes to events he didn't belong in, due to running NWP. This infuriated Martin, as he believed himself to be a superior poker player to Micon, and felt it was unfair that Micon got the stakes while he got nothing. Whenever Micon played WSOP events in those days (2000s), Martin would root against him, degrade him, and kept posting GIFs he made which mocked "The Micon System". In reality, while Micon wasn't a great poker player, he wasn't a fish. He just suffered from the "jack of all trades, master at none" problem, which plagues many mix game players. Micon actually improved over the years, and is a decent player at this point. I'm not sure what Martin thinks of his game now, but in the 2000s he would become screaming mad whenever the subject of Micon's poker play came up.

With me, it was different. Martin seemed to concede I was a winning player, albeit a "Robotron limit holdem nerd", so poker subjects didn't anger him when it came to me. However, with me there was a bigger, much different issue. He believed I was a callous, negative person who loved tearing people down and making them feel bad. He decided this before we even had a single interaction, back in 2007. Therefore, whenever I would call someone out in poker, even if I had evidence and was 100% correct, Martin would become infuriated, picturing a mean-spirited human being enjoying others' suffering. I think a lot of this was self-loathing. We've all seen how negative, nasty, and condescending Martin can get, and how he takes delight in bashing others. Martin probably saw glimpses in me what he hates about himself, and that sent him into a rage which still hasn't subsided 17 years later.

Over time, Martin has invented other obsessions regarding me, all of which turn him into a red-faced tiltmonkey when these subjects come up (or come to his mind):

- I believe I own the internet and censor anyone attempting to criticize me. There are hundreds of people out there who wish they could tell everyone how terrible I am, but can't find the platform to do so because I control everything.

- I lied about being a key figure in exposing the Absolute Poker scandal. I just co-opted everyone else's work and discoveries, then contacted 60 Minutes so they'd feature me on TV. It doesn't matter that I have the very first post on 2+2 about the entire matter, and directly lost to the cheater on AP. Somehow I stole other people's conclusions so I could pad my own ego.

- I just pretend to know about computers and coding, and in reality know nothing more than basic HTML coding. I'm lying about the Masters Degree I have in computer science. All of the custom features I wrote into PFA, including the ones keeping him from reading this post right now, just wrote themselves somehow. In fact, just seeing me post about the "PFA server" gets Martin angry, because he knows there is no server, and I just say that to look like I'm sophisticated and computery.

- Only a few dozen people listen to PFA Radio. I say it's in the 4 figures to pad my ego, but in reality nobody wants to listen to me.

- Despite having only a "few dozen listeners", I am very afraid to let anyone come on to PFA Radio to debate me, especially Martin. This is despite the fact that Martin has been on PFA Radio, uncensored, for hours at a time in the past.

- I killed the NWP/DD community. Even though almost nobody goes on forums anymore, he's convinced the entire 2007 NWP userbase would be actively posting here if someone else were in charge of the forum. He also believes they'd all come running back if he started a forum, even though each and every attempt to start a forum on his part was a laughable failure.

- I am the black sheep of my family. This would be the dictionary definition of projection. Martin's sister is estranged from him, and he's still getting money from Mommy and Daddy to get by at age 59.



You saw several of these themes come up during Martin's most recent stint on PFA. He'd get smashed, find something on PFA which reminds him of his various resentments, and then lash out. Sometimes he'd make a new thread to lash out, and sometimes he would talk shit in an existing thread.

There is no reasoning with him. Doesn't matter what logic or proof I try to present. He sticks to the above absurd talking points and won't back down. In fact, if I attempt to debate with him, it just gets him angrier, because he thinks I'm just using manipulation tactics to hide the "truth".

Unfortunately, there are two things as certain as death and taxes:

1) Martin will never go very long without relapsing into drinking binges.

2) Martin will always retain the above resentments about me, which fuel angry tirades when the aforementioned binges occur.



This makes it impossible for Martin to ever behave civilly around me long term.

Of course, it isn't just me. He's burned every bridge with everyone he's ever known, even his own sister. All he really has left are his two elderly parents, who only tolerate his nonsense due to a combination of parental love and guilt. Some parents blame themselves if their child is a fuckup, even if it wasn't their fault. I won't claim to know what made Martin the way he is, but he's irreparably damaged.