Gossip Column: Postle Files Motion to Dismiss Suit in Cheating Saga, Reports Suggest He Leaked His Court Documents

  • Profile picture
  • Namita Ghosh March 26, 2020
  • 2 Minutes Read

While cheating is not all that uncommon in a game of cards like poker, the Mike Postle (cover image) controversy that came to light in September last year quickly snowballed to become the most controversial story of the year.

Postle, who is a former dealer and supervisor at St. Croix Casino in Wisconsin and a regular at the live-streamed cash games at Stones Gambling Hall, managed to land himself in serious trouble after being called out for cheating by Veronica Brill, a former commentator at the casino! Suspected of getting hole card information through an anonymous abettor, his unconventional gameplay in numerous spots and his bizarre win-rate looked highly suspicious to many top pros who commented on the issue once the information became public. The most prominent of them was the popular vlogger Joey Ingram who devoted weeks to comb through hours of live-streamed footage to try and uncover the truth!

The entire hullabaloo that followed eventually resulted in a class-action lawsuit being filed against Postle with Stones being named as one of the defendants. The legal drama has continued for over five months now, and for the longest time, Postle was being blamed for trying to dodge the summons.

Earlier this month, the Stones Gambling Hall filed a motion seeking a dismissal of the charges against it.

As per the latest reports, Postle has also filed a motion seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit against him. Postle’s submission to the court has reportedly been leaked, and if a report on Buzz Poker is to be believed, it was Postle himself who leaked the documents on RoundersLife, an affiliate site.

 

Postles Files Own Motion, Details Leaked?

We had, on March 8, reported that Stones Gambling Hall has filed the motion to dismiss the pending civil suit against it, stating that it has not found any evidence of cheating in the alleged incidents and was therefore not liable.

Not surprisingly, on March 24, Postle followed the same path by filing his own motion to dismiss the civil suit. In his defense, he has reportedly stated that the allegations against him are too vague.

According to a report posted on Rounder Life Magazine, the motion reads – “Plaintiffs fail to describe any specific poker hand, with any specific Plaintiff, describing any specific fraudulent conduct, causing any specific injury… Plaintiffs’ Complaint alleges that Mr. Postle worked with an unidentified “confederate” through an unidentified method to secure information regarding the cards of unidentified poker players in unidentified historical games. There is no attempt to describe any particular hand or any particular conduct by Mr. Postle that is alleged to have comprised fraud.”

Postle claims to be unaware of any specific instance where he is accused of misconduct, maintaining that he cannot offer anything except for a general denial. He added, “Any inference of unlawful conduct drawn from the naked fact of his winning would be entirely unfounded and illogical. Gambling is inherently an activity involving players hoping for statistical aberrations. The conclusion that a winning gambler is cheating is a non sequitur, though undoubtedly a common one among losing gamblers.”

But how did Postle’s submission become public? Attorney Mac VerStandig, who is representing Brill and 24 other plaintiffs in the case, hinted in a recent tweet that it could be Postle himself behind the leak. VerStandig shared the Rounder Life Magazine article and questioned how the media obtained Postle’s motion that was filed later.

Kickass poker even put up details alleging that Postle may have altered the documents and posted them himself on Rounder Life Magazine.

 

Mike Postle’s Cheating Saga – The Timeline

> Between 2018 & September 2019 – Mike Postle won roughly $250,000 in $1-$1 NLHE live-streamed cash games at Stones Gambling Hall.

> September 29, 2019 – Veronica Brill, former commentator of Stones Live Poker, accused Postle of cheating during the live-streamed cash games at the venue called ‘Veronica and Friends’.

Brill tweeted her initial allegations, before releasing a YouTube compilation of hands that showed Postle’s play and unbelievably high win-rate. A few hands were highlighted where Postle’s betting action was inconsistent with the cards that he held.

Postle later claimed that the RFID technology used to read the hole cards had malfunctioned, and the cards he’d held were different from the ones shown in the live-stream. Brill’s video sparked a debate on poker forums and Twitter.

> September 29 – Stones Gambling Hall tweeted its official stand saying that the charges were “completely fabricated,” adding that the establishment had conducted an investigation and concluded that there was no evidence that any cheating took place.

> October 1 – Postle tweeted his denial of the cheating charges.

> October 1 – Poker vlogger Joe Ingram tweeted that he will go through every single hand that Postle had played during a session at the Stones Gambling Hall and study his entire play versus hand histories that have been posted.

>October 1 – Former WSOP champion Scott Seiver tweeted that he was sure that Postle has been cheating the game.

> October 4 – Stones Gambling Hall temporarily halted all broadcasts from the casino as part of Stones Live Poker and stopped the use of RFID playing cards as well. The casino also announced that it has hired Michael Lipman and re-opened investigation in the matter.

> October 8, 2019 – Poker player and lawyer, Maurice VerStandig, filed a lawsuit at U.S. District Court representing Brill and 24 other plaintiffs allegedly affected by the cheating.

Postle was accused of five charges, including fraud, unjust enrichment, and violation of RICO statutes. The lawsuit sought at least $10 Million in damages.

Stones Gambling Hall was also named as one of the parties in the lawsuit.

> December 19, 2019 – January 2, 2020 – VerStanding tried to serve the legal summons to Postle. After five unsuccessful attempts, VerStanding spotted Postle inside his house and left the summons on Postle’s doorstep.

> January 8 – Postle signed to acknowledge receipt of the summons.

> February 4 – Postle was reported to lack representation in the civil lawsuit.

> March 7 – Joe Ingram won the Global Poker Awards (GPA) Journalist of the Year and Content of the Year – Video Awards – for his videos around the Postle cheating investigations.

> March 4 – Stones Gambling Hall filed a dismissal motion for the pending civil suit against it, stating that it has found no evidence of cheating and was not liable in the matter.

> March 24 – Postle files a dismissal motion against the lawsuit.

While this issue might very likely drag on in the courts for a long time, it seems that Postle is desperate to dispel the defamation that the cheating allegations have brought onto him.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Top Online Poker Rooms

Top
PokerGuru