{"id":116786,"date":"2019-10-09T12:32:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T19:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=116786"},"modified":"2019-10-09T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T23:31:10","slug":"poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Poker Players Sue Stones Gambling Hall, Mike Postle for $30 Million in Alleged Cheating Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stones Gambling Hall, the California cardroom<\/a> at the center of a possible poker cheating scandal<\/a>, has been named in a $30 million lawsuit brought by 24 players who believe they have been financially harmed by the alleged scam. Also named is Mike Postle, the player who plaintiffs believe was relayed information about their hole cards during a series of Stone Live Poker cash game streams by person or persons unnamed.<\/p>\n

\"Mike
Analysis of Mike Postle\u2019s poker hands on Stones Live Poker revealed a quality of play that was \u201cmultiple degrees higher than that achieved by the best poker players in the world,\u201d states the lawsuit. (Image: Stones Live Poker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the cheating allegations are true — and they are yet to be proven categorically — Postle\u2019s accomplice must have been a member of the Stones Live Poker technical staff, or at least had access to the back end of the radio frequency identification (RFID) system that reads players cards for broadcast.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the players claim they believe they know who this might have been, but are \u201ccognizantly refraining from making such an allegation against this particular Defendant \u2026 until further information can be gleaned through the discovery process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspected accomplice is referred to as \u201cJohn Doe 1\u201d in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The cardroom itself is not accused of complicity in the alleged cheating. But the lawsuit claims Stones \u201ccontinually sought to downplay\u201d complaints that cheating had occurred, while simultaneously \u201cpromoting Mr. Postle as an idiosyncratically gifted individual imbued with poker skills so immense as to be incomprehensible to the average person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internet Sleuths <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The \u201cdiscovery process\u201d is largely being conducted online in numerous public forums, as well as by well-known poker bloggers like Joey Ingram, Doug Polk and Matt Berkey.<\/p>\n

Since the allegations surfaced in late September, when former commentator on the show Veronica Brill took to Twitter to air her concerns, forum members have pored over footage to analyze hands and discuss the statistical implausibility of Postle\u2019s play and win-rates.<\/p>\n

\n

Postle did not win every session he played on the streams during a period of more than a year. But according to the lawsuit, \u201cplaintiffs have information and a belief that such sessions correlate to the absence of Mr. Postle\u2019s chief confederate, John Doe 1.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On those occasions, Postle played sub-optimally, the lawsuits states. The rest of the time, analysis of his play revealed \u201cstatistics not only unfathomable in the world of professional poker, but, too, situation decision-making in which almost every so-called guess to be made by Mr. Postle is done so in a manner that optimally benefits his monetary interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, Mr. Postle\u2019s poker winnings \u2013 considered in the prism of both metrics and hand-for-hand decision making \u2013 on Stones Live Poker have been not merely outliers but, in fact, exponential outliers, representing a quality of play multiple degrees higher than that achieved by the best poker players in the world,\u201d it continues.<\/p>\n

Postle is estimated to have won roughly $250,000 during the sessions.<\/p>\n

Keep It Under Your Hat<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The suit also notes that Postle only ever played the Stones Live Poker stream sessions, despite many other similar streams being available elsewhere in California, and rarely hung around afterwards to play in normal games once the stream had finished.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs allege Postle either received information about hole cards via his cell phone, which was habitually held in his left hand concealed under the poker table, or via a communications device embedded in his baseball cap, or both.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges racketeering, fraud, negligence, and unjust enrichment against Postle and his unnamed accomplice or accomplices, and negligence on behalf of the cardroom. It brings a further accusation of fraud against Stone\u2019s poker room manager, Justin Kuraitis, for allegedly covering up the situation, which allowed the purported scam to go on longer than it should have.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs are seeking damages of $10 million from Postle, $10 million from Stones Gambling Hall, and $10 million from Kuraitis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stones Gambling Hall, the California cardroom at the center of a possible poker cheating scandal, has been named in a $30 million lawsuit brought by 24 players who believe they have been financially harmed by the alleged scam. Also named is Mike Postle, the player who plaintiffs believe was relayed information about their hole cards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":116787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoker Players Sue Stones Gambling Hall, Mike Postle for $30 Million<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mike Postle, an unnamed accomplice, and Stones Gambling Hall hit with $30 million lawsuit from poker players after cheating scandal explodes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poker Players Sue Stones Gambling Hall, Mike Postle for $30 Million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mike Postle, an unnamed accomplice, and Stones Gambling Hall hit with $30 million lawsuit from poker players after cheating scandal explodes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-09T19:32:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-09T23:31:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Postle2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"636\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/\",\"name\":\"Poker Players Sue Stones Gambling Hall, Mike Postle for $30 Million\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Postle2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-09T19:32:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-09T23:31:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Mike Postle, an unnamed accomplice, and Stones Gambling Hall hit with $30 million lawsuit from poker players after cheating scandal explodes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/poker-players-sue-stones-gambling-hall-mike-postle-for-30-million\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Postle2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Postle2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":636,\"caption\":\"Analysis of Mike Postle\u2019s poker hands on Stones Live Poker revealed a quality of play that was \u201cmultiple degrees higher than that achieved by the best poker players in the world,\u201d states the lawsuit. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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