I finally paid attention to the Mike Postle situation

IntenseHeat

IntenseHeat

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Okay, so I finally paid attention to the whole Mike Postle situation. I'm just like wow!

First I watched some of the videos of people like Doug Polk going over some of his sessions, reviewing his hands and play and pointing out his peculiar body language. He definitely seems to be looking down at something that he is either holding in his left hand, has on his lap or between his legs depending on the session and where he is seated at the table. The high camera angles make it so obvious that you have to wonder how nobody at the table notices.

It's not just his body language, it's also his play. He knows exactly when to bluff, when to call, and when to get away from a hand. As his unusual play is pointed out in hand after hand, I started thinking back to the POTRIPPER scandal, where a player using a superuser account could see all of the other player's cards. He was caught because "his play was consistent with that of a player having access to every player's hole cards", because he always knew exactly when his opponents were weak and when to fold even though he was holding strong hands. Sounds familiar. His fellow players noticed and were able to identify his unusual pattern of play, even though it was an online tournament. They were able to see it by his play alone, without any of the peculiar body language or odd posture that Postle can be seen exhibiting. So when I observe Postle's body language and couple that with unusual pattern of play it becomes harder to dismiss what I'm seeing.

Of course, as Doug Polk points out, nothing you really see is conclusive. It's very suspicious. But it's not conclusive. Even when you can see that Mike Postle's phone being held in his left hand, and he quickly turns it over when the player seated next to him shifts his position, you can't actually see what is on the phone. You only know that he is holding it on his lap, in his left hand and appears to repeatedly look down at it before making key decisions.

What really seals it for me is one particular youtube video by Joe Ingram (joeingram1). I believe it is the fourth of a five part series of videos. This particular video doesn't focus on Mike Postle's peculiar body language and unusual pattern of play. It instead shows Postle's play in his last session before he suddenly starts holding his phone under the table (in his lap, or hand, or between his legs) and begins playing in "God mode". In it Mike Postle seems to be an average player, winning some hands and losing some. You see none of the perfectly timed bluffs, brilliant calls, or incredible lay downs. You don't see any of incredible "soul reading" ability that he begins do display in subsequent sessions. He folds the best hand to bluffs on several occasions, he makes several ill timed bluffs, and makes calls with the losing hand multiple times, like normal players do. In fact he doesn't seem to play all that well. He kind of gets owned. It's only after he introduces this new posture and phone positioning that he begins to demonstrate an incredibly high level of play.

You could probably dismiss Mike Postle's body language. We've all seen a lot of strange body language from players trying to keep from giving off any tells. Maybe there is nothing to the fact that he holds his phone in his lap. After all there is supposed to be a rule against having your phone at the table. Even if it isn't being strictly enforced, why flout it? Maybe he is just this incredible player. Maybe it's just that he's played with these particular players so many times that he has become familiar with them and has developed reads on them. When you look at any one of these things by itself, you might be able to dismiss it. But when you look at them all together, it all begins to look, as they say, curiouser and curiouser.
 
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MrPokerVerse

MrPokerVerse

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The best one I saw was the Omaha hand that was shown as NLHE. He keep running his cards over the reader and looking at his lap. What a piece of work this guy was and the one who was also in on it.
 
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