Mike Postle is fighting back against the plaintiffs who claim he cheated on live-stream at Stones Gambling Hall. The Northern California poker player filed a motion to have a $10 million civil suit against him dismissed.
Postle’s co-defendant, Stones Gambling Hall, has also filed a similar motion. The casino recently argued that there isn’t proof cheating occurred. And, even if one of their players cheated, they aren’t responsible for a customer’s actions, the motion filed earlier this month claims.
Stones also faces a $10 million lawsuit filed by 25 plaintiffs who claim to have been cheated. Mac VerStandig, who specializes in poker law, is representing the alleged victims in the case.
Postle has been mostly absent since the accusations came to light. In October, he appeared on Mike Matusow’s podcast. He denied the allegations in the interview and said he would one day release evidence proving he didn’t cheat. But we’re now six months since Veronica Bill brought forth the allegations and not one shred of evidence has been released by the accused cheater.
Postle has avoided poker media since the Matusow interview. He is now, however, attempting to have the entire lawsuit dropped.
Lawyer Questions How Postle Motion was Leaked
We know that Postle filed a motion to have his case dismissed on March 25. We know this because there is a court document available on RounderLife.com, a poker website that appears to be taking a pro-Postle stance in this case, as opposed to most media pundits and poker players on social media who believe he’s a cheater.
VerStandig, the plaintiff’s lawyer, finds it peculiar that RounderLife was able to obtain the court documents.
It is peculiar @RounderLife has obtained Postle's motion, filed "late this afternoon." Counsel were e-mailed copies earlier today; it has not been docketed, hence no clerical stamp appearing thereupon. I'll forbear from commenting on the motion itself. https://t.co/yJXd06ydcG
— Mac VerStandig (@mac_verstandig) March 25, 2020
RounderLife has a history of defending Postle. On Jan. 9, the poker site posted an article titled, “New Numbers Cast Doubt on Postlegate.” Since Postlegate exploded in October, RounderLife has posted more than 10 articles presenting their evidence in favor of Postle’s innocence, but we couldn’t find any articles on the site that oppose that narrative.
Postle Seeks Dismissal
Postle is accused of cheating on live-streamed “Stones Live” cash game shows that appeared on YouTube. His accusers allege that he used some sort of electronic device to view his opponent’s hole cards, winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. The amount he won over more than a year remains in questions, however.
For the alleged behavior, he now faces a $10 million lawsuit from some players who faced him in those games. The trial is scheduled for May 5, 2020, at the United States District Court Eastern District of California in Sacramento.
But the court documents RounderLife mysteriously disclosed indicate Postle is seeking a dismissal of the case. Postle’s attorney, William Portanova, penned a 15-page motion to US District Judge William Shubb. In the document, he argues that the defendant “lacks a cognizable legal theory or sufficient facts to support a cognizable theory.”
He also states in the motion that factual allegations against a defendant must be enough to raise a right of belief above the speculation level.
In layman’s terms, Portanova is arguing that the accusers can’t prove cheating occurred based on Postle’s improbable win rate. To prove their case, Portanova suggests, they’d need hard evidence such as video catching him cheating or an audio recording of Postle admitting to cheating.
That argument is why many poker players, including some who believe Postle is a cheater, don’t have confidence that justice will be served.
