Mike Postle will not be spending a lifetime behind bars, nor repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the 80+ people who hired a lawyer and sued the man for cheating on the Stones Gambling Hall live stream.
Californian judge, William B. Shubb, dismissed all 14 charges levied at the shady disposition of Postle and Tournament Director, Justin Kuraitis, along with Stones Gambling Hall’s owners King’s Casino, leaving whistleblower Veronica Brill seething on Twitter.
To bring you up to speed, Brill alleged that Postle cheated players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while playing on the Stones Gambling Hall’s live stream. The scientists within the poker community suggested that Postle’s win rate was blatantly absurd, and Postle maintained that he was a live poker sage in the same ilk of Michael Jordan is to basketball.
The Losses
The judge dismissed the five counts levied at Postle (fraud, negligences, misrepresentation, negligence per se and unjust enrichment), and the four aimed at Kuraitis. On the latter, the judge said that the Tournament Director was not responsible for ensuring that the ‘game was carried out in a manner reasonably free of cheating.’
The judge also dismissed the six complaints gathered against Stones Gambling Hall’s owners King’s Casino (negligent misrepresentation, negligence, constructive fraud, fraud, libel per se against Brill, and violation of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA)).
Judge Shubb didn’t completely shut the door in Ver Standig’s face, allowing him to gather further evidence, especially in the case against King’s.
The failure of the plaintiffs to disclose the identity of the alleged co-conspirator who provided Postle with hole card information worked against them, but the judge is giving them time to find a name. The judge also wants to know the dates that the plaintiffs competed in the alleged game so that the correct rake can be determined.
The VerStandig View
In an op-ed showcased on PokerNews, VerStandig cited the main issue as being an 1851 law that disallows gamblers to bring civil cases to the beak due to the illegal nature of gambling at that time.
Ver Standig doesn’t blame the judge; he blames the antiquated law.
“The discomforting aspect, rather, is that California – a major industrial state with a vibrant economy of legal card rooms up-and-down the Pacific shoreline – still adheres to an antebellum doctrine by which gamblers may not seek judicial recourse for their cheated losses.”
He goes on to say that he is disappointed that a ‘licensed and legal casino’ would rely on this doctrine and the message that speaks to their customers.
VerStandig also cited Mike Postle as a victim, albeit tongue in cheek.
“He {Postle} has, from the outset, insisted his play was pure and simply gifted in nature. His surrogates have plastered poker Twitter, various websites, and the industry’s message boards with protestations of his innocence. He is simply slowrolling us all, the narrative often goes; soon enough he’ll avenge his good name.
“Mr. Postle is now deprived of that opportunity. He did not secure dismissal of this lawsuit because the plaintiffs could not colorably allege he was cheating or even how he did it. He did not prevail by convincing others of his deep intellectual poker prowess. He was let out because he had the altogether perverse luck of living in a state that has not appreciably changed its views on the justiciability of gaming obligations since the Millard Fillmore administration.”
Here are the memorandum and order.
And a link to VerStandig’s op-ed.
Here is VerStandig to show us to the door.
“Our suit will go forward against at least Stones Gambling Hall; the court has afforded us leave to amend our complaint, and we will do so. This column is not a postmortem.”