Stones Poker
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Stones Gambling Hall, the casino at the center of the Mike Postle cheating allegations, has launched a second investigation into the cheating accusations.
Nearly a year after an alleged cheating scheme at Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Heights rocked the poker world and spawned a $30 million lawsuit, the case has been settled for an undisclosed. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. The Stones Live Poker Twitter account even changed it’s profile photo to one of their logo behind bars, in an attempt at poking fun at themselves that many called tone deaf. Stones has since. Late on October 2nd, Stones tweeted it was 'suspending all broadcast of poker play' while it conducted a 'multifaceted investigation with outside experts,' - seemingly the second investigation. STONES LIVE puts real poker action on a worldwide stage. Every Monday and Wednesday and Satuday at STONES GAMBLING HALL, poker cash games are streamed on YouTube and Twitch. It’s your chance.
On September 29th, the official @StonesLivePoker account tweeted that 'no evidence that any cheating had occurred' was found after a full investigation and that '[t]he recent allegations are completely fabricated.'
Late on October 2nd, Stones tweeted it was 'suspending all broadcast of poker play' while it conducted a 'multifaceted investigation with outside experts,' - seemingly the second investigation into the matter.
Stones tweeted details of the appointment of Michael Lipman, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California on the evening of October 3rd. Lipman is also the former chief of that office’s fraud unit.
(1/4) [email protected] is committed to the integrity of our games. We have been alarmed by allegations of unfair pl… https://t.co/m6hUTLiLdb
— StonesLivePoker (@StonesLivePoker)(2/4) Yesterday, we temporarily halted all broadcasts from Stones. We have also, as a result, halted the use of RFI… https://t.co/EOjXAKJyEP
Stones Poker Twitter
— StonesLivePoker (@StonesLivePoker)(3/4) To that end, we are today announcing the creation of an independent investigation team. The team will be led… https://t.co/lHSgCyzv83
— StonesLivePoker (@StonesLivePoker)(4/4) He is assembling other members who will be announced in due course. Stones intends to conduct this investigat… https://t.co/5wkONRW7e5
— StonesLivePoker (@StonesLivePoker)Owners' Lawyer Leads Investigation
While Lipman seems like a worthy candidate for the complex role of investigator, he appears to have formerly acted as a lawyer for the owners of Stones. To some, that puts into question the independency of the investigation.
After Andrew Burnett of PokerTube asked on Twitter if Lipman has had any dealings with Stones and whether the case was brought to the attention of the California Gambling Control Commission, twitter user @PocketAbes replied with images of a letter penned by Lipman from 2015. The letter showed that Lipman was the personal attorney of the Stones Gambling Hall owners.
Gambling lawyer Mac VerStandig gave his input to the revelations, calling for Stones to share the fact that “the head of the independent investigation team is your former counsel.”
Stones Poker Cheat
Maybe worth sharing the head of the independent investigation team is your former counsel? No doubt a qualified and… https://t.co/6iFEWudMKX
— Mac VerStandig (@mac_verstandig)Cheating Scandal Makes Mainstream News in the U.S.
The Postle cheating case made it onto ESPN’s Sports Center on October 3rd. Host Scott Van Pelt summarized the situation in easy to understand language for the masses. He ended with an analogy to basketball, wondering why - what's supposed to be one of the best players in the world - keeps playing low stakes.
“If you're the equivalent of a guy that shows up to play pick-up basketball, and you never ever missed a shot for a couple of years, wouldn’t you go play in the NBA? If you’re some sort of poker God who almost never lost, who made the right call or fold virtually every single time... If you were this good, why would you be playing in games only with a video feed at a $1/$3 table at Stones poker room? Why wouldn’t you be in Vegas, winning all the money in the world?”
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Phil HellmuthTom DwanAntonio Esfandiari
Every poker room has a local hero. I remember when I first started dealing and there was a guy that played in the $10-$25 PLO game who once made the casino a loser for the day because he beat the high-limit blackjack tables for so much. He was the local hero for a while.
I myself was a bit of a local hero in the private games that I dealt and played in the Fort Worth area after I came back with a World Series of Poker bracelet many years ago. My poker room had a regular make the final table of the WSOP this year, and he was a hero for a while.
They come and go in cycles, and they each spend some time at the top of the heap. Eventually, they all fall off, except for a chosen few who make it to the biggest games and the highest stakes tournaments, and then they’re branded local heroes for life.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about a man named Mike Postle, who has been a local hero at Northern California’s Stones Gambling Hall for quite some time now. He’s now taken his fall, it seems, but that tall pedestal that his local room put him on is partially responsible for how long it took for people to see the truth.
In case you’ve been in a coma for the last week, you can catch up on the story here, here, and here.
First, let me say that if Postle is guilty of cheating, it’s entirely his moral failing (and any potential accomplices), that is causing all of the hardship to those affected by this situation, namely those who lost a estimated combined $250,000.
I’m not interested in litigating all of the facts of the case regarding his alleged cheating. If you want to form your own opinion, there are threads on internet forums, Twitter sleuths, spreadsheets, YouTube videos, and all kinds of other things out there. Joey Ingram and Doug Polk’s YouTube videos have been useful to watch to get a grasp of what’s going on.
That said, I think it’s important to figure out how we got this far down the road (15 months, supposedly) without anyone speaking out about the way some of these hands were played.
The people in the commentary booth during the streams started seeing some crazy hands that Mike Postle played, but somehow were not skeptical. They didn’t think there were seeing anything nefarious, just some good old-fashioned soul-reading. They had their local hero and they had to pump him up to hype their live streams, to feel better about losing to this guy, or possibly because they just don’t understand poker and math on a level that would make Postle’s winning suspicious.
There was one person, however, that made this connection. She took notice of how weird things looked in this game, and she brought it up to management. Keep in mind, this was her employer, and the host of her game, yet she didn’t hesitate to rock the boat. If there’s a local hero in this situation, it’s Veronica Brill.
On her last appearance on Stones Live Poker, Brill saw a hand that really started to make her think. You can see her on the broadcast, shaking her head and saying, “It doesn’t make sense. It’s like he knows. It doesn’t make sense.”
This was the last show I did commentary on for Stones Live Poker. A lot of what @Mike_Postle was doing didn't make sense. It was after this show i decided that i wanted to take it to the MF streets.
This clip shows how confused I was by his play
https://t.co/fTJ9gyZlod
— Veronica 2.0 (@Angry_Polak) October 4, 2019
While the guy next to her is laying it on thick about how great a poker player Postle is, able to make incredibly-timed bets and raises when ahead, and some near-miraculous folds when he’s behind. He’s busy sucking up to local hero Mike Postle, when he should be as suspicious as the real local hero sitting next to him, Veronica.
To be fair, I understand the urge to idolize someone who has such incredible results. I understand the impulse to think someone that you’ve known for a long time can’t be capable of something so immoral as cheating in a poker game. Money and fame, even on a local level like Postle was experiencing as the hero for a year or so, is hard to pass up. It feels nice to have people think of you as the best player in the room. Money is helpful for all kinds of things. Mike mentioned in his defense that he’s a single father, and I personally can’t think of very many things I wouldn’t do in order to take care of my kids. So, I get where someone who has just a little bit less of a connection with right and wrong could justify his cheating.
It’s a real testament to Brill’s character that she had the ability to resist that temptation to idolize the local hero, and instead blow the whistle on something that looked wrong. Doing so actually made life more difficult for her in her local circles no doubt, with the backlash she received from Postle’s defenders.
Those of us who are outside of the Stones Gambling Hall community, however, have seen what she has done and we appreciate it. Allow me to give a big thank you to the poker community’s current local hero, Veronica Brill.
Considering your history with Stones and the people there, speaking up about this was a seriously brave and risky move. Writing to say thank you, and I hope the twitter-eggs don’t get you down.
— TonyDunstTV (@tonydunsttv) October 3, 2019
I remember this set of events and also remember that Veronica was torn on how to proceed. I encouraged her to speak with Justin again which she did. After that conversation she called/txted me and said 'That went as bad is it could possibly have gone'. https://t.co/INdn32jhPd
— Bart Hanson (@BartHanson) October 4, 2019
I should have mentioned this earlier – Veronica is the one that broke this wide open, she suspected Postle was cheating and asked Stones to investigate, when she was rebuffed she then started contacting poker vloggers etc like Joey and here we are. /Thread https://t.co/xTkhnbjcxq
— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) October 3, 2019
Wow thanks. I'm so pleased that the truth is coming out https://t.co/hUIhWMeYMA
— Veronica 2.0 (@Angry_Polak) October 7, 2019
So when is there going to be an apology to @Angry_Polak for both accusing her of 'fabricating' the allegations and internally pressuring her in the past not to come forward with this stuff?
Will that happen, or are we just supposed to forget that you vilified the whistleblower?
— Todd Witteles (@ToddWitteles) October 3, 2019
This story will be one of the biggest scandals in Poker history- There will be a movie made some day about this. Shout out Angry_Polak</a> <a href='https://twitter.com/Joeingram1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>Joeingram1@DougPolkPoker and anyone else involved in helping dig the dirt on this Mind-Boggling, somewhat fascinating story. #InTruthWeTrusthttps://t.co/0KIEd6UE5H
— {Tyler Kolness} (@TKOL10) October 4, 2019
Imagine attacking @Angry_Polak’s character after every well respected pro on the planet has weighed in and stands with her.
— Ozzy (@WizardOfAzaan) October 3, 2019
Stones Casino Poker Scandal
On behalf of Sacramento poker a huge public thank you to Angry_Polak</a> for all that she has done. Thank you to <a href='https://twitter.com/Joeingram1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw'>Joeingram1 for covering this story in the most perfect and enlightening way and thank you to all in 2p2 world and other poker communities for doing your part in this.
Stones Poker Atlas
— Matt HClaw (@MattHClaw) October 2, 2019