At Least 19 Losing Sessions Uncovered In Mike Postle Cheating Scandal
PLAINTIFF’S CASE AGAINST MIKE POSTLE, STONES DISMISSED BY JUDGE – “On Wednesday, June 3, United States District Judge William B. Shubb granted motions to dismiss filed by King’s Casino (parent company to Stones Gambling Hall), Justin Kuraitis, and Mike Postle.” PokerNews.com
By Evert Caldwell, RounderLife News Team
To this point, the $250k+ profit and 94% win rate numbers listed by attorney Maurice “Mac” VerStandig in the Complaint filed against Mike Postle and Stones Gambling Hall have been “blindly” accepted as fact by the “poker community” and media.
In an article published on rounderlife.com on January 9, 2020 entitled “New Numbers cast Doubt On Postlegate” we exposed the fact that the numbers referred to as “95% accurate” from charts alleging Postle won $1,000 per hour and as much as $330,000, were deeply flawed. We released several reports in support of our findings, including hand by hand breakdowns and obvious “cash on the table” add-ons, not factored into the misreported numbers.
As a result, some who originally pushed the narrative “the profit numbers prove Postle’s guilt”, changed their position to, “his win rate is still completely absurd.” Many, including Plaintiff’s counsel simply disregarded the reports altogether and continued using the same $250,000+ profit numbers, while others treated it like a “big fish” tale, upping it to $400,000 (1:08:12).
Poker coach Jeff Boski reports Postle stole $500,000
The lawsuit claims Postle won over $250,000 and 94% of the sessions he played from July 18, 2018 onward but only lists 68 streams out of the 84 he actually participated in during that time period. In addition to disregarding (those) 16 streams, it also leaves out 8 more prior to July 18, 2018, four (4) of which Postle also lost.
Related
Mike Postle Not Making All The Right Moves – 2018 VOLUME 1
Mike Postle Not Making All The Right Moves – 2018 VOLUME 2
Plaintiff’s identify July 18, 2018 as the date the alleged cheating began.
The claim Postle started cheating at exactly 2 hours and 1 minute into the July 18 stream was the brainchild of a little known gamer named Gumpnstein. The theory as to why Postle would wait till half way through the stream to start cheating hasn’t been shared by the highly celebrated “savant”.
The 94% win rate claim in the lawsuit calculates to Postle only losing 4 sessions from July 18, 2018 onward.
Rounder Life has identified at least 15 losing sessions during the same time period.
It also found MULTIPLE sessions which were included in the lawsuit as winning sessions for Postle, where detailed data now proves he actually lost.
At least nineteen (19) losing sessions have been identified from Jan 3, 2018 to September 21, 2019.
The conclusive data (19 losses in 92 streams) puts Postle’s winning percentage at 79%.
Several streams left out of the lawsuit (in addition to those presumably excluded due to Defendant Justin Kuraitis’ absence) were actually documented on the Gumpnstein’s chart as losing sessions. It’s not clear if their exclusion was a mistake by Plaintiff’s counsel or if they were deliberately disregarded in an attempt to skew the data.
It doesn’t take a “savant” to understand how a player’s win rate statistics can be misleading if 24 of his poorest performing sessions are discarded from the calculations.
VerStandig did not respond when asked why multiple losing sessions were left off the Complaint.
Losing Sessions Identified By Rounder Life
Click here or on the chart below to access hand by hand data. Missing links will be added once data is finalized. Over $29,000 in missed add-ons and graphical errors were uncovered in the 21 sessions below.
Narratives Not Supported With Evidence
Postle’s July 24, 2019 losing session (Link) was one in which semi professional poker player Kevin “Racks” Roster participated in. As most in the poker community are aware, Mr. Roster suffered from terminal sarcoma cancer and moved to California to avail himself of the state’s right-to-die legislation. He died on July 26, 2019.
Shortly after the cheating allegations against Postle were made public, PokerNews published an article pointing out that a “TwoPlusTwo forum member “DonWon” posted;
“He cheated Kevin Racks!”
It also mentions Joey Ingram ‘investigated” the session but fails to clarify no actual evidence of cheating was uncovered. Ingram appeared surprised when he notices Racks in the stream, before insinuating Postle may have cheated him.
The narrative “Mike Postle cheated a dying man” quickly spread as a result, sparking numerous death threats and calls for bodily harm against Postle.
The next day, Haralabos Voulgaris, Director of Quantitative Research and Development for the Dallas Mavericks, “gaslighted” the unsubstantiated claim when he tweeted…
“Postle used the occult that night.”
Other than the baseless allegations, no evidence has ever been presented to support the hideous charge, yet it’s still repeated as fact by Brill and others.
Angry_Polak – Reddit (June 3, 2020) : “He is a horrible human who pretended to be friends with me and many others while stealing from us, while stealing from a man dying of cancer. He is now endlessly trolling me and instead of feeling bad that he cheated, he feels bad that he got caught.”
brandon (2bmifsud) : “I’d gladly take one for the team and murder Postle…”
Clear Evidence To Disprove Allegations Were Readily Available But Ignored
A hand by hand breakdown of the July 24, 2019 session, which was available if anyone took the time to “investigate”, totally contradicts the narrative. Not only did Postle not win a hand from Kevin Racks, he lost three pots to him for a total of -$235.
Postle also busted out of the session when his full house ran into a higher full house, which debunks the narrative that he never “blasted off” into big hands.
In addition, Tournament Director Justin Kuraitis was also present, which flies in the face of another narrative spread by many in the “poker community” and media, that Postle only lost or played sub par when Kuraitis was out of town.
VerStandig, who’s listed as an employee of PokerNews, recently penned an Op-Ed on the site discussing the case, but has yet to address obvious flaws in the evidence, or explain why losing sessions like this one were ignored.
PokerNews devoted full articles to topics such as a request for sanctions against Postle by VerStandig for the “serious” charge of using a ghostwriter, and also reported he may have avoided service, another irrelevant issue, notwithstanding the fact Postle was actually out of town when VerStandig was peeping through his window.
Yet the “industry leader” appears to have “put the blinders on” in regard to factual evidence disproving its colleague’s arguments.
Sleuth Data Went Unchecked
An example of the over $100,000 in add-ons missed by internet sleuths can be found here. In this instance a regular player in the game (AC) gives Postle $2,400 (in $100 white chips) as he leaves the stream. The $2,400 was calculated as profit for Postle by sleuths.
An example of how stream tracking errors led to misreported profits can be found here. In this hand a player (Harlan) loses his entire stack to Postle. The graphics show Harlan had $2.9 behind when he actually had around $1,150. Again, the (over) $1,700 error was also calculated as profit for Postle by sleuths.
The lawsuit claims Postle won over $250,000 in 68 sessions.
Rounder Life data not only shows Postle won far less, but he won far less playing in an additional 24 streams. He played 92 in all.
Of the 24 streams disregarded by the lawsuit, 11 were losing sessions and several were modest wins, yet Plaintiffs ignore those streams as if they don’t exist and misleadingly claim Postle’s stats were “…exponentially greater than the best poker players in the world.”
Plaintiffs also suggest winning 25 big blinds per hour is a “stratospherically phenomenal” feat. Many of the Stones Live streams had big blinds of $3, which would calculates to $75 per hour or a $300 win in a 4 hour session.
The lawsuit’s absurd methodology would translate to a $300 win being some extraordinary feat, yet Alisha (@alisha544) won $18,000 on her birthday !
Her winning session calculates to around 1,500 big blinds per hour !
What adjectives can be used to describe her session ?
VerStandig responded to a request from Rounder Life to share the data to back up the lawsuit’s claims by stating, “We will be sharing evidence in discovery, which is how lawsuits work.”
If the case moves forward against Stones, it will be interesting to learn how VerStandig arrived at the numbers he asserts, and to hear the explanation as to why 24 sessions, including 11 losing ones, were ignored.
While it’s possible VerStandig relied on unnamed “experts” in the poker community for the flawed numbers and ridiculous win rate claims he purports, he had months to vet the data following public reports it was inaccurate.
If he believed he could get a conviction or a settlement based on their findings, he has a big problem.
His “rag hand” has been exposed…and no one is folding.
♠♥♣♦
Continuing Coverage of Our Investigation
New Numbers Cast Doubt On Postlegate
Rounder Report : Breakdown Of Mike Postle July 20, 2019 Stream At Stones
Postle May Have Played Regularly At Other Casino
Even When Gump And John S. Get It Right, They’re Wrong
Mike Postle Re-loads Twice In A Session He Plays With Bart Hanson : No Mention Of Non-Reported Add-ons In Interview With Win Rate Graph Creator John S.
I Told Mike Postle To “Make Some Money With The Moneymaker, From The Moneymaker”
Evidence Supports Mike Postle’s Version Of Infamous “Moneymaker Hand”
Mike Postle “Smoking Gun” Cheating Theory Flops With New Revelations
Mike Postle Asks Court To Dismiss Complaint
Reporter’s Errors Lead To Misreported Facts In Postlegate
Unearthed Evidence Exposes Major Error In Lawsuit Allegations
New Revelations Deflate “Postlegate” Narrative
In 2007 Rounder Magazine recognized Mike Postle as an elite pro and provided him with merchandise to promote the Rounder brand. No other considerations have been provided. Mr. Postle has never had ownership rights, nor has he ever been employed by Rounder. Rounder Life Media is not in a position to determine Mike Postle's guilt or innocence. This will be determined by the official investigation(s) being conducted, or through a court of law, not speculation. We will continue to pursue all relevant facts related to this case and report such, whether they support or disprove the charges.
