19 May 2021Poker Gossip & Opinion

Mike Postle Appears in Court via Zoom to Argue Against Legal Costs Award

He has been seen less often than the Scarlet Pimpernel since his alleged livestream cheating came to light 18 months or so ago, but this week Mike Postle appeared once again on a stream. This time, however, unlike his ‘sick poker heater’, it was a court appearance and it cost him money!

Postle was forced to defend himself in the latest legal wrangling, his legal representative jumping ship several months ago after the alleged cheat “failed to comply with the written agreement between the firm and the client, and communication has otherwise ceased between the client and attorney."

That was according to Steven T. Lowe, of the Beverly Hills (CA) based Lowe & Associates, whose motion to be relieved of his duty was duly granted, leaving Postle lawyer-less for the second time.

At stake this week was a chunk of Postle’s supposedly ill-gotten gains, as Todd Witteles chased the Sacramento-based pro for legal fees and court costs.

We reported on the initial ruling this week that saw Poker Fraud Alert founder Witteles awarded $26,982 in the anti-SLAPP hearing, after Postle dropped his own $330million defamation lawsuit.

This award was less than the full $43,314.50 claimed by Witteles, Presiding California Superior Court Judge Shama H. Mesiwala calling some of his attorney’s fees of $695 per hour “excessive and unnecessary”.

Next it was Postle’s turn to argue that the award was excessive, claiming that he hadn’t forced Witteles to retain counsel at all. He also claimed that Witteles' defence counsel, “They took it upon themselves to do as much as they could to hurt me in this situation.”

He then described a “harassment and defamation campaign” as “extensive” and “ongoing”, despite voluntarily dropping his own case against Witteles, whistleblower Veronica Brill and others, including ESPN, Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk’s Upswing Poker.

You can listen to Postle’s legal wranglings and ramblings below, but the long story short of his latest day in court was that the man described as ‘poker god or poker cheat’ will still have to pay Witteles close to $27k.

This week could see him hit with another bill as Veronica Brill’s anti-SLAPP costs hearing is due to be heard, and as always we’ll bring you the full story as soon as it happens.

If you missed anything connected to the case over the past year, our extensive coverage of the Postlegate scandal can be viewed below:

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