Mike Postle Launches $330million Defamation Lawsuit Against Brill, Negreanu, Ingram and Others

The Postlegate cheating scandal took a bizarre twist when it was revealed that alleged cheat Mike Postle has launched a $330million defamation lawsuit against multiple people.

The list includes whistleblower Veronica Brill, podcaster Joey Ingram and Daniel Negreanu, as well as companies connected to Phil Galfond, Matt Berkey, Jonathan Little, Doug Polk and many others.

The lawsuit is aimed at almost every single well-known person who has publicly commented or investigated elements of Postle’s alleged wrongdoing.

For those not specifically named, ourselves included perhaps, the lawsuit appends ‘Does 1 through 1000’ as defendants.

As Witteles explained in a follow-up tweet,  that is “a legal mechanism to avoid some statute of limitations issues by adding people on later.”

The shock announcement may explain why the various pro-Postle Twitter accounts – including Justin Kuraitis, his anonymous PokerHeroes1 account, and the RounderLife magazine account that allegedly once employed Postle - have been close to silent this past week, as we reported recently.

It is also quite possible that Justin Kuraitis will soon launch a similar defamation lawsuit.

The Stones Gambling Hall poker director was accused, and recently ‘cleared’ in a settlement of the lawsuit, of being the inside man helping Postle to cheat the livestreamed cash game.

Postle’s lawsuit is seeking redress on the following seven points, with a ‘demand for jury trial’:

• Defamation – libel per se
• Defamation – slander per se
• Trade libel
• False light
• Intentional interference with Prospective Economic Advantage
• Unfair competition
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress

Although most defamation lawsuits are settled out of court, if there is no agreement or summary judgment, then the jury trial route is usually preferred for the claimant, as any damages awarded are almost always much higher.

If it does go to trial, then those accused by Postle will have to prove the truth of whatever statements or material they produced, if any, that were defamatory.

Truth is the ultimate defence in such cases, and it could easily backfire on Postle if a jury were to finally hear and see the mountains of evidence piled against him.

Unlike a criminal court, the civil court generally requires a lesser burden of proof, which could work both ways in Postlegate.

The list of those named as defendants is a high-profile, who’s-who of the Postlegate investigation…

Veronica Brill

The former player and commentator on the Stones Live Poker stream who first raised concerns about Postle’s possible cheating. Her concerns having been rebuffed by Kuraitis, she took them public.

Brill responded to the latest news with:

“The term "insult to injury" really hits strong with this one.”

ESPN

Talk show host Scott van Pelt took the Postlegate scandal mainstream on his SportsCenter newscast on ESPN. He asked of Postle:

“If you’re some kind of poker god who almost never lost…Why wouldn’t you be in Vegas winning all the money in the world?”

Joey Ingram

The popular poker podcaster took a deep dive into the suspicions over Mike Postle’s play. His first take on the scandal, almost exactly one year ago, has received 144,921 views on YouTube.

Haralabos Voulgaris

In a now-deleted tweet Highstakes poker player and sportsbettor Voulgaris stated:

“What I am witnessing is either a time traveling wizard, a cheat or the greatest poker player of all time.”

Daniel Negreanu

Negreanu has likely been picked for his deep pockets and for a few throwaway remarks that Postle cheated.

If Kuraitis decides to follow with his own lawsuit, expect DNegs to be named again after this tweet at the Stones TD: 

Upswing Poker

Doug Polk is the man behind Upswing, and was among those dissecting Postle’s incredible poker hands and behaviour.

He recently tweeted at Kuraitis…

Polk responded to the lawsuit news with a simple:

“Oh nice, this story just keeps getting more and more reasonable.”

iBusMediaLtd/PokerNews

PokerNews is the biggest news outlet for poker and is therefore another easy target with deep pockets. Not generally known for deep investigations into ongoing scandals, the Postlegate affair seemed to have galvanised them into changing tack.

SeatOpen LLC/Crush Live Poker

Bart Hanson is the pro behind the CLP podcast and he recently joined others in picking apart dozens of the most egregious hands played by Postle during his suspected Stones Live Poker cheating.

Jonathan Little Holdings

Jonathan Little is a popular poker coach who also covered Postle’s bizarre behaviour and play. He was accused of cashing in on the Postlegate scandal by changing the title of an old video to ‘God Mode (or Cheating?) by Mike Postle in a $5/$10 Cash Game.’

Solve for Why Academy LLC

The is Matt Berkey’s company, and the highstakes cash game player was instrumental in investigating the tech side of the Postelgate affair.

He produced a video entitled: ‘HOW MIKE POSTLE CHEATED STONES LIVE’, which states:

‘This brief breakdown demonstrates how Mike Postle could have potentially worked with someone in the control room to access a real time, live feed of Stones Live streamed games.’

Todd Witteles

Witteles is also known as ‘Dan Druff’, his alter ego running the Poker Fraud Alert website, which regularly covers scandals and real or alleged wrongdoing in the game.

He was the first to release details of the settlement reached recently that saw Kuraitis and Stones, though not Postle, ‘cleared’ of involvement.

RunItOnce,Inc

Phil Galfond is a recent arrival to the Postlegate investigation, and was stirred into action by Kuraitis’ recent outbursts and behaviour.  

PokerTube will bring you further updates on this breaking story as and when they become available.

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