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New Mike Postle development (2 Viewers)

WedgeRock said:
Next time we're sitting at a poker table, I'd love to hear this story. You, @mike32, are just a wealth of anecdotes.
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The good Russ H stories would come from Mike N and his old Nik's Poker Palace blog. I remember him writing about it there but it was over ten years ago. Unfortunately Mike retired from live poker and only plays chess now. I do see him at Buffalo Wild Wings occasionally though and I think he stills does the weekly PokerStars tournament that several of our regs play in.
 
The saying, "a leopard never changes its spots" springs to mind.
 
mike32 said:
The compelling smoky 1994 video starring Dick Van Patten is still on YouTube.
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Really cool @mike32. Never played against Russ H. but I have played against Al Krux a couple of times. Super nice guy.
Interesting to see him in this video as well.
 
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WedgeRock said:
Got it. If you're gonna cheat, do it at a California casino... its a free roll... If you get away with it, great. If you get caught, they can't collect.

That's great public policy, California.
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The applicable California law was written in the days of the Wild West. Poker was considered "immoral" at the time, so the courts decided that they would not intervene in gambling disputes. If someone had an ace up their sleeve, that was on you and your trusty Colt .45 to resolve the issue.

Of course, today nobody is pulling a gun in a card game. Poker is a family-fun game. Televised, shared by millions, and taxed by the State of California. Unfortunately, like many old laws, it sits unchanged in a dusty law book while time marches on.

The judge did however allow an opening in the ruling that will allow the players to go after Stone's Casino for the rake. Between the recent Covid shutdown, and the massive rake that players may be able to reclaim, the Stones chips may soon be available as bankruptcy kicks in. It won't hurt Postile, and it wont help the players that tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars... but we may get some very nice chips out of the deal. :D
 
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Poker Zombie said:
The applicable California law was written in the days of the Wild West. Poker was considered "immoral" at the time, so the courts decided that they would not intervene in gambling disputes. If someone had an ace up their sleeve, that was on you and your trusty Colt .45 to resolve the issue.

Of course, today nobody is pulling a gun in a card game. Poker is a family-fun game. Televised, shared by millions, and taxed by the State of California. Unfortunately, like many old laws, it sits unchanged in a dusty law book while time marches on.
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It's still considered to be immoral by some and unwanted competition by others, not to mention a few well-placed "bribes."
 
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from my understanding wasn't it a stones employee helping him by sending him hole card information? If so they should sue stones.
 
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WedgeRock said:
What are their damages? Loss of reputation? Loss in business opportunities? Seems like a proof nightmare.

Postle stole from the other players, not the casino.
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A nightmare to show a correlation in lost revenue directly tied to this scandal. They would have to spend a small fortune and take that risk knowing that even if they won Mike could file bankruptcy before a verdict.
 
Well, players should prosecute Stone's, Stone's should prosecute Postle and Kalikatis (or whatever his name is).
 
Sounds like there's an impasse. Between the inadequate laws and the difficulty of proving exactly what happened, it may well be the case that no one can do anything lawful about Postle but ban him permanently from playing anywhere.

But what about an old-fashioned solution like breaking his fingers? Probably can't take the money back by force, and it'd be difficult to redistribute it fairly among the victims anyway, but there'd be a certain justice in breaking the tools he used to steal from people.

This dude needs to face consequences of some kind. He cheated a lot of people, and so far all he has to show for it is a big pile of ill-gotten money.
 
Casinos are more persistent and effective persuing players than the other way around. Look how fast they put lock on Phil Ivey founds.
 
The other problem here is that the allegations imply that the tournament director and Postle and some unnamed third party colluded, which means in some ways Kings and Postle help each other out in their denial of the collusion. Their individual defenses overlap in a way that can limit evidence in either case. It almost feels like Kings did a “friendly suit” against Postle to create the defenses against the victims.


The other problem with the ruling is that any damages against Kings seemed to be limited to the rake collected (and from the order it is ambiguous whether it is total rake or rake during hands Postle played) so not a lot of money for victims when you factor in legal bills.

All this to say like the post above that justice seems to lie outside the legal system.
 
upNdown said:
Strange that California precedent bars claims to recover gambling losses, and this is the first we're hearing of it. You'd think that would have been part of the story all along.
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So, if a CA casino incurs lossed from a cheating patron then they're just out-of-luck? What if a CA casino is cheating the patron, they can't sue to recover those losses? That seems odd.
 

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