It’s been several years since the Mike Postle cheating allegations were at the center of the poker world, but the saga recently returned to the mainstream.
Veronica Brill, former commentator of Stones Live Poker at Stones Gambling Hall in Sacramento, began an animated YouTube series retelling the story.
Brill, also considered the whistleblower in the alleged cheating, dubbed the series “God Mode.” She published it on her personal YouTube channel, and four episodes were available at the time of publishing.
Brill released the first episode just shy of two weeks ago, and each episode is 14-18 minutes long. The series title alludes to Postle’s reputation and nickname as a poker God on the Stones Livestream.
Her series explains more than just the surface details of the accusations. It provides a more detailed account of her experience with Stones.
Postle’s Incredible Win Rate
In September 2019, Brill accused Postle of cheating on the stream in a series of tweets. She didn’t have any theories about how he did it, but his incredibly unorthodox style, combined with his seemingly unachievable win rate, led her to believe foul play was involved.
Over the course of Postle’s year-plus on the show, he won upwards of $300,000 mainly playing $1-$3 and $5-$5 no-limit hold ’em games. The games were usually incredibly deep-stacked, but winning that much in that timeframe was enough to raise her suspicions.
Brill had a front-row seat to Postle’s dominance nearly the whole time he played. In addition to being one of the rotating cast of commentators, she also hosted one of the games, an uncapped $1-$3 no-limit hold ’em game called “Veronica and Friends.”
Her initial accusation was less of an accusation and more of a warning to those in the area. She included an 18-minute YouTube clip with several curiously played hands, all resulting in Postle winning the pot.
In one hand, he was on the wrong end of a cold deck with a full house against a bigger full house. He just called the river bet. On the other hand, in a four-way pot, he bet and four-bet to $5,000 (yes, $5,000) with A-2 on Q-Q-4-5 after the flop was checked through.
The tweets and hand clips sparked nightly investigations by poker podcaster Joey Ingram, and internet sleuths began hypothesizing how Postle was cheating.
Eventually, the leading theory was that Postle was receiving hole card information to his phone from the production studio. Many theorized Justin Kuraitis, Stones’ tournament director who ran the stream, was Postle’s accomplice.
Brill details the allegations in her series. You can watch the first episode below:
Legal Battle Ensues
After the theories became mainstream, 88 players who lost money to Postle filed a $30 million lawsuit against him, Kuraitis, and Stones Gambling Hall.
A few months later, a U.S. District Judge in Sacramento dismissed the charges. However, the plaintiffs reached an undisclosed settlement with Stones instead of endless appeals.
But it didn’t end there. Postle filed a $330 million countersuit for defamation against several in the poker community. But two months after the suit was filed, Postle’s lawyers dropped him as a client.
The suit was officially dropped just four months later. Aside from an appearance in 2023 at a tournament in Biloxi, Postle has abandoned the live poker scene.
Postle And Kuraitis Re-Emerge
Despite being absent from most cardrooms, Postle still pays attention to the poker world. During a recent Solve For Why podcast, high-stakes pro and show host Matt Berkey discussed Brill’s series.
Then, Postle showed up in the live chat and continued to claim his innocence. There was a brief attempt to get him on the show, but nothing materialized.
It’s possible it wasn’t actually Postle on the other end of the internet connection, but Kuraitis reappeared at the same time, making it more likely it was Postle trying to get on the show.
During an X (formerly Twitter) spaces that same day, Kuraitis publicly spoke about the situation for the first time in nearly five years.
In previous statements, Kuraitis maintained that Postle was innocent. But on this occasion, Kuraitis said he was about 80% sure Postle didn’t cheat, and if he did cheat, he was happy that he cheated the ones on the stream.
“Because the people that [claim] he cheated, the people that joined the lawsuit to try and get a couple extra bucks for their gambling addiction and sued me and dragged my name through the mud with nothing but fake, made-up data, I honestly hope they got cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Kuraitis. “I really hope they did. So if he did cheat, at least he cheated those people.”
