Mike Postle made a rare public appearance Monday night on Omar of The OTC‘s X Spaces conversation, where he continued his four-year denial that he cheated during poker live-streams. However, many listeners believed that he was never forced to answer any hard-hitting question from the hosts.
The Northern California poker pro said he’d like to have a one-on-one debate with his accuser, Veronica Brill, a regular player and commentator on the infamous Stones Live streams.
During the lengthy chat, which spanned more than an hour, the hosts played buddy-buddy with the accused poker cheater, refusing to challenge any of his comments.
Not surprisingly, Shaun Deeb and Brill were both critical of the discussion.
That said, the accusations against Postle have never been proven in a court of law, nor outside the legal system. Many within the poker community attempted to investigate the claims, and some came to the instant conclusion in 2019 that Postle is guilty upon reviewing a series of hands from the Stones Live streams.
“I want to have a fair, simple discussion with Veronica on her and Nick’s show. What I want from that is no editing,” Postle said during the Spaces conversation.
Accused Poker Cheater Speaks
Postle said he’s received offers to appear in a documentary about the alleged cheating scandal multiple times, including one offer to have a sit-down chat with Brill. But he claims he’s, up to this point, declined the invitations despite the monetary incentive.
The longtime poker pro has stayed mostly silent publicly the past four years, only occasionally popping up to comment on the allegations against him. In January 2023, he made a surprising appearance in a $500,000 guaranteed tournament at Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Not only did he compete, he finished in seventh place for $32,703.
“Don’t believe everything you hear, just because someone said it on the internet or YouTube.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear, just because someone said it on the internet or YouTube,” Postle advised the X Spaces listeners.
Postle said that before Brill accused him of cheating the game they both played in, he’d already been “documenting things,” but wasn’t challenged by the hosts to comment specifically on what he’d been documenting.
But Postle did adamantly deny the allegations, and he spoke passionately against those who he believes ruined his life, and also the lives of some people around him, such as Justin Kuraitis, the Stones Gambling Hall tournament director who some accused of co-conspiring with Postle to cheat the Stones Live games.
A Debate with Veronica Brill?
Postle admitted he was rambling during the X Spaces conversation, but among that rambling, he did mention that he’s interested in debating with Brill, and he also called out Matt Berkey.
“I want to have a fair, simple discussion with Veronica on her and (Nick Vertucci’s) show. What I want from that is no editing,” Postle said.
Postle then took aim at Berkey for, as Postle claims, refusing to stick to his word that he’d take a deep dive into the Stones Live hand data, but said Berkey was “unwilling to answer one question that I had for him.”
The California poker player took some shots at the poker community for having an “obsession with cheating scandals,” and he believes that many of the investigations have been a sham.
“When it comes time to find out whether someone did something or not, it’s no fun when the evidence points the other way,” Postle said, in reference to poker fans wanting to believe a player cheated no matter the evidence.
Postle briefly addressed the 2022 Hustler Casino Live scandal, and defended Robbi Jade Lew, who was accused of cheating Garrett Adelstein in a six-figure pot.
Most of the evidence against Postle stems from his supposed massive win rate and ability to consistently make the right decision in some tough spots. But he has always denied the public claims that his perceived win rate and profitability is accurate, and he stuck to that argument during the X Spaces chat.
“It was claimed that I won over $1,000 an hour, and I was playing $1/$3. Those weren’t $1/$3 games. Why doesn’t anyone talk about that?” he said before mentioning there was thousands of dollars on the table during many of the streams.
Postle also denied the assumed 94% win rate brought up in a lawsuit against him that he allegedly attained isn’t correct and said that he actually won under 80% of the time on Stones Live, which he claims to be right in line with his career norm.
“When the time is right, I’ll be able to prove it,” he said.