Lawyers Representing Alleged Poker Cheat Mike Postle Move To Drop Him As A ClientLegal Team Filed Motion With Court Citing A "Cease Of Communication" Between Postle And His Lawyers |
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Lawyers representing alleged poker cheat Mike Postle in his $330 million defamation lawsuit against several of the poker community’s most prominent members have filed paperwork with the court to drop Postle as a client.
Mac VerStandig, the attorney that represented the 88 plaintiffs in the lawsuit surrounding the initial cheating allegations involving Postle, tweeted a photo of the document with the caption “Posted without comment.”
What VerStandig tweeted was a “Declaration in Support of Attorney’s Motion to be Relieved as Counsel,” which was filed by Steven T. Lowe of Lowe & Associates, a prominent entertainment law firm in Beverly Hills. It was filed on Dec. 8 with the Sacramento Superior Court.
Posted without comment. pic.twitter.com/Z75y7dSANI
— Mac VerStandig (@mac_verstandig) December 10, 2020
“Client has failed to comply with the written agreement between the firm and the client, and communication has otherwise ceased between client and attorney,” read the bottom of the motion, where Lowe outlined his reason for the motion.
Judge Richard K. Sueyoshi will make a ruling on the motion at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 14, 2021.
Postle was accused of cheating in a low-stakes live-streamed poker game at Stones Gambling Hall in the Sacramento area. He reportedly won upwards of $250,000 playing almost exclusively $1-$3 and $2-$5 no-limit hold ’em cash games over a roughly 18-month time span in 2018 and 2019.
After watching Postle make suspect plays over the course of his heater, former Stones employee and commentator of some of the games Veronica Brill believed that he was cheating. After taking her concerns to Stones Tournament Director Justin Kuraitis, who was also in charge of the stream, and having them fall on deaf ears, she made the allegations public.
At that point, many prominent poker pros began to dissect video footage from the stream and most believed that he had gained access to the hole cards in some way. Likely with the help of an employee, which many believed to be Kuraitis.
While nobody was ever able to pinpoint a specific way that Postle was cheating, there were several theories thrown around. One theory was that Postle kept a bone conduction headphone in his hat and another popular theory was that he was having information forwarded to his phone, which he routinely kept in his lap at the table, away from the gaze of the other players at the table.
VerStandig then filed suit against Postle, Kuraitis and the ownership group of Stones. The charges against Postle were eventually dismissed and most plaintiffs accepted a settlement for the remaining charges against Kuraitis and Stones.
After the charges against Postle were dropped, he filed a defamation and libel lawsuit against Brill, six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, high-stakes gambler Haralabos Voulgaris, poker personality Joey Ingram, poker pro Todd Witteles, as well as ESPN, Poker News media, Upswing Poker, Run It Once, Crush Live Poker, Solve For Why and Poker Coaching, which are run by poker pros Doug Polk, Phil Galfond, Bart Hanson, Matt Berkey and Jonathan Little, respectively.
But that lawsuit won’t be going anywhere without any legal representation on Postle’s behalf.
Witteles’ lawyer, Eric Bensomochan went on Witteles’ podcast Wednesday evening and said that the most common reason for this motion is a lack of payment by the client. He went on to say that with a lawsuit of this size, even a sizable retainer of $15,000-$20,000 could be used up in just a couple of weeks and that Postle or whoever is bankrolling the legal team may not have realized how much money would be needed to fight this case.
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