More than a month after the Mike Postle cheating scandal rocked the poker world, whistleblower Veronica Brill thinks she made the right decision to expose the biggest cheating scandal in poker streaming history.
Timeline
At the end of September 2019, Brill tweeted about potential cheating during livestreamed cash games at Stones Gambling Hall. During that time, Brill did not name the culprit, but subsequently, the spotlight turned towards Postle. A number of poker players then reviewed several videos of Postle’s games to investigate the allegations, and the majority shared Brill’s belief that Postle could have cheated on his opponents, with the knowledge of some key people who were running operations at the venue.
Stones initially denied the accusations, saying their investigation found no evidence of cheating. However, as the story slowly penetrated mainstream media and received a massive response from the poker community, the management decided to stop its live streams and begin a second investigation, this time promising that the inquiry will be “thorough” and “detailed”.
For the first time, Postle spoke out and tried to clear his name when he appeared on Mike Matusow’s podcast. He vehemently denied the accusations, saying some people only fabricated stories because of jealousy. But the poker community did not buy his story and some players decided to carry out their own investigation. Among them were content creators Joey Ingram and Doug Polk.
The scandal has now been taken to court, with several players suing Postle and Stones for $20 million.
What Brill did was a risky move, as she needed to present solid evidence to prove her claims. She recently shared her personal account of how she found out about Postle’s misconduct and the courage it took to come forward.
Commentating For Stones Live
Brill commentated for Stones’ livestreamed games where Postle enjoyed an incredible winning streak, amassing over $300,000 in a span of one year, playing $1-$3 and $5-$5 games. Brill was employed at the casino for a short time and eventually decided to move over to the Bay area.
Brill shared that some of her poker-playing friends knew Postle as a regular in Sacramento, who liked to play tournaments and cash games in the region. He was just a regular player but started getting attention when he started crushing every cash game on Stones Live. Brill said some of his friends even played $5-$10 with Postle on a regular basis and there were several instances when the American would lose, contrary to his performance during livestreams.
Cheating Rumors
At the start of this year, rumors were circulating in the Sacramento area that Postle was only playing livestream. According to Brill, many had observed that Postle would start running cold as soon as the livestream was off. Brill does not discount the possibility that some Stones staff had served as Postle’s conspirators, as some of them had access to confidential info, especially opponents’ cards.
Brill said what she personally saw while commentating at livestreamed games where Postle was playing, alongside testimonies from other poker players was enough evidence for her to conclude that Postle was cheating. Brill said she felt obliged to come forward to raise awareness that cheating is actually possible in livestreamed games, and those responsible must be held accountable.
Confronting Stones Management
Prior to coming forward, Brill said she tried to raise her concerns with Stones Tournament Director Justin Kuraitis. She told Kuraitis that rumors about Postle cheating on his opponents had been circulating around the room, but the tournament director brushed them aside, saying the accusations were impossible.
Kuraitis told Brill they were conducting an external audit through the help of an outside company and found that everything was fine. But Brill did not see any proof that investigation was ever done. Kuraitis was all in defense of Postle, even accusing those that doubted him of being jealous of his skills and abilities.
After that, Brill still trusted Stones and continued to work for the casino, though she was no longer doing as much commentary. The last time she did commentary was with Jake Rosentiel and both of them played a $5-$10 game with Postle. That session provided even more proof that the cheating was still going on despite previous concerns.
After taking to Twitter to expose the scandal, Brill initially faced backlash especially from Sacramento residents in the form of inappropriate text messages and online harassment. But Brill remained unfazed.
Brill’s expose has opened fresh discussions on potential cheating in other venues, raising questions on how major operators guard their games, and the security measures they have in place to prevent similar instances from happening.