General Information about Mike Postle
The world of poker is an all-embracing community for practically anyone. It doesn’t matter your background or what you’ve been through; as long as you can develop your skills and gaming techniques, you can make your mark in the poker world. Therefore, it is not surprising to have Mike Postle, whom no one actually knows his background take the center stage of poker world, albeit, not in the best of light.
Mike Postle is a professional poker player with American origin. Not much is known about his life before he made it to the poker scene but his age is estimated to be about forty years old. He made his first appearance into the poker community in August 2005 where he participated in the $300 + 40 No Limit Hold’em event of the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit at Grand Casino, Tunica, Robinsonville. He finished in the 37th place at this event and made a winning of $735 USD. Although this is not such a significant winning but it started the building of Mike Postle net worth in the world of poker.
Over the years, he has made several unverified claims about his poker success at the online platform. Although the claim has not being verified, there has been speculations that he started playing at the online platform before the 2010 Black Friday saga and had probably made a couple of winning. Between 2005 and 2006, he has made over $60,000 at the poker table. His biggest win during this time was at the Gold Strike Poker Classic in Tunica, where he played in the $1,000 + 60 No Limit Hold’em event. He finished in the first place and won $45,909 USD. He also finished second at the $500 + 50 No Limit Hold’em Shootout during the 2006 Jack Binion World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Robinsonville. His 2nd place finish earned him the sum of $16,440 USD. The winnings at these two events contributed to Mike Postle net worth to a significant extent.
Postle came to fame in the face of his 2019 cheating scandal and this is where he got his popularity. As a matter of fact, many of poker fans have claimed never to have heard of him until his scandal. The name caught our attention and we had to do a bit of digging into his background. Although we found nothing about his early childhood or how he got introduced into poker, we actually found out that he has been in the poker scene for over 14 years now.
Before his scandal, he has played a number of games and has won himself some handful of cash at the events he participated in. This blog article will explore the various games he had played so far and his winnings at such event. He became popular for the wrong reasons in October of 2019 when he participated in the Stones live game.
At this event, Veronica Brill, one of the employees of Stones Gambling Hall in Sacramento, raised an alarm in the online poker community and revealed that one of the players involved in the live streamed cash games was engaged in cheating. She revealed that the player was receiving information relating to his opponents’ hole cards. No doubt, this was one of the biggest scandals in the history of poker. We’ll take a deeper look at this scandal as we journey into Mike Postle net worth and his poker events.
Mike Postle Key Career Highlights
As mentioned earlier, Postle has taken his place at some poker tables since he made his appearance in the world of poker. In 2004, he left his job where he was working as a dealer. He left the job to become a professional poker player. His first recorded game was in 2005 where he earned $735 USD at a poker event. In 2006, he participated in the $1,000 + 60 No Limit Hold’em at the Gold Strike Poker Classic event in Tunica. He finished first at this event and made a winning of $45,909 USD. Less than seven months later, he made his biggest win till date at the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the 2007 Gold Strike World Poker Open, in Tunica. He finished in the first place at this event and made a winning of $118,743. This winning significantly increased Mike Postle net worth to a great extent.
The year 2019 was the fame year for Mike Postle, even though it was for the wrong reason. He was accused of cheating at a live stream cash game event by Veronica Brill, a former employee of Stones Gambling Hall. In the course of the scandal, the online poker community went ahead to gather numerous evidence against him to validate his cheating at the poker table. Since the scandal broke out, Postle is considered to be one of the biggest cheaters in the history of poker.
Mike Postle Early Poker Career
According to his profile written in 2016 by Ante Up Magazine, Postle stepped into the world of professional poker games in 2004. Before this period, he was working at Wisconsin poker room where he was dealing cards. It was at this place that he started developing interest in the world of poker. It was reported that he began to learn to play poker games at the age of four. However, it was unclear who taught him the game or where he started playing at this early age.
According to thehendonmob, his first appearance at the poker table was during the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit in Grand Casino. He played for the win at the $300 + 40 No Limit Hold’em game. Unfortunately, he didn’t move past the 37th position and he left the game with a winning of $735 USD. The Following month, he also participated in the 2005 Ultimate Poker Classic at the Palm Beach in Aruba. He finished 7th in the $500 + 40 No Limit Hold’em event and made a winning of $1,590 USD.
He also finished in the 2nd place at the Jack Binion WSOP Circuit Event in Robinsonville. He played in the $500 + 50 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event and won $16,440 at the end of the event. His next significant winning came in June of 2006 when he participated in the Gold Strike Poker Classic in Tunica, United States. He played in the $1,000 + 60 No Limit Hold’em event and finished in the 1st place. This winning earned him $45,909 at the end of the game. This winning also contributed to Mike Postle net worth.
Mike Postle started the year 2007 on a very good note. In January of the year, he attended the 2007 Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica, United States and played in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. He finished in the first place at this event and made a winning of $118,743. This earning made the biggest cash of the poker pro and it significantly contributed to Mike Postle net worth. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the only major game he participated in during the year 2007. Between 2008 and 2009, the only major winning Postle had was at the 2009 Spring Poker Classic in Tunica. He participated in the $2,500 + 100 No Limit Hold’em – Championship Event and finished in the 3rd place. He made a winning of $33,429 USD at this event. Prior to this period, his winnings have been between $500 and $1,500 at various events. At some point, he got introduced to online poker and he began to play at the online platform. He was playing online poker until the unfortunate Black Friday hit in 2010. During this incidence, all the big leagues in the online poker rooms were shut down in the United States. This event led to the loss of money for many online poker players and Postle was not an exception. Although there was no record of the specific amount he lost during the Black Friday incident but at the closure of online gaming platforms, he had to take a drastic step for survival. Recall that he already left his work and he was playing poker on a full time basis. The fact that he also had a daughter during this period made it expedient for him to make plans for his finances.
With everything happening, Mike Postle moved to California with his daughter and began to play cards at land casino. He took this as a source of living and was actually making enough to sustain him. It is important to mention that in his poker career life; Mike Postle is yet to make any big win apart from his 2007 win at the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica.
Mike Postle Live Tournaments Highlight
Since he stepped into the world of poker, Mike Postle net worth has steadily increased. Although he cannot be placed in the league of the big winners at the felt table, the fact remains that he has made some winnings that have impacted significantly on his net worth. Over the course of his 15 years in the world of poker, he has made about 120 cashes. His first cash record was the 2005 winning of $735 where he finished 37th at the $300 World Series of Poker Circuit event in Tunica.
His biggest and only tournament cash for more than $100,000 was in the January of 2007. He played in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event and won $118,743 USD for his first place finish. In 2012, he also made another significant winning of $50,000 during another Gold Strike World Poker Open tournament. He finished in the 3rd place at the $3,000 + 150 No Limit Hold’em Main Event game to make the winning.
In the year 2015, Mike won the Player of the Year Award during the Ante Up Magazine’s Poker Tour. He participated in the $125 Ante Up Norcal Classic H.O.R.S.E Championship with a winning of $999. He also cashed at three different events during the series. His total winning at this event was about $9,000 USD.
Live Cash Games of Mike Postle
Mike Postle’s live cash games were exclusively on the Stones Gambling Hall’s live stream. He played quite a number of games during the past year and he won at almost each season. He participated mostly in series of $1/$3 and $2/$5 games and has won several hundreds of thousands of dollars at these events. His cheating scandal of 2019 made many poker fans doubt the authenticity of his winnings in his past games. Many are of the opinion that he won these several games because of his access to information on the hole cards of his opponents at the table.
Mike Postle Online Poker
When it comes to the online poker games, nothing much can be said about Mike Postle net worth or his winnings generally. Although he has made several unverified claims about his ‘successful’ online poker career, no one has been able to verify his claims. In one of his interviews during Matusow’s podcast, Postle had reportedly said that the management of UltimateBet, the now defunct poker website, had informed him that he was the biggest online poker winner on their site. This implies that he had won several millions of dollars at the online platform. Unfortunately, he never made this claim publicly while the site was still active but only did so many years after the site closed down.
There are many reasons why poker fans never believed Mike Postle’s claim. For one, at the time he referred to, poker fans across the world raised the roof for super high stake online cash games players regularly. As a matter of fact, many players have become living legends as a result of their exploits at the online platform. Top among the list of these living poker legends are Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, and Daniel Jungleman Cates. While these big names were making millions of dollars at the online poker platforms, the name, Mike Postle, was unknown. In fact, prior to his cheating scandal, his UB screen name as well as his games was not known to the poker world. Therefore, his claims that he won millions of dollars against the likes of Dwan cannot be proven.
The Making of Mike Postle Net Worth
Although he can’t be said to be one of the richest poker players in history, Mike Postle net worth is something worth learning about. Since his first game records in 2005, he has continued to participate at various low stake events and has won at a couple of events. In this section of the blog, we’ll take a look at the making of Mike Postle net worth over the years. Let’s get right into it.
As mentioned earlier, his first recorded winning was at the 2005 WSOP Tournament Circuit in Grand Casino Tunica where he placed 37th in the $300 + 40 No Limit Hold’em event. He won $735 at the event.
In 2006, he participated in the Jack Binion WSOP Circuit Event in Robinsonville and played in the $500 + 50 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event. He finished in the 2nd place and won $16,440 USD. Few months later, he played in the $1,000 + 60 No Limit Hold’em event at Gold Strike Poker Classic, in Tunica. He placed first and made a winning of $45,909.
His biggest win came in January of 2007 when he took part in the 2007 Gold Strike World Poker Open event in Tunica. He placed first at this event and earned $118,743 USD for his effort. This happens to be his largest win till date.
In 2009, he made another significant win when he placed 3rd at the 2009 Spring Poker Classic in Tunica. He played in the $2,500 + 100 No Limit Hold’em – Championship Event and won $33,429 USD. He also placed 1st in the low stake $100 + 25 No Limit Hold’em event in 2011 Delta Gold Poker Classic, Tunica. He made a winning of $3,176 at this event.
The following month, he also finished in the 1st place at the same event. He participated in the $200 + 30 No Limit Hold’em game and won $4,261. The following day, he was back at the same table of $200 + 30 No Limit Hold’em event where he finished in the 1st place again. This time around, he won $3,630 USD.
Mike Postle net worth was also significantly impacted by his participation in the 2012 Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica. He finished in the 3rd place at the $3,000 + 150 No Limit Hold’em – Main Event and walked out with $50,000 cash winning in his pocket.
Postle made the second place finish at the $1,000 + 100 No Limit Hold’em – Main Event during the 2013 Summer Pot of Gold in Reno. His second place finish earned him $22,152. Few months later, he also placed second at the Gold Strike Fall Poker Classic when he played in the $300 + 40 No Limit Hold’em event. He made a winning of $3,428 at the event.
January of 2014, Mike also placed 1st at the $200 + 50 No Limit Hold’em II during the World Series of Poker Circuit in Robinsonville. His first place earned him $5,460 USD. Some months later, he placed first again at the $1,425 + 75 No Limit Hold’em – High Roller event during the 2 Pair Poker Tour in Placerville. He won $9,880 at this game.
He also had a series of 1st place winning at a couple of games from 2014 to 2017. Details of these games are summarized below:
| Game | Date | Winning |
|---|---|---|
| $100 + 10 Omaha-8 Poker NV Fall Challenge, Reno | 2014 | $1,375 |
| $100 + 10 Omaha – Pot Limit Omaha Poker NV Fall Challenge, Reno | 2014 | $712 |
| $150 H.O.R.S.E Ante Up World Championship, Lincoln | 2015 | $1,801 |
| $125 H.O.R.S.E. #5 Ante Up Norcal Classic, Lincoln | 2015 | $999 |
| $200 Pot Limit Omaha – Event #10 2016 WPT Deepstacks – Thunder Valley, Lincoln | 2016 | $2,442 |
| $130 No Limit Hold’em – Saturday $10k GTD 2016 Stones Gambling Hall Recurring Tournaments | 2016 | $2,365 |
| $240 No Limit Hold’em Main Event Preview – Event #9 Poker Night in America – Thunder Valley, Lincoln | 2017 | $4,400 |
| $450 No Limit Hold’em – Main Event Stones Spring Classic, Citrus Height | 2017 | $36,702 |
| $130 No Limit Hold’em – Saturday $10k GTD 2017 Stones Gambling Hall Recurring Tournaments | 2017 | $2,900 |
| $130 No Limit Hold’em – Saturday $10k GTD 2017 Stones Gambling Hall Recurring Tournament | 2017 | $3,200 |
| $160 H.O.R.S.E. – Event #11 Ante Up World Championship, Lincoln | 2017 | $2,729 |
In the same 2017, Mike Postle finished in the 2nd place at the $250 No Limit Hold’em Action 8 (Event #1) during the World Poker Tour California Swing Kick Off, Lincoln. He won $14,500 at this event.
His last earning according to thehendonmob was in August of 2019. He placed 5th in the $120 No Limit Hold’em event at the Quantum $100k GTD, Citrus Heights. He won $10,054 at this event. According to thehendonmob, Mike Postle net worth from his total live earnings is $536,542 USD and his best live cash is $118,743
Mike Postle Stones Live Cheating Scandals
Postle came into the news in October of 2019 for the very wrong reason. His rise to fame was at the wake of the allegations that were brought against him during the Stones Live game streaming. As a matter of fact, this scandal was believed to be one of the biggest ever to be recorded in the world of poker. The scandal started at the end of September when Veronica Brill, a former employee of Stones Gambling Hall in Sacramento took to Twitter and posted several tweets about the possible cheat going on at the live events. Twitting under the handle, Angry-Polak, Veronica sent different tweets regarding the cheats she purportedly saw at the live poker streams, although without mentioning the name of Mike Postle. However, Joey Ingram went ahead to investigate various Stones Live poker streams on his YouTube channel and backing this up, Doug Polk also took to his account on YouTube to further analyze the allegations.
The first reaction of Stones Gambling Hall was to wave the issue aside as it announced that the company already carried out an investigation into the matter and there was no evidence that pointed to any form of cheating at any of its events. According to the report from Stones Gambling Hall, any further allegations to that effect were only fabrications. While appearing in a Mike Matusow’s podcast, Mike Postle insisted that he was innocent and that the numbers that people were using on his winning were simply off.
Unfortunately, the poker community didn’t want to have any of the excuses as they got involved and began a thread that brought up various issues relating to the cheating. Some users posted various suspicious hands in the game. According to critics, the Mike Postle’s game at the table was not making any professional sense from a strategic point view but strangely, Postle was winning hands at a practically impossible rate during the games. The fact that he finished almost all the sessions during the stream with a profit also made the allegations more critical.
Many have speculated that Postle had received information about the hole cards of his opponents during the cash games, which was why he was able to win so much at such rate. According to reports, Stones Gambling Hall has built-on RFID card readers on their tables during the live streams. Although the streams were obviously delayed, it was believed that Postle could still get the information real time. It was noticed that during the game, Mike was frequently seen looking down his crotch. Many believed that there is a high chance that he had a device directly on his lap that gave him undue advantage to see the hold cards of other players at the table.
Among the evidences that were released at the wake of the scandal was one that showed that the RFID reader was not working appropriately during a hand Mike Postle played. During a mixed game of Omaha and Hold’em, the reader was not reset and it just picked only two out of the four hole cards for each of the players. Mike Postle was visibly restless and was seen scanning his hole card over and over as he was looking at his crotch continuously. Ideally, the fact that he was playing live should prevent him from knowing whether or not the card reader was working properly or not but because he seemed to have a device that could monitor the cards, he obviously noticed that something was wrong, which led to his fidgeting in the course of the game.
Both Postle and Stones Gambling Hall denied the allegation. However, they were being sued for the sum of $30 million USD in class action lawsuit by Postle’s opponents and their council.
