PokerNews Exclusive: Veronica Brill Issues Statement on Mike Postle's Sudden Public Appearance
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Mike Postle made a surprise X Spaces appearance on Monday to deny the allegations against him, and the poker player who accused him of cheating on a live-stream four years ago, Veronica Brill, has fired back with a lengthy statement provided to PokerNews.
Postle is alleged to have used some sort of electronic device over an 18-month period from 2018 to 2019 to view his opponents' hole cards during Stones Live streams. He instantly denied the accusations, which were brought forth by Brill in September 2019, and reiterated the denial in a lengthy conversation on Monday that lacked any hard-hitting questions from host Omar of The OTC and others on X Spaces.
Mike Postle Makes Random Public Speaking Appearance
Veronica Brill: The Poker Cheating Accusations Aren't My Fault
Brill is responsible for bringing to light the alleged cheating scandal, and was first to publicly accuse Postle of cheating. But she detailed in her statement why Postle shouldn't blame her for the situation he's been in the past four years.
"I did not think that almost 5 years after I went public with my cheating allegations against Mike that I would still be having to deal with this, but nonetheless here we are so let me address a few things," her statement began.
"Mike seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on this cheating scandal being my fault, or more importantly him being proven to be a cheater as something that I did. And I did do the initial accusation yes, but I am not the reason why he has been deemed as a cheater in poker.
He's assigning me an incredible amount of power and reducing the general poker intellect as that of men who can be swayed by a middle-aged woman who posts thirst traps, with none of you having any critical thinking skills or being able to competently analyze the situation." - Veronica Brill
Brill continued by trying "to understand why Postle is doing this and what his perspective is." By "this," she's referring to Postle's continued denial and appearing on the recent X Spaces after having mostly avoided speaking on the allegations publicly for over four years.
"I think that Mike looks at this situation as a two-part thing, one being my accusations and who I am as the person accusing him, the second being the actual hands themselves and all of the statistical anomalies and crotch staring involved in that," she continued.
"He knows that he has no ability to address the hands and how he played them, there is a previous interview that he did with JFK the tournament director where he addresses some of the hands."
Discussing a Questionable Interview
Most of the circumstantial evidence against Postle centers around his supposed unrealistic win rate and uncanny knack for consistently making the right decisions in some difficult spots.
"If you're not aware, Justin "JFK" Kuraitis forced Mike to do that interview because people were complaining to JFK about Mike possil's erratic behavior on the table and how some of the hands were not making sense. In this video JFK brings up specific hands that people complained about. I suggest you watch that video," Brill said.
Watch the Video Brill is Referencing Here
"So let's address the first one, the one where I am the reason why the poker community has accused him of cheating. Mike somehow thinks that if he can prove to the poker community that my character is flawed or I have a vendetta against him that he somehow will be free of all of these accusations and he can move on with his life," Brill continued.
"This is why he's been reaching out to Nick Vertucci constantly and only wanting to do an interview with me. He knows he can't face Doug Polk or Matt Berkey or anyone else with a competent poker mind.
He doesn't want to address that part of the scandal (the actual hands) and he knows he can't. He wants to focus on the only thing he thinks he can spin and that's my accusations."
Kuraitis, the Stones Gambling Hall tournament director who also ran the live-stream, has been accused by many within the poker community of assisting Postle in allegedly cheating the games for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like Postle, he denied any involvement and also defended Postle on social media, stating that he doesn't believe any cheating occurred.
"He has turned this situation into somewhat of a fixation on me rather than going over what's really happening, which is the hands that were played and the information he had when playing those hands," Brill said of Postle.
"I've been told by several people that he wants to come on to my podcast and catch me in a bunch of gotcha situations where he can use that information to put out an article about how bad of a person I am or whatever his ridiculous plan is. I'm not sure that that is true that is just what multiple sources have told me.
I have somehow become this mountain that splits the road between him and vindication. If he can just get enough TNT to blow me up (my character) he will somehow be vindicated."
Presenting the Evidence
Following Brill's accusatory tweets in September 2019, poker podcaster Joey Ingram and others spearheaded an investigation into the matter. Ingram, most notably, spent countless hours on his YouTube channel digging through hundreds, if not thousands, of hands Postle played to get to the bottom of the accusations.
"Keep in mind I put out a series of tweets and then did interviews about my experiences playing in games with him and doing commentary while he played, the rest of the poker community including Joey Ingram and Matt Berkey were involved in uncovering the cheating and realizing how bad it was. But there is no blame towards Joey Ingram or any one in this industry, there is just a fixation on me and it is a very unhealthy fixation.
There is also no consideration for the fact that almost no one believed me when I first went public. I have DMs from many prominent professional poker players who told me they thought I was wrong and that the hands I posted were fine. It wasn't until everyone started doing a deep dive that they started changing their mind," Brill stated.
"The fixation:
As a registered nurse I have seen patients that have psychiatric issues and I'm not trying to diagnose him but he's either trying to create some elaborate story that he thinks the world will buy or he actually believes that I am the one thing standing in his way of vindication.
If he believes that this is a big conspiracy theory planned by me and that I am the reason for his downfall then these are bigger mental issues that need to be addressed by a doctor. This shows a lack of accountability and a lack of understanding reality."
Advice for Mike Postle
There's a slim to none chance Postle would ever take advice from the person who accused him of cheating on poker live-streams. Nonetheless, Brill has three pieces of advice going forward for the Northern California poker pro.
- 1. "You could just go on another live stream, and I'm sure at this point most of them will let you on, and prove how good you are and recreate these results. Given that you have stated how much power I have over the poker community I actually would go out of my way to help you get on another live stream Mike, just so you can show us how amazing you are."
- 2. "You are also probably not banned from all poker rooms. You can go play other cash games and recreate these results. You are obviously the best poker player poker has ever seen with the most amazing results so why not just go recreate that in another game? If you could recreate all of your results everyone would see your genius and that you are a statistical anomaly and you would be vindicated. I know for a fact that you are not banned from every poker room considering you were just in Alabama cashing a tournament."
- 3. "You can continue to try to put together a story attacking my character and forcing me to try to prove you wrong with all of your lies but you will still be in the same place you are now, a cheater."
"The issue is if you drag me and attack my character and then still have the community against you I don't know what your next step is but it's probably just going to get worse for me from here because God knows you can't address those hands," Brill said.
Brill finished up her lengthy statement with a parting shot at the poker player she believes cheater her and others out of money playing on Stones Live for many months.
"Appealing to a mostly logical poker professional base with more talks of conspiracies and magic do not improve your chances of swaying the public, Mike.
Oh, and one more for the road.
"I hope you get some help."
