Las Vegas poker pro’s lawsuit claims she was cheated
A Las Vegas poker pro filed a federal lawsuit this past weekend alleging that another player used hidden devices to cheat her out of thousands of dollars in a game broadcast from a California casino.
In the suit, Marle Cordeiro’s lawyer detailed a poker hand she played against Mike Postle, of California, in which she “almost assuredly would have profited.”
Cordeiro, whose YouTube channel has more than 1.4 million views, is seeking the money she lost to Postle, along with punitive damages of $250,000.
Postle, who is the subject of a $30 million federal lawsuit in California, had access to a device at Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Heights, California, where the game was played and streamed online, that allowed him to see his opponents cards, according to a complaint filed Saturday in Nevada by Henderson attorney Maurice VerStandig. The casino was not named as a defendant.
Claim of cellphone use
While playing in games streamed online, Postle would often look down at a cellphone “lodged between his legs so as to have its screen beyond the view of others, to access the identity of the hole cards of other players, in real time,” VerStandig wrote.
Cordeiro’s suit alleges violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, fraud and negligent misrepresentation, saying that Postle was “aided by one or more confederates … who furnished him with this information, for purposes of carrying out a fraud, through one or more concealed communicative mechanisms.”
The lawyer described a hand played in September that involved Cordeiro and Postle as “one most demonstrably evidencing the defendant’s utilization of illegal cheating methods to swindle Ms. Cordeiro. In an honest game, Ms. Cordeiro almost assuredly would have profited several thousand dollars.”
Postle profited in 94 percent of the games he played on the stream, and “such a winning percentage, under these confined circumstances in a streamed environment, is not known to have ever been achieved by any other poker player — professional or amateur — over such a significant period of time.”
The lawsuit also states that Postle “regularly engages in other gambling activities in Reno” but does not play poker there.
In October, VerStandig filed a similar suit in federal court in Sacramento on behalf of 25 other poker players who said they lost money while playing in games with Postle between July 2018 and September. Cordeiro, who was invited to play on the broadcast, was not part of that suit.
Casino responds
Last month, the casino, which was named as a defendant, wrote in court papers that it wants the California complaint thrown out.
“Stones had no stake in who won money or lost money in the poker games,” court papers stated. “All Stones did was to provide a venue for the poker game.
“Plaintiffs decided whether they wanted to play, for how long, how much to bet, and in which hands to participate.”
Postle also filed court papers on his own behalf in California, asking a judge to dismiss that case against him. A reporter’s phone call to Postle was not returned Monday.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.
