Mike Postle’s enemy of the moment is Marc Randazza.
In the long, drawn-out case of poker cheating accusations against Mike Postle, it just becomes more convoluted with every court filing.
The public accusations from Veronica Brill that Postle had been cheating while playing poker on a livestream at Stones Gambling Hall snowballed from the beginning in September 2019. Poker industry people watched hours upon hours of footage to confirm the suspicions that Postle was not playing like a poker god but was, in fact, appearing to do something suspicious to cheat in the games.
Postle went from being defensive to being ultra-defensive, ultimately not able to defend himself against the allegations. Instead, he lashed out at nearly everyone who said anything negative about him, sued many of them, but then dropped the suit when he was unable to secure an attorney. But by dropping that case while two anti-SLAPP claims were in progress, Veronica Brill and Todd Witteles won their cases. It put Postle on the hook for their legal fees, too, to the tune of $54,727.
No Money, Mo Problems
When Postle appeared to have no intention of paying those fees, attorneys for Brill (Marc Randazza) and Witteles (Eric Bensamochan) filed a petition with the US Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of California in Sacramento. They asked the court to order Postle into an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy. And during that process, they would be able to discover the existence or non-existence of Postle’s assets.
Postle responded with a request for more time to respond to the notice. Meanwhile, he sent the court a list of grievances dating back to the origins of the saga. The theme of his grievance document was clear, though: Marc Randazza is a thorn in his side. Not only did that letter to the court paint himself as the victim of cheating allegations and defamation, he claimed that Randazza harassed and intimidated him.
While the court didn’t comment on the letter of complaints, the court did grant Postle until mid-September to file an official response.
Postle did file that response with the US Bankruptcy Court on September 10 in the form of a motion to dismiss the involuntary bankruptcy filing. The first seven pages is nothing but a personal vendetta put into words – not great words, but some words. The entirety of those seven pages is a rant about how Randazza was so mean to him.
Notably, he never mentioned Bensamochan once in the document. He focused solely on Randazza, despite the fact that Randazza and Bensamochan both filed the request with the bankruptcy court. It shows Postle’s obsession with Randazza, as does the conclusion of motion:
“Mr. Randazza has exhibited incredibly unprofessional and unethical behavior and is using the bankruptcy as a personal vendetta weapon against me. He has attempted to use the bankruptcy proceeding to shame me publicly and place his debt as superior over my other minimum 15 unrelated, legitimate creditors.”
Speaking of Creditors
The fourth exhibit in Postle’s latest filing lists his creditors. It includes the legal fees owed to Bensamochan and Randazza, as well as more than $18K owed to Ford for his vehicle and more than $62K in debts to credit card companies and financial institutions.
Interestingly, this listing of creditors is attached to a document in which Postle claims:
“I am a professional poker player of some repute and have been for over seventeen years. This is a career that I love and has allowed me to support my ten-year-old daughter, of whom I have custody.”
He goes on to blame everyone else for his fall from grace but specifically Randazza and his client, Veronica Brill. And he claims that the petition for involuntary bankruptcy “a mere thirty-six days after the creation of the (court-related) debt” makes a “mockery of the bankruptcy system.”
On the same day that Postle filed his latest motion, the court did grant a hearing for that motion to dismiss. It is set at the Sacramento courthouse for October 13, 2021.
The drama continues.
Disclaimer: This author is not a lawyer and has virtually zero qualifications to analyze legal documents or arguments. Nevertheless, she persists.
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