A bounty on Mike Postle's head. Phil Hellmuth saying he's going to play for a million dollars in cash. Thomas Goldstein's trial enters week three. Alex Foxen makes a big move on Hustler Casino Live. All of this and more today on Poker News. I know poker so well, my last name almost is Poker.
Let's kick things off by talking about Mike Postle.
Recently, one of the people who was awarded a $42,000 judgment against Mike Postle has come forward to say that he's having some problems trying to collect. It's pretty likely Mike Postle doesn't have the money to pay this judgment, but he is still playing poker, apparently around the country, and trying to collect from him feels like Mission Impossible.
If you're not familiar with Mike Postle, well, you missed one of the two biggest stories from the last 10 years, where he was allegedly cheating at Stones Gambling Hall by having cards relayed to him in real time at the table and staring at his crotch, where his phone was, to get the hands.
Once again, I want to say this is allegedly.
No proof has ever come forward, although we all are eagerly awaiting his first book: If I Did It: Confessions of a Cheater.
Todd Witteles went to Twitter, saying:
"🚨 EARN OVER $10K FOR REPORTING SEEING MIKE POSTLE IN TOURNAMENTS 🚨
I am one of only two poker players on earth with a court judgment against Mike Postle -- now over $42k after interest. He has DODGED PAYMENT FOR 5 YEARS and refused to pay, despite cashing in multiple tournaments during that time.
The problem is that he has reportedly been asking tournament directors to keep quiet if he makes Day 2 and list him under an alias. By the time I find out he's going to cash, it's too late to garnish his winnings, especially out of state. It is possible that he is tipping these TDs to do this for him.
For this reason, I have decided to provide a BIG INCENTIVE to find Postle playing tournaments and report it to me."
I did a deep dive, spending hours painstakingly searching the internet to find exactly what's going on with Mike Postle. And as luck would have it, I've uncovered that over the last seven years, he has one tournament cash.
He used to play tournaments constantly and then totally stopped.
I wonder what happened to him in 2019? His only cash since then is in 2023 – a final table in Biloxi. I'm not sure how reliable the reports are that he plays tournaments regularly, but I've heard he shows up from time to time.
I wonder what happened in 2019. That one tournament cash was seventh place for $33,000 in Biloxi. So, I don't know how many tournaments this guy is really playing, although it does seem he's probably trying to sneak in from time to time, even though that tournament was in 2023.
Back to Todd's Twitter post:
"Here is my offer: If you see Mike Postle playing a tournament, and it's down to 20% of the field or less, text me at (775) 372-8355. If you have a picture of him, that's even better, but not required. We will immediately start collections proceedings. I will give you 25% OF ALL MONEY COLLECTED if we are successful, which could end up over $10k for you!
This is open to ANYONE who sees him, including tournament staff. Anonymity guaranteed."
My first thought: It's pretty brave to put your phone number out there like that, especially with these YouTubers these days who are willing to cover any story and will put your phone number in a video, and then all of their audience will have access to be able to text you.
Some people have no shame. Once somebody scams you in poker, you're going to get constant updates about their whereabouts forever. In fact, to this day, I get messages when people see Brad Booth playing events.
Although, to be fair to Brad, he has been making payments lately of $25 a week.
This is fine. Ultimately, I hope Todd gets repaid, but let's face facts. Chances are he's not going to, because this guy doesn't seem to play too many tournaments, and he still has to catch him in the act.
But at least now, with the word out there, you can text Todd what you're up to today.
Moving on, let's talk about Phil Hellmuth playing the million-dollar game over at Hustler Casino Live.
If you're not familiar with the million-dollar game, it's run, I believe, four times at this point over the last few years, where players buy in for a million dollars, unless they buy in for $500K. It depends on the game. This has been one of the largest streamed events in all of poker, but it is facing a little bit of an issue. Every time they run this game, it gets less and less viewership for a myriad of reasons. Some of them include the fact that sometimes the buy-in is only $500K, but I think, more importantly, it sometimes lacks having a good variety of characters and players that people want to see.
The all-time most viewed Hustler Casino Live Million-Dollar Game was the first season, where one game got up to almost 60,000 concurrent viewers watching at the same time. That is what “concurrent” means. If we take a look at some of these videos, we can see they mainly do between 500K and a million views. But the last one that happened just two months ago, the Million-Dollar Marathon, is coming in at only 450K views.
What's the reason? Share your theories in the comments.
Regardless, adding someone like Phil Hellmuth to the Million-Dollar Game would be a tremendous step in the right direction. Phil is one of the biggest names ever in poker, and of course, he has many moments, particularly when he blows up, that are highly entertaining.
Hellmuth took to Twitter, saying:
– I sound off in this interview!
I will play the $1M Hustler Casino game w 100% my money (well, I may sell 20% to friends)
I will also host a season of “High Stakes Poker” if they call upon me to do. Or co-host with Alan Keating.
Hellmuth often weighs in on what he will or won't play, most notably one of the recent World Series of Poker Main Event.
I can respect that. A man has to have a code, and he stuck to his guns until the World Series of Poker started tweeting, and then:
So, when Phil Hellmuth says he is 100% playing the million-dollar game, take it with a little grain of salt from your friend Doug.
Phil recently gave a short interview to Poker.org.
He managed to tell a lot in three minutes. I counted how many times Phil bragged.
Among other things, he said:
– Since 2012, he has earned more every two months than in the previous two.
– About the home game he hosted for the Kardashian family.
– About my many successful investments.
All right, guys. It might look like I’m just making fun of Phil Hellmuth, and I am. But there’s no doubt whatsoever that having him on the million-dollar game would be amazing. It would be great for Phil. It’d be great for poker. It’d be great for the million-dollar game. I absolutely do hope this happens. I just hope he doesn’t change his mind.
While we’re talking about million-dollar game players, Tom Goldstein is currently in a legal battle over a variety of charges, and it’s entering week four as many people have come forward to testify.
According to PokerNews, we’ve seen testimony from the likes of Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire, high-stakes poker player Rick Salomon, California real estate mogul Bob Safai, and billionaire Alec Gores. This case is fascinating, with so many details leaking out about the inner workings of the ultra-high-stakes private game world.
One of the most recent updates is that Andrew Robl has testified that he coached Tom Goldstein in a $50 million poker win. PokerNews had on-site coverage, and we also learned that apparently Tom Goldstein currently owes Andrew Robl $1 million in unsettled debts.
Robl estimated he had 10 to 15% of Goldstein’s action during 2016 matches where he won $26.4 million. Robl remembered personally profiting around $3 million from the match, and an exhibit later introduced by the prosecution listed the number at $2.9 million.
This goes through all kinds of other matches, including one where he won $14 million and another where he lost to Robl at Kevin Hart’s party. Apparently they played a heads-up match. So basically, Robl taught him how to play heads-up to battle these billionaires, and then he wanted to play Robl heads-up. This sounds like the plot to Rocky IV.
As the case progresses, I’ll keep you guys updated.
Our next story: we mentioned Hustler Casino Live earlier, and there was a giant pot that went down with Alex Foxen on the show.
Let’s go ahead and break it down.
The game was played at a limit of $25/$50/$100 with a progressive "squid game", meaning the more hands you win, the bigger the bounty you can earn.
Our hand kicks off at $25/$50/$100, and we’re also playing the progressive Squid Game. So the more hands you win, the larger the bounty you get. And we have a lot of people in there with random hands, but Airball raises it up with to the minimum. Big Mike decides he senses weakness and bumps it up to $1,000 to go with in the big blind.
At this point, Foxen looks down at and decides to make the call. With the Squid Game going, that can still be pretty reasonable. And now Francisco re-raises to $7,000 with . Action folds back to Airball, who manages to get out of the way with .
The action then folds to Foxen with , who ultimately does make a pretty loose call here.
The flop comes .
Francisco goes ahead and bets half pot here, $7,000. This is way too big. In fact, one thing I learned about these boards that are wheel-type boards— , , boards like that—typically those use some of the smallest flop sizes possible.
I think for Foxen, you have a crystal-clear check-call. Raising makes the pot too big for your hand, and he does decide to go for that call.
We take a turn, a , which pairs the board.
Foxen checks. And now Francisco has to make a choice. Does he want to continue trying to get some value with ace-king? We want to continue to build this pot and get some value. However, every once in a while, checking to have some strong hands on the river can make some sense, which is what Francisco decides to do.
And we take a on the river.
And now the question is: how does Foxen want to play his weak top pair? You can argue here for a small bet or a check. They’re both totally fine. And I lean toward a small bet because there are lots of hands your opponent could have raised preflop that you can get value from. And that’s what Foxen goes for, with a $6,000 bet here on the river for about 20% pot.
Recognizing this is probably a weak ace, Francisco now decides it’s time to raise and get value. And I love this play. Way too often when people face small river bets, they end up just calling when their hand is clearly good or very, very likely to be good. You need to raise and get value from worse hands that can absolutely call you should you decide to raise. Francisco goes small, making it just $16,000.
And my friends, we are about to witness some pure art. Is it possible Alex could do something really crazy here? The ace in his hand makes it very unlikely that Francisco would have aces.
Foxen block-bets, gets raised, and jams. He’s saying, “I have a full house. I have a straight. I have all these really strong hands that I just don’t think you’re going to have very often.”
And now Francisco has to make a decision here with just top pair. He loses to a four. He loses to a straight. It’s a scary situation. Your opponent could have a full house. Can you make the big call here with just top pair?
Francisco makes the call, shipping a $200,000 pot here with top pair. Maximum value extracted.
I will say for Foxen, I don’t mind this play. He’s around the bottom of his continue range for what he would want to continue versus this small raise. You have some straight-blocker interaction. It might be better to have a hand like or here than , but I digress. Still a reasonable play to make and certainly a line he’d want to take with some good hands as well.
