Yep, that happened. A preservation notice was sent via Twitter by a lawyer representing poker pro Martin Kabrhel regarding defamation claims.

The preservation notice was sent via Twitter by Daniel B. Ravicher to four poker professionals and streaming platform PokerGO regarding allegations that Kabrhel was cheating in poker tournaments by marking cards. The allegations were covered here in an article in the New York Post and also here in an article by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Sent at 11:47pm CT on June 20th, the two-paragraph letter in both text and image (available here) opens with the statement: “This firm represents Martin Kabrhel with respect to your false and defamatory statements that he is a cheater and marks cards. The purpose of this letter is not to debate the demerits of your baseless allegations, but rather simply to provide you notice that this firm is preparing to file legal claims on behalf of Mr. Kabrhel against you.”

The rest of the first paragraph covers the preservation notice, as follows: “As such, you must from this time forward preserve any and all materials, including but not limited to messages (including but not limited to email, text, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and social media DMs), documents, publications (including but not limited to tweets and other social media posts, whether private or public), notes, drafts, audio or video recordings, and call logs, bearing any relation or relevance to Mr. Kabrhel. Failing to preserve these materials is grounds for Mr. Kabrhel to ask that sanctions be imposed against you by the court before which this matter will be resolved.”

The second paragraph states this: “To be absolutely clear, Mr. Kabrhel is not a cheater. He does not mark cards. You have said these false things with malicious intent. We will prove this in court and ask that you be ordered to compensate him for any and all injury caused by your statements.”

Alrighty, then! I guess the five parties (specifically linked to in the tweet) are on notice! They certainly can’t claim they didn’t receive the notice, can they? Looks like Kabrhel and his attorney are “all in” on this one! See what I did there? 😀

Hat tip to Mark Lyon for sharing the tweet with me! To my knowledge, this isn’t a common practice, but if others have seen plenty of other preservation notices on Twitter or other social media, I welcome your comments!

So, what do you think? Are you surprised that a preservation notice was sent via Twitter? Do you think that will become common? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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