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Poker World Gets Its Own Cheating Scandal After Robbi Jade Lew Bluffs $109,000 Out Of Garrett Adelstein

September 30th, 2022 - 1:47 PM EDT by Adam

8 comments

(Twitter / @HCLPokerShow, @AndyNemmity)

The scandalous month for games you whip out on family vacation continues, as there is now a poker cheating controversy to rival the much-discussed chess cheating controversy that's engulfed the internet the past few weeks.

The scandal surrounds a Texas Hold 'Em hand played on the Hustler Casino Lives (HCL) stream. The table bows out until Robbi Jade Lew and Survivor alum Garret Adelstein remain. Adelstein has the eight and seven of clubs, while Lew has the jack of clubs and four of hearts. On the table is a ten of hearts, ten of clubs, nine of clubs and three of hearts.

Adelstein has a chance to get a straight flush but ultimately has ten-high nothing. He decides to go all-in on the hand, betting $109,000. Lew, who has jack-high at the time but little chance of getting a better hand on the final card, inexplicably decides to meet his bet. The final card does nothing to change the outcome for either player, and Lew won a $270,000 pot while Adelstein stared incredulously.

Considering there were a pair of tens and two flush draws on the table, the fact that Lew called Adelstein's all-in bet with basically nothing raised alarm bells among viewers and especially Adelstein as the viral video spread online.

In an explanation of the events posted afterward to Twitter, Adelstein suspected Lew was cheating on the hand, considering the overwhelmingly strong possibilities of his hand at the time Lew called his all-in bet and the weakness of her hand. He mentioned the possibility of Lew having a confederate or a technical device that would let her know if she had the best hand at the table (though he does not mention anal beads as seen in the wild theories surrounding the chess scandal).

Adelstein, Lew and HCL co-owner Ryan Feldman stepped away from the board after the hand to discuss what had happened. According to Adelstein, that conversation had Lew defending her play while Adelstein accused her of foul play. Feldman told Lew that the clip would likely go viral, meaning she would have to defend herself from the public's accusations of cheating, not just Adelstein's.

At that point, Adelstein describes Lew's face as "melting." She then offered to pay the money won in the hand back to Adelstein, which he accepted and took as an admission of guilt.

Lew and Hustler Casino have both denied cheating. Lew sent out a slew of fiery tweets, claiming she simply read that Adelstein had nothing, and ominously stated, "full details to come."

Hustler Casino Live co-founder Nick Vertucci insisted everything was on the up-and-up, saying later on the stream, "There's no possibility that there's anything that could be cheating goes," Vertucci told Ingram. "We've checked everything." Hustler Casino does not allow players to have cellphones, which have been used in alleged cheating incidents in the past.

Vertucci proffered the explanation that Lew had misread her hand, thinking she had a pair of threes (which still would have made for an extremely gutsy call in that situation). Lew had said something to that effect in the bewildering aftermath of her victory but made no mention of it in her tweets.

With a clear he-said/she-said situation unfolding, social media was left to wonder if Lew had somehow made an incredibly bold and probably foolish call that worked out in her favor or if she was somehow cheating.


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Comments 8 total

Concerned Troll

Oct 03, 2022 at 12:41PM EDT

I guess… technically she made the right move in EV terms? .53 chance of losing $109k vs .47 chance of winning $160k…

0

RemChi

Oct 01, 2022 at 04:37PM EDT

Did she cheat? I dunno.

Did he make a terrible bluff that I feel like anyone could have called? Yes.

2

Šaja_Manijak

Oct 01, 2022 at 01:05PM EDT

Local man got outbluffed and is salty about it.

0

Concerned Troll

Oct 01, 2022 at 11:37AM EDT

…calling an all-in bet isn't a "bluff," it's called "being a lucky idiot."

0

big thonk

Oct 01, 2022 at 02:15AM EDT

Okay so I don't know much about poker besides how to make pairs, but isn't LITERALLY the whole point of poker being able trick your opponent?
It seems like getting angry at a baseball player for scoring a home run, or a football player for scoring a Hail Mary, just cause you're salty they pulled off something improbable due to skill.
Can someone explain to me how being good at bluffing is cheating?

3

Adam

Oct 03, 2022 at 09:55AM EDT big thonk

The thing is, she had nothing. For Adelstein to beat her hand at the time of going all-in, he need only have had an Ace, King, Queen, Ten, Nine, or Three. And there was still one card to play. If Adestein got an eight, seven, six, jack or any club on the final card, he would have won. His all-in bet may have been foolhardy, but he had a decent shot at getting something on the final card. When you stand to lose over a hundred thousand dollars, those are overwhelming odds against you to say, "sure, let's play it out."

It would have been one thing if she had a pair of threes or literally anything to bluff with. When you bluff an opponent, you want to make it seem like your hand is fantastic so that they fold (which is what Adelstein was trying to do with his admittedly bold/foolish all-in bet). But it's also smart to bluff with something so that if it comes to a showdown, you at least have something beyond hoping you have the highest card at the table.

So basically, her winning was not a case of her being good at bluffing. In fact, she was astoundingly bad at bluffing but "lucked" out to win the hand. That's why many suspect that the reason she called the all-in bet is that she'd received a signal that she was ahead at the time of the bet.

1

Rynjin

Oct 01, 2022 at 12:12AM EDT

Man's salty over getting outbluffed in a game about bluffing, more at 11.

4

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