Pro poker player is accused of using ‘hidden vibrating device’ to help her win $130,000 hand: Gives money back to her opponent – but claims she was forced to hand it over ‘in a dark hallway’
- Poker newcomer Robbi Jade Lew won an all-in hand for a pot of $269,000
- Garrett Adelstein, who lost the hand, believes she cheated during the game
- Lew, 35, then gave back he winnings shortly afterwards with Adelstein seeing the gesture as ‘an admission of guilty’
- The game was captured on a livestream during a Hustler Casino Live tournament
- Hustler Casino has said neither player will be invited to return until the incident had been investigated
- Adelstein, 36, has appeared more than 50 times on the casino’s livestreamed show winning more than $1.6million
- By contrast, Lew has only appeared twice collecting just over $100k in winnings
A pro poker player is alleging that his opponent ‘clearly cheated’ during a livestreamed game of poker.
Garrett Adelstein, 36, from Arizona is a regular at the 24-hour Hustler Casino in California, was playing during a Texas hold’em game.
But he was stunned into silence when relative newcomer to the game, Robbi Jade Lew, 35, suddenly made a call to go all-in despite having a relatively poor hand.
Those commentating on the game were in disbelief because the odds were stacked against her with online betting casino DraftKings calculating there were around 150 ways for Lew to lose, but only six ways for her to win – which she proceeded to do.
Adelstein forced Lew to go all in with her $130,000 hand and appeared shocked as her cards revealed her to have a ‘Jack high’, winning the game and taking the entire $269,000 pot.
Adelstein, who is married, hails from Tucson but has being playing poker professionally for almost a decade.
His speciality is on ‘live no-limit hold ’em cash games’ where he is known for his aggression and large wagers.
In 2017, he began appearing regularly on live poker shows.
He was first seen in public during the 2013 season of CBS’ Survivor: Cagayan, however he was voted off just two weeks into the run.
Robbi Jade Lew meanwhile only started taking poker more seriously after the coronavirus pandemic.
She previously worked in a senior capacity for pharmaceutical company Bayer.
Poker newcomer Robbi Jade Lew, 35, right, won an all-in hand for a pot of $269,000 against Garrett Adelstein, 36, who lost the hand, who believes she cheated during the game
Adelstein, 36, was first seen in public during the 2013 season of CBS’ Survivor: Cagayan, however he was voted off just two weeks into the run, pictured above
Robbi Jade Lew, 35, only started taking poker more seriously after the coronavirus pandemic
Lew previously worked in a senior capacity for pharmaceutical company Bayer
Garrett had needed a club, six or a jack but Lew’s jack won the hand.
The look on Adelstein’s face as he lost the hand said it all as he stared on in disbelief and simmering rage.
‘I don’t understand what’s happening right now,’ he said.
‘You look like you want to kill me. I thought you had ace high,’ Lew said.
‘So, why call with jack high?’ Adelstein said. A jack high would have lost to ace high.
‘Because you don’t have s**t!’ Lew said.
Adelstein then got up and left the table.
Lew has explained her unorthodox way of playing her hand because she simply believed Adelstein’s cards to have been inferior to hers.
‘Get over it,’ she wrote on Twitter.
Yet Adelstein later revealed on social media how Lew then offered to return the money he lost which he took as a sure sign of her guilt.
”How do you keep a grown man from throwing a tantrum?’ she wrote online. ‘As a woman in a male-dominated sport it’s hard enough to stand up against the table bully.’
In an additional tweet, she explained how she was taken outside of the gambling hall and threatened ‘in a dark corridor’ by Adelstein.
‘Garrett blocked me. Guilty as charged. What an honest man. He cornered me & threatened me. If he has the audacity to give me the death stare ON camera, picture what it’s like OFF camera. I was pulled out of the game & forced to speak to him in a dark hallway,’ she wrote online.
Adelstein has accused Lew of cheating.
‘Poker is an extremely complicated and nuanced game,’ he said adding that her hand had ‘very little equity’.
He then went on to analyze some of Lew’s previous strategies and suggested that someone could ‘cheat’ by using a ‘device hidden that simply vibrates to indicate you have the best hand.’
‘Another common way of cheating is someone has the technology to know who will have the best hand at showdown by hacking into the card reader.’
Lew then gave back he winnings shortly afterwards with Adelstein seeing the gesture as ‘an admission of guilt’
Some on social media suggested Lew’s chair was seen to be vibrating before she made the call
Adelstein has not provided any evidence whatsoever that Lew cheated or used such a device.
He went on to note how after the game he told her: ‘Robbie, this is likely to be viewed by millions of people … I think you know now, you f**ked up.’
It was at that point Adelstein claims Lew offered to repay him the winnings.
‘Knowing a) this was likely the closest I would get to a confession and b) how impossible it is to get refunded in these cheating scandals … I took her up on her offer,’ he wrote.
‘Once she offered, of course I am going to accept my money back after being clearly cheated.’
Lew has explained her unorthodox way of playing her hand because she believed Adelstein’s cards to have been inferior to hers
Lew then detailed how she was ‘forced to speak to him in a dark hallway’ whereupon she offered him back her winnings
Adelstein appears to like games as seen in this 2013 snap of him on Survivor in which he was booted off on the second week
‘I don’t sleep to dream of the life I want to live. When I’m awake, I’m living it,’ Robbi Jade Lew writes on her Instagram profile
A DraftKings blog seemed equally perplexed by Lew’s decision.
‘Forget ranges or game theory optimal play, even the most novice players simply don’t ever make that call simply based on the strength of their hand. You can always bluff in poker, but once your opponent moves all-in for twice the size of the pot, that’s where the bluffing stops.;
Hustler Casino Live co-founder Nick Vertucci has said Lew is an inexperienced player who likely misread her hand.
‘There’s no possibility that there’s anything that could be cheating goes,’ Vertucci said. ‘We’ve checked everything.’
Hustler Casino has said neither player will be invited to return until the incident had been investigated.
Adelstein then went on social media in an attempt to unpack what had happened and suggested Lew may have cheated using a ‘device’ to aid her poker playing
‘We completely understand the magnitude of the situation and the accusations. We take this extremely seriously,’ the casino said in a statement.
‘At this point we have no proof either way or any indication of any wrongdoing besides the accusations of parties involved.’
Adelstein has appeared more than 50 times on the casino’s livestreamed show and is its top player, winning more than $1.6million.
By contrast, Lew has only appeared twice collecting just over $100k in winnings.
Adelstein has appeared more than 50 times on the casino’s livestreamed show winning more than $1.6million
Lew has only appeared twice on the online poker game collecting just over $100k in winnings
Poker is not the only table game to be rocked by allegations of cheating.
Last week, Magnus Carlsen, the world’s No. 1 chess player, was accused of ‘damaging’ the game after he sensationally resigned from a match against a fellow grandmaster after one move over fears his rival was using anal beads to cheat.
In a statement last Friday, the president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Arkady Dvorkovich, revealed he was not pleased with Carlsen’s behavior in withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup and quitting his match against his 19-year-old opponent, Hans Niemann.
The resignation came amid rumors that Neimann cheated using a vibrating anal sex toy.
Dvorkovich took aim at the world Carlsen, saying the 31-year-old Norwegian has a ‘moral responsibility’ because he is ‘viewed as a global ambassador of the game.’
He has now refused to say if he believes Niemann was cheating during both of their games in an interview
‘His actions impact the reputation of his colleagues, sportive [sport-related] results, and eventually can be damaging to our game. We strongly believe that there were better ways to handle this situation,’ he said.
The statement did not ‘specify’ what situation they were referring to, although it is likely the sensational claim about the anal beads, which Neimann has denied.
He is accused of using a vibrating, remotely-controlled sex toy to gain an advantage over Carlsen by getting an accomplice to buzz the device to guide him into making better moves.
The president said the game’s governing body is looking creating a group of ‘specialists’ who will eradicate cheating from FIDE events.
‘FIDE is prepared to task its Fair Play commission with a thorough investigation of the incident,’ Dvorkovich said.
The chess body boss said further evidence would be needed before any such probe could begin.
Carlsen poses with the FIDE World Chess Championship trophy, at the Dubai Expo 2020 in the Gulf emirate, on December 12, 2021
Chess genius, Hans Niemann, 19, (pictured) lost in the quarter finals of the Julius Baer Generation Cup on Thursday. The teen has been accused of cheating in a slew of different and imaginative ways, including using vibrating anal beads to communicate with his coach
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