Adelstein-Lew controversy

Τhe Adelstein-Lew controversy refers to a single hand of poker played on 29 September 2022 during a live stream from the Hustler Casino, in Gardena, California, US, which caused a sensation beyond the poker world.

Background

Main article: Poker boom

The significant and sudden increase in poker popularity among the general public is said to have happened during the period between 2003 and 2006. The game, and particularly its hold 'em variant, was played at home, in poker clubs, in casinos, in television programs, or in online platforms. During that period, it was estimated that the number of online-poker players doubled every year. Despite the negative effect that the 2006 UIGEA legislation had on online poker, the game continues to be overall more popular than its "pre-boom" days.

Main article: Poker on television

Movies such as the 1998 Rounders had already brought the game to a wider audience. With the 2002 introduction of the World Poker Tour, televised poker became quite popular in the United States and around the world. By the end of its first season, the show's peak of 2.2m concurrent viewers was higher at the time than the viewership of a televised, regular-season NBA game. The growth of the internet made poker more accessible worldwide than it had ever been before. Soon, tournaments and cash games were regularly shown on YouTube, on cable television, or on stream services. The personalities of some players became a significant audience attractor draw in themselves. Charismatic poker professionals, such as Phil Hellmuth with a volatile temper at the table, Daniel Negreanu and his humorous comportement, or legendary figure Doyle Brunson became household names, and their televised action added a layer of drama and excitement to the broadcasts, cementing poker's place in the media landscape by deploying a strong human element, combined with insights to the strategic depth of the game.

The hand

On 29 September 2022, the Hustler Casino, in Gardena, California, started the live stream of a high-stakes, hold 'em cash game. The betting format called for three blinds of $100, $200, and $400 respectively, with a $400 big blind ante and an $800 straddle in play. The players seated at the table were a mix of professionals, such as Phil Ivey, perennial winner in both cash games and poker tournaments, Garrett Adelstein, a poker pro and former Survivor contestant, and Taiwanese-American Andy "Stacks" Tsai of GGPoker China, as well as recreational players such as Michael "Mike X" Farid, an Iranian-American fashion designer and entrepreneur, Jacob "Rip" Chavez, a former boxing trainer, Eric Persson, owner of Maverick Gaming, Robbi Jade Lew, a Saudi Arabia-born Los Angeles resident who started playing online poker during the covid pandemic, and an Asian regular playing under the pseudonym Ryusuke Daifuku.

In the specific hand, Adelstein was dealt 7♣8♣ in the third blind and raised to $3,000 before the flop. Lew, holding J♣4♥ in the straddle, called, while the rest of the table folded. The flop came T♣T♥9♣. At that point, Lew was nominally the favorite, holding Jack-high against Adelstein's 8-high, but Adelstein had flopped a promising hand that contained a flush draw, an open-ended straight draw and an open-ended straight flush draw. The number of his outs actually made Adelstein a 65%/35% favorite against Lew at that point. Adelstein, first to act, bet $2,500 and Lew, with the pot at $9,200, insta-called.

The turn was the 3♥, improving neither player's hand. Adelstein bet $10,000, which was almost the size of the pot, making it $21,700. Lew raised the bet to $20,000 and Adelstein pushed all-in to Lew's remaining $109,000 stack. After taking some time to think and talk to Adelstein, Lew called and they ran the river twice. With the two distinct river-cards coming up 9♦ and A♠, neither player improved and Lew won the hand along with the $270,000 pot with Jack high.

Reaction at the table

The stream commentator was surprised, exclaiming "I'm speechless!" and "My god! What is going on?" and suggesting that Lew probably misread her hand. Adelstein remained silent and shocked, eventually getting up and walking away from the table. The commentator said he had never seen Adelstein so disturbed, though adding that there was nothing suspicious in Lew's previous plays.

The players at the table made various comments, such as "That was not poker" but did not claim anything untoward went on, except for Andy Stacks who stated the hand was "odd" and he wished for some explanation. Ryusuke complimented Lew for "a great call."

Lew got up from the table at some point as well, and, as it later transpired, talked with Adelstein. He claimed that, along with stream producer Ryan Feldman, they wanted a conversation with Lew off camera, while Lew claimed she was "cornered & threatened," and, as a result, she offered to return Adelstein the money he had lost in the hand. Both parties agree that Adelstein accepted the offer and that she paid him off with chips from her stack. He then left the casino premises without returning to the table.

Cheating claim

The next day, Adelstein, in a series of tweets, claimed he was cheated in the hand. On 7 October 2022, he presented his case in detail on the poker website TwoPlusTwo.com, opening with the proclamation

I can again say with great confidence that Robbi [Jade Lew] was very likely part of a cheating ring of at least three members, including her, RIP [Jacob "Rip" Chavez], Bryan [Sagbigsal] and potentially others.

Robbi Jade Lew, after initially giving vague and often contradicting explanations for her decisions in the hand, strongly rejected all accusations of cheating, which included claims of her wearing a ring that was passing along to her information through vibrations. She accepted to undergo a lie detector test, which she passed.

The poker community stood mostly divided in two camps, each holding a strong opinion either supporting or rejecting the cheating allegations.

The scandal hit most major media and online news websites, both in the US and abroad.

Casino investigation

On 1 October 2022, High Stakes Poker Productions, which owns and operates the Hustler Casino streaming service through the YouTube channel, announced the undertaking of a "comprehensive investigation" that would include forensic examination by a "third-party cybersecurity company." The company also announced it would employ the services of a Los Angeles-based legal and private investigations firm that would conduct interviews and provide research.

After two and a half months, on 14 December 2022, Hustler Casino issued a press release, announcing that the investigation found "no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing" in the controversial hand, or in any other hand played that night.

Hustler stated that the investigation, which ostensibly cost "more than $100,000", went to "great lengths" to determine if any evidence of wrongdoing could be found. The conclusion of the investigation, they stated, was based on the findings and assessments of the cybersecurity experts, on the testimony of players both at the table and unrelated to the incident, on interviews of employees and third parties, on the thorough review of the videos of all the hands played on the show, and on the examination of the surveillance video covering both the whole casino are and the parking lot. However, the statement included the admission that, although there was no credible evidence of wrongdoing, the related, extensive review of the casino's technology, equipment and protocols uncovered "improvements that could be implemented to improve the security" of the stream.

Chip theft

During the casino's investigation, and specifically the examination of the surveillance videos, it was discovered that, on the night of 29 September and after the streaming broadcast was concluded, an employee of High Stakes Poker Productions, named Bryan Sagbigsal, stole chips worth $15,000 from Lew's stack. Hustler Casino Live owners Nick Vertucci and Ryan Feldman announced that the employee admitted to taking the chips and was "immediately" fired.

When the announcement was made, Lew stated that she does not wish to pursue criminal charges against the culprit. Her position caused wide spread speculation in the poker community, with players and commentators arguing that her decision could be a sign that she and the fired employee had been "illicitly working together." Some poker players who, until the chip stealing was discovered, had been on Lew's side, announced on social media that they had changed their minds. Adelstein tweeted that he "harbor[s] no ill will towards...those who have reconsidered their position." The next afternoon, Lew tweeted she had received "new information" that has caused her to "reconsider," and claimed that she would press charges against the fired employee. However, eventually, Sagbigsal was never arrested or indicted.

Assessment by experts

Phil Ivey, regarded by most as the best poker player ever, who was at the table that night, stated that, in his opinion, there was no cheating in the hand, assigning Lew's play and her subsequent statement to a combination of bad play, confusion, and embarrassment. Ivey stated "the best, most reasonable explanation" is that "[Lew] thought she had Jack-three, misread her hand and [then] she didn't want to say she misread her hand because she's at a poker table." Eric Persson, co-founder and CEO of Maverick Gaming, agreed with Ivey's take.

Poker professional and coach Daniel Negreanu, in statements and tweets, came "strongly" on the side of Lew not cheating. Negreanu stated that, in his view, the "most rational explanation" for the hand's denouement, is that Lew was "simply overwhelmed in a big spot" and "made a panicked decision." He added that he does not accept Lew's decision to refund the money as an admission of guilt. He went on to analyze the bulge in Lew's right pocket and assess it as nothing extraordinary. Poker pro Xuan Liu opined that Negreanu is correct in his assessment, adding that Lew should not have given back the money she won in that hand to Adelstein.

Poker professional Douglas K. Polk posted online the image of Lew's pants and claimed that "it's overwhelmingly likely that she's cheating." In the same statement, however, he said that "it's not known for sure [whether she cheated]." Notable online and live poker pro Tom Dwan came down in favor of the cheating explanation, while poker pro Phil Galfond bemoaned the appearance of two opposite, strongly founded camps in the debate and argued that the issue should be examined by "open-minded people rather than each side cherry-picking evidence to support their take." Galfond stated he does not believe any cheating occurred but would be "happy" to change his mind if evidence would appear that it did occur.

Brian Koppelman, co-author of the poker-themed movie Rounders, posted up a message to Adelstein, asking him why he was so sure that the hand in question was cheating. Koppelman, who says he "stud[ies] cheating," argued that Lew "seemed embarrassed to have made a bad play" and tries to "cover" it, unlike a cheater.

Michael Shackleford, mathematician and actuary, as well as owner of the Wizard of Odds website of statistical and other insights to gaming, used the Occam's razor principle in his assessment. He claimed that the "simplest explanation" is that Lew misread her hand or just made a crazy call. The scenarios in which she is guilty, Shackleford pointed out, are all "complex," rivaling "outlandish conspiracy theories." There is little compelling evidence that Lew cheated, he concluded, adding that, although it is hard or often impossible to prove innocence, Lew has provided significant evidence of innocence.

Accusations of misogyny

Accusations of misogyny against Adelstein and those who supported his claim of having being cheated appeared in social media. Robbi Jade Lew, in an interview to the NextIO channel, said she did find misogyny to be part of the reaction against her and how she played the hand, as well as in the accusations of cheating. She went on the explain her decisions in the hand as "just a crazy play." Katie Martin, a Canadian law student at the University of Toronto, tweeted:

I am hearing now that dudes are mad at a woman for beating them in poker because she gambled on a statistically bad hand after reading her opponent’s tells, which is, as far as I was aware, the exact reason they call poker "gambling" and not "statistics".

The claims of misogyny were met with a strong reaction by the poker community. Poker pro Melissa Bryne found the claims "ridiculous." She commented that Lew's "play was terrible" and "sometimes terrible plays win," without accepting the claims of cheating. "Not everything is man vs woman," she pointed out. Canadian poker pro and self-proclaimed feminist Vanessa Kade tweeted that, "in a vacuum," the hand indeed "merits an investigation," yet agreeing that "some (not all) of the coverage has some underlying sexism and voluntary exclusion of evidence that suggests [Lew's] innocence."

Another poker pro, Bart Hanson, a self-proclaimed "woke", opined that Adelstein has been honest in his belief that he was cheated but that Adelstein's belief is not based in any kind of sexist sentiment. Former poker pro Melissa Burr praised those poker players who analyzed the hand "trough a critical lens regardless of gender." Liv Boeree, another former poker pro, strongly disputed all claims of misogyny, tweeting that "there is a *real chance* [Lew] was cheating in this case, & misogyny has v little to do with it."

Denouement

Garrett Adelstein, by the end of 2023, was back at the televised poker tables, taking part in World Poker Tour high-stakes cash games at the Wynn Las Vegas. He maintains that he is "extremely confident" he was cheated in the infamous hand.

Robbi Jade Lew, since the night of the hand, has agreed to be interviewed by "just about every major publication around," proclaiming her innocence. The only thing she would have done differently, she states, is that she would not have given the money back if she knew that it would be used against her as proof of guilt. She says she has nothing to hide but feels "mystified" by the amount of attention she is still getting, with fans messaging her "from every friggin’ country." In 2024, she participated in The Anonymous reality show and competed in the year's World Series of Poker.

Alleged chip thief Bryan Sagbigsal remains at large.

Poker industry insiders remarked that the Adelstein-Lew controversy "reached so far outside of the poker world and got [so many] more people interested in poker" that it became "one of those things where [poker] actually grew from the experience." Hustler Casino representatives stated the institution is now focused on "looking ahead and learning from the ordeal."

See also

• Cheating in chess
• Cheating in casinos
• Stones Gambling Hall cheating scandal

Further reading

• Silver, Nate (2024). On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything. Penguin Press. pp. 80–86, 123–129, 444–445. ISBN 9780593833322. The hand had a seismic effect on the poker landscape in Los Angeles and beyond. The most likely explanation is that Adelstein suffered a huge 'cooler'. [Lew] may be lying about the hand even though she didn't cheat.