2022 Robbi Jade Lew Poker Cheating Scandal

Overview

2022 Robbi Jade Lew Poker Cheating Scandal refers to accusations that poker player Robbi Jade Lew employed some sort of method to cheat on a $270,000 pot to defeat poker player Garrett Adelstein in September 2022. The hand was deemed suspicious because Lew called a $109,000 all-in bet from Adelstein despite having only jack-high. Though it was an ultimately winning hand, there was a myriad of potential ways Adelstein could have had her beat, and many saw Lew calling a six-figure bluff with such a weak hand of her own as highly suspicious, suspecting she must have received some sort of signal that despite having only jack-high, she had the stronger hand. Afterward, Adelstein privately and publicly accused Lew of cheating. Lew returned her winnings to Adelstein but publicly denied cheating as the controversy erupted into widespread discussion and debate in late 2022 following the viral video spreading.

Background

The incident took place during a Texas Hold 'Em hand on September 29th, 2022, on the Hustler Casino Lives (HCL) stream. Adelstein had the eight and the seven of clubs, while Lew had the jack of clubs and four of hearts. The flop was a 10 of clubs, nine of clubs and nine of hearts. The turn was the three of hearts.

At this point in the hand, Adelstein has decent chances to get a straight flush, flush or straight on the river card. He goes all-in on the hand, betting his remaining $109,000 on the pot. As Lew has only jack-high, most poker fans and analysts agree that Lew should have folded in this situation.^[1] However, she decides to call his bet. They decide to "run it twice," meaning there would be two river cards shown, each one worth half the pot. Lew won both runs and walked away with $270,000 on the hand to Adelstein's bewilderment.

While Adelstein asked her about her logic during the hand, her explanations were perceived by many as making little sense and being contradictory. The clip was tweeted by the @HCLPokerShow Twitter account that evening, gaining over 950 retweets, 1,000 quote-tweets and 7,600 likes in four days (shown below).

THIS JUST HAPPENED…RobbiJadeLew vs GmanPoker in one of the strangest poker hands you've ever seen

Tune in now for SUPER HIGH STAKES $100/200/400: https://t.co/VcpZNMUTi4 pic.twitter.com/iGppl6l9aa

— Hustler Casino Live (@HCLPokerShow) September 30, 2022

Developments

Following the incident, Adelstein tweeted his thoughts about the situation and told his side of what happened in the aftermath.^[2] Adelstein left the table and approached management, believing he was cheated. He, HCL co-owner Ryan Feldman, and Lew had a conversation off stream where Adelstein accused her of cheating. According to Adelstein's tale, Lew denied cheating until Feldman told her it was not Adelstein and Feldman she needed to convince, but the general public, as the clip would likely go viral. After that comment, the conversation dies down and Lew offers to pay Adelstein the money he lost back, which Adelstein took as an admission of guilt.

Lew denied cheating. Later on in the stream, she claimed she misread her hand, thinking she had a pair of threes (shown below). Hustler Casino Live co-founder Nick Vertucci offered a similar explanation, saying the casino had "checked everything" for evidence of cheating and found nothing.

Lew also tweeted that she simply made an incredible "hero call"^[3] and claimed Adelstein threatened her^[4] (shown below).

Online Reactions

As the hand spread online in late September 2022, poker fans, analysts and casual viewers on social media discussed whether they believed it was a case of cheating or an honest, albeit highly improbable play.

Argument She Cheated

Those who believed it was cheating have pointed to the overall weakness of Lew's hand when deciding to call Adelstein's all-in bet. From her perspective, for Adelstein to beat her, he'd only need to be holding an ace, king, queen, 10, nine or three. Additionally, she also knew he had a chance at a straight or a flush on the river card, which had yet to be played. Many agreed that the wise move in that situation would be to fold, as even if she believed Adelstein was bluffing and didn't have a strong hand, there was a significant chance that his weak hand could have beaten her weak hand. According to DraftKings' analysis,^[1] "there are roughly over 150 ways Lew could be behind, about six ways to be ahead, and it’s more than two times the size of the pot to call."

Furthermore, those who believe she cheated pointed to her shifting explanations for why she made the play that she did. At the table, she stated both that she had a "draw," or a chance at a straight, which she didn't. She also said her jack served as a "blocker" to Adelstein's straight draw, which is still a flimsy explanation, considering Adelstein could have easily had a higher card than her or a pair or three of a kind, regardless of his straight draw. Finally, her claim that she misread her hand did not convince many, as she was shown checking her hand multiple times throughout the hand.

Among those suspicious that Lew cheated was YouTuber Doug Polk, who recapped all of these points and shared a story on September 30th, 2022, where he was once in a very similar situation as Adelstein, made an all-in bet, and ultimately lost to a player who ultimately had jack-high. That player was found to be cheating (shown below, left). In a second video, uploaded on October 1st, he points to an odd moment on a different hand where Lew's chair is shown to be vibrating as she makes her decision whether to stay in a hand. He concedes that it is not concrete evidence of cheating but suggests it may be the method she used. Both videos gained over 300,000 views in a matter of days Polk is careful to say that there is no concrete evidence of cheating, and Lew may be innocent, but that he is "90 percent" positive cheating had occurred.

Redditor putcoolusernamehere^[5] recapped those arguments and added other aspects of the moment that seemed suspect. These include that Lew was being "staked," or paid for, by another player at the table, Rip Fritzer, who also happens to be Jake Paul's manager. This may indicate that Rip was involved in a scheme to help Lew win, but that is conjecture. Furthermore, the Redditor found it suspicious that after making an incredible "hero call" Lew did not celebrate, as most players would in that situation, but immediately became defensive. Lastly, Adelstein has a reputation for being an honest poker player and the Redditor argues he would not risk that reputation by sulking and throwing cheating accusations unless he was sure he was cheated.

Argument She Didn't Cheat

Those defending Lew argued that she simply outplayed Adelstein, and some argued that she was simply not very good at poker (or a "fish" in poker terminology) and got lucky making a ridiculous, low-probability call. For example, on October 2nd, 2022, Twitter user @katiedimartin^[6] tweeted that the hand showed why poker was "gambling" and not "statistics," gaining over 220,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Redditor Xl_monkey posted a meme that same day implying it was much more likely that Lew simply made a terrible call and got lucky than she cheated, gaining over 500 points on /r/poker.^[7]

Search Interest

External References