Garrett Adelstein and Robbi Lew - these names have been floating around all over the poker and non-poker mainstream media for the last few days, trying to figure out the whole thing. Have we witnessed a huge fraud or just a misunderstanding? Who is the culprit and who is the victim in this spot? In case you didn't catch the whole situation, check out the video of the hand in question, which is being talked about everywhere.
The hand rightfully divided the poker community, with one side describing it as the best hand of all time, while another argued that we were witnessing a huge fraud. Almost everyone who means something in the poker community has commented on this topic, but even so, the truth and the final solution are still out of sight.
Adelstein, still surprised, took the trouble himself, watched hours of footage of Robbie's game, and publicly announced with certainty that it could not have been with the church order. "She would never in her life think about calling here, always throwing away her bluff cathers, and suddenly out of the blue, she's playing with a 10x stack like usual, but at the same time, she calls a huge overshove without any draw or hit combination?"
Robbi herself looked confused at the game, struggling for words, and when asked by Garret what she thought she had, she said she thought he had an A-high. So why was she called with J-high? As she said later, she claimed that she knew "that he didn't even have shit", but the fact that she returned the money from this massive pot to her rival on her own during the evening in question did not help the credibility of the already shaky explanation. “To be clear, I never asked her for a refund, nor did I think about it. On the contrary, the fact that she offered it to me herself is her admission and clear proof that she cheated."
But nothing is one-sided, and Lew herself brings her perspective on the matter: "I asked him what I can do so that he doesn't leave and continue to play. When they took me aside from the table, they forced me to talk to him in a dark corridor, where he indicated to me that he wanted the money back or he would not return to the game." When asked directly if she had cheated, she answered immediately: "Clearly and honestly I did not cheat and I regret it that no one searched my things, bag or pockets at that moment. If the investigation brings a lie detector test, I will take it 100%."
Several world pros added that they had played some hands with Lew in the past and there were often unconventional and strange spots between them where Lew surprised them with an unconventional game. Everything was nailed down by Lew herself, who at the end of her statement invited Adelstein to a heads-up, where she would like to play with him and, as she says, "the whole world would see how I read you, like an open book." Garrett himself did not respond to the challenge and instead blocked his opponent on social networks.
Just a few days after this hand, visitors of the Hustler casino were surprised by the news - every participant of the streamed CG table had to go through a personal search, where a body scanner was used, which you may recognize from, for example, airport security checks. The goal of this preventive act was to prevent people from bringing any devices with them into the game that could transmit information to them during the game.
And to make matters worse, when the investigation into this whole conflicting hand was launched, another fraud was "accidentally" revealed. Robbi Lew, who is accused in this case, became a victim herself when three chips, each worth $5,000, disappeared from her stack. A review of the records revealed that after the transfer ended, an HSP employee took Robbie's chips from the table and stole three of them. The thief is Bryan Sagbigsal, still only a 24-year-old member of the production team.
Sagbigsal confessed to everything and returned the money, which was literally "change" in this game, to the robbed. The victim, Robbi Lew, surprised everyone when she announced that she did not want to press charges against the perpetrator and that she forgave him for this offense. “When I found out how young the man was and that he had no criminal record, I decided not to press charges as it would unnecessarily ruin his life. It's enough that he was fired, it will be a big punishment for him." It is not clear where Robbi got the information about integrity, as Sagbigsal already has more than enough on his plate - participation in a robbery, escaping from prison or harming health.
So where do you think the truth is? Have we witnessed a scam on the TV table? Or is Lew just out of it and she didn't really know what she was doing in that game? Let us know in the comments!
Source: Twitter.com, PokerNews.com, YouTube.com, CardPlayer.com