Robbi Jade Lew won a $500 buy-in tournament at Thunder Valley Casino Resort on Monday night and trolled poker pro Garrett Adelstein, who accused her of cheating, in a victory photo. The one-day tournament attracted 89 players and Lew cashed for $11,115 for her first-place finish.
Lew had originally intended to leave town after busting out of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Rolling Thunder Championship earlier in the week, but she stayed an extra day and it paid off quite well. "Two things have to happen when you win tournaments - you have to play well and run well," Lew said. "That's really what it's all about - calling the right calls, making the right folds, and that's what I was able to do during this event."
Lew won her first tournament since an alleged cheating incident at Hustler Casino Live in September 2022. The poker player from Southern California said her path to victory on Monday was not a cakewalk, as she kept herself on the short stack until the final table. "I found that I generally do well in the middle stack game," Lew explained. " When the tournament got down to the last five players, Lew felt close to winning. And the prediction came true.
Is she better at poker than you think?
Nearly 18 months ago, during Hustler Casino Live's most infamous live stream, Adelstein accused Lew of cheating him out of a six-figure pot. Even after all this time, Adelstein still maintains that Lew is guilty, while she claims the exact opposite. She herself has said that she's not sure if Adelstein is just being stubborn and unwilling to admit that his initial reaction was wrong, or if he truly believes she cheated on him.
After winning the tournament with a combination of instead of taking a photo with a traditional winning hand, she decided to troll her sibling a bit and chose J4o for the photo. "I just did it for fun," she said with a laugh. "Jack-four will always follow me. At first I was a little angry about it, but now I just accept it."
Thinking back to the infamous stream that saw Adelstein angrily walk out of the poker room and confront Lew about returning his $135,000, to this day the act is still understood differently by many. Many progressive fans have taken it as an admission of guilt, while others have called on Adelstein to return her money. Adelstein did not return to the stream that night and has not played on any popular poker shows since . In 2023, Hustler Casino Live co-owners Nick Vertucci and Ryan Feldman said Adelstein is not welcome back anytime soon.
In December, Adelstein made a triumphant return to live broadcasting at Bally Live Poker at the Tropicana in Las Vegas and later in the week at the WPT high stakes cash game at the Wynn Las Vegas. Since then, he's been waiting for a big enough game on the Bally stream at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, where he resides.
Sources: pokernews.com, vip-grinders.com, YouTube
