Hours later, Robbi fired back at Garrett, saying that she won the hand fair and square by reading him correctly. Robbi eventually offered to pay Garrett back the money she had won from him in the hand, and he accepted, interpreting this as an admission of guilt from her and an attempt to make the situation go away. As Garrett recounted in a statement after the fact, he questioned her directly about her play logic and shared his suspicions that she had somehow unfairly won the hand via third-party communication with somebody who knew the hole cards. A few minutes later, Robbi was called away from the table to talk with both Garrett and this manager about the hand. Garrett stepped away from the table after this hand and spoke to one of the stream managers off-camera. Whether you think she was cheating or not, make no mistake: it was an objectively terrible call on all metrics. (You can even hear her say “I thought you had Ace high” at 5:27, which is a hand that would have beaten her.) Garrett happened to have the one exact hand combination she could beat within that range, and EVEN THEN she was barely 50-50 to win on the river as Garrett could still win with any club, Jack, 8, 7, or 6. But strangely, several bluffs or draws STILL would have beaten her, including Ax, Kx, Qx, J8, or any pair. By making the call, Robbi clearly had him on either a bluff or a draw. In a situation like Robbi’s where you are considering a hero call, you have to assign a “range” of possible hands that Garrett could be representing with an all-in. The table is amazed at her successful “hero call” and compliments Robbi on her big win, and she engages Garrett in some light trash talk, but Garrett looks like he thinks something is very suspicious about her call and betting patterns.Ī quick aside on ranges (technical poker speak here). They turn over their hands, and Garrett is absolutely shocked at her call. The river turns up no help for Garrett, and he knows he’s beat. But inexplicably to everyone (including the commentators), she goes deep into the tank, thinking for several minutes and even wasting a time chip to keep thinking, before she calls! At this point Robbi still has nothing and has no choice but to fold. Garrett again bets small, Robbi makes a small raise to try and scare him away, and Garrett decides to go all-in for roughly $150,000 (a common play for strong draws like his to scare away all but the best of holdings). The turn card is a 3h, a blank for both players. He makes a small bet, and Robbi calls – strange, but so far not super suspicious. The flop comes 10h10c9c, giving Garrett a straight flush draw, meaning he’s one card away from the best possible hand in poker but currently has nothing. But Robbi has good position on Garrett and clearly wants to try something tricky, so she calls his raise and the two of them go to the flop. Garrett is dealt 8-7 of clubs, a solid hand with a lot of flop potential, while Robbi has J-4 offsuit, a pretty garbage hand that you should usually fold. Here is the now-infamous hand if you want to watch it in its entirety. There was another amateur player by the name of Jacob “Rip” Chavez playing at the table, a former boxing trainer for Jake Paul, who will also become significant later. He was doing fairly well against the table full of amateurs, including Robbi Jade Lew, an LA local with no prior high-level cash winnings who only started playing poker seriously during the pandemic. On September 29, Hustler Casino Live hosted a cash game featuring a pro regular, Garrett Adelstein, widely known as one of the best cash players in the world – and one of the worst Survivor players, but that’s neither here nor there. The casino therefore has a strong reputation among the pros and maintains relationships with these players to ensure they keep coming back. Most of the players that appear on these streams are amateurs with deep pockets, but they also manage to draw some big pro names like Phil Ivey, Doug Polk, and Tom Dwan for their games. The casino also hosts its own live streams on YouTube, with tens of thousands of live viewers tuning in nightly to see players at the big money tables. The scene? Hustler Casino, a popular poker hotspot in Southern California known for its high-stakes play. And nobody could have predicted the wild rabbit-hole this scandal would take us down… But last year featured a hand so strange, so outside the norm that it drew legitimate suspicion of foul play. Most pros accept this as a feature of the game, as the element of randomness leads to some bad luck once in a while. An amateur makes a dumb move that winds up netting him/her millions. A pro player makes all the right moves only to lose to the river card. If you’ve ever watched high-level poker on TV, you’ve probably seen plenty of bad beats.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |