An afternoon with Robbi Jade Lew, the woman at the center of the poker cheating scandal

Robbi Jade Lew is set to show the $120,000 ruby ring on her center finger doesn’t vibrate, is just not concealing a tiny digital camera and was not in any other case tampered with to assist her win a controversial Texas Maintain ’Em hand final week that has gone viral and rocked the poker world.

Similar goes for the supposed bulge within the facet of her Versace leggings, which on-line conspiracy theorists posit might have been hiding an digital machine that was feeding her data from an confederate. The Hustler On line casino chair she was sitting in has additionally been scrutinized, as have her $480 rose-tinted Fendi sun shades.

She denies all of it — and has invited me to a Beverly Hills jeweler in her quest to clear her title.

“Individuals are saying, ‘She did it for fame; she did it for cash.’ I didn’t want the cash, in order that’s hilarious,” stated Lew, 37. As for fame, “I clearly look a sure pretend Hollywood method. If I needed to be well-known, there are far simpler methods to do it than this.”

The previous biopharmaceuticals account supervisor from Pacific Palisades was comparatively unknown on the poker circuit earlier than the dishonest scandal. She realized to play 4 years in the past, initially selecting up a “Poker for Dummies” e book earlier than having her husband train her the fundamentals.

They started taking part in commonly throughout the pandemic, internet hosting video games with family and friends as a solution to go the lengthy days at residence. Realizing she had a knack for it, Lew employed two big-name poker coaches and turned totally to the sport this spring, touring to Las Vegas for the World Sequence of Poker and taking part in in smaller tournaments and money video games there and round Southern California.

On Sept. 29, Lew appeared for the third time on “Hustler On line casino Reside,” a well-liked YouTube poker present with greater than 180,000 subscribers that streams from the Gardena on line casino 5 nights per week. The high-stakes desk included Garrett Adelstein, a 2013 “Survivor” contestant and one among L.A.’s greatest skilled poker gamers; since “Hustler On line casino Reside” started streaming 14 months in the past, he has grow to be one among its regulars and the face of the present.

A wild hand between the 2 ensued a few hours into the stream, which was broadcast on a delay to stop gamers from getting tipped off in actual time (they’re additionally required to show over their telephones, smartwatches and another digital gadgets).

Adelstein was holding the seven and eight of golf equipment; Lew the jack of golf equipment and the 4 of hearts. After the flop — the primary three communal playing cards — Adelstein had a straight flush draw, a hand with a variety of potential to win. Lew’s hand at that time was objectively horrible, however she referred to as his wager anyway.

The fourth communal card, referred to as the flip, didn’t assist both participant. Adelstein semi-bluffed and wager out once more; Lew re-raised. Adelstein responded by pushing all in for the rest of Lew’s chips: $109,000.

Lew referred to as — a surprisingly unorthodox transfer that paid off. She took down the massive $269,000 pot when Adelstein failed to enhance his hand after all of the playing cards had been dealt.

The result shocked viewers, the remainder of the desk and Adelstein, who regarded dumbfounded and was speechless for greater than 90 seconds after Lew revealed her hand.

“I’ll simply say it: Garrett thinks that this hand was not straight in a roundabout way — there’s little question about it,” commentator Bart Hanson informed the greater than 20,000 viewers who had been tuned in on YouTube. “That is probably the most disturbed I’ve ever seen Garrett look.”

After an off-camera dialog among the many two gamers and a producer, Lew gave Adelstein again half the pot, additional elevating suspicions; Lew says she was cornered into returning the cash “to alleviate the stress of the scenario” and regrets the choice.

That night time, in a prolonged assertion posted on Twitter, Adelstein reasoned that Lew by no means would have continued taking part in with the playing cards she had until she was dishonest, and stated he was suspicious of what he characterised as her ever-changing “phrase salad explanations” afterward. Lew stated she misinterpret her playing cards, pondering she had a pair of threes as an alternative of jack excessive, however maintains she outplayed him nonetheless.

Adelstein, 36, declined to remark additional when reached Wednesday night time, however stated “that will definitely change in some unspecified time in the future.”

The fallout has infected the poker group, which has been burned by quite a few dishonest operations in casinos and on-line poker rooms through the years. It’s additionally the newest in a string of high-profile dishonest scandals just lately, together with on the highest ranges of chess and in aggressive fishing.

Execs and informal gamers world wide have weighed in, dissecting Lew’s physique language (was she tapping her fingers and twisting her ruby ring as a secret sign or simply fidgeting?), the garments she was carrying (was that “bulge” in her leggings one thing nefarious or a trick of the sunshine?), the chair she was sitting in (was it vibrating at a vital second or was she shaking her leg underneath the desk?) and her inconsistent statements about why she performed the best way she did (was she making an attempt to cowl her tracks or just flustered when questioned?).

“Primarily she performed a really dangerous hand in a method that recommended she might see her opponent’s gap playing cards,” stated poker professional Matt Berkey, who runs a widely known poker teaching academy. “Her hand was so dangerous that the worst participant on this planet wouldn’t need to put any cash into the pot.”

That stated, “it’s nonetheless very troublesome for me to wrap my head round how they might have pulled this off,” he added. “I don’t have an amazing diploma of confidence a method or one other.”

Lew supporters say it’s a basic instance of sexism by which a distinguished man is unable to take care of dropping to a much less skilled girl. In the meantime detractors have delved into her private life, questioning her wealth, her relationship together with her lawyer-entrepreneur husband, and her monetary preparations together with her poker backers (Lew purchased into the sport with $240,000 that was staked by one other participant on the desk).

Robbi Jade Lew denies that she cheated in final week’s poker recreation, saying she misinterpret her playing cards however nonetheless outplayed her opponent.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Instances)

Now the manufacturing firm behind “Hustler On line casino Reside” has launched an investigation that includes combing via safety digital camera footage, conducting interviews and reviewing information. It stated it would ask Lew and its personal workers to undergo polygraph checks.

“We take the allegations very severely and perceive something is feasible,” Excessive Stakes Poker Productions stated in an announcement Saturday. “This investigation will probably be extraordinarily detailed and will take appreciable time to finish. As soon as the investigation is completed, we are going to launch the findings publicly — it doesn’t matter what they reveal. It’s essential for us to bolster that we have now discovered no proof of wrongdoing by anybody at this level.”

The corporate revealed the primary of its findings Thursday afternoon, precisely per week after the hand, saying it had found that one among its personal workers had stolen $15,000 in chips from Lew’s stack after the printed had ended. The worker was fired; Lew declined to press prices.

Inside hours, members of the poker group had been speculating that Lew’s determination to not pursue the case could possibly be an indication that she and the fired worker had been illicitly working collectively. Some who had been on her facet stated on social media that they’d modified their minds.

“Though extra data will quickly come to mild, I need to make clear I harbor no ailing will in the direction of anybody, particularly those that have reconsidered their place,” Adelstein, who lives in Manhattan Seashore, tweeted Thursday night time.

Of the newest rumors, Lew texted late Thursday: “Yea that’s insane.”

Lew arrived for our lunch in Beverly Hills 45 minutes late, pulling as much as the valet of Ocean Prime in a black matte Tesla. She defined that she’d been delayed by a physique language and habits skilled who had contacted her, providing to conduct an evaluation of her look on the poker stream.

“It’s simply so loopy as a result of I’ve been so personal,” she stated after ordering a double cappuccino. “Nobody’s actually dug that deep into my world.”

Lew stated she was born in Saudi Arabia to a physician mom and physicist father. She and her household — she additionally has an similar twin sister and a youthful brother — immigrated to Berkeley when she was 5 and later moved to Orinda, a quaint East Bay metropolis close by. She stated she attended UC Santa Barbara, double majoring in legislation and society and philosophy, and acquired married a decade in the past to Charles Lew.

“My husband is a really profitable man. You’ll be able to Google him,” Lew stated over the cellphone the day earlier than, the decision sometimes interrupted by the barking of her two 7-year-old Shih Tzus, Xena and Ninja.

“He has a large legislation agency referred to as the Lew Agency. He’s an owner-partner in a number of bars, eating places and a resort or two. He’s the No. 1 metaverse lawyer within the nation in addition to a professor at Loyola Regulation Faculty. He teaches a metaverse class each week. This can be a man who does have bankroll. I don’t know why cash surprises individuals. I suppose it’s as a result of most individuals don’t have it.”

Lew, who stated her pursuits embody vogue and high-quality jewellery, intentionally rewore a lot of her poker night time outfit to lunch: the identical lengthy, glittery necklaces, the identical black Louis Vuitton sling bag and Prada wedge booties, the identical seven-carat ruby ring.

“Isn’t it beautiful? It’s to die,” she stated, extending her fingers — accented by slender oval-shaped olive inexperienced acrylic nails — throughout the desk to indicate off the stone. “I’m like jewelry-obsessed. After which I’ve this tourmaline one on. I’ve all these diamond bands that I put on. Black diamonds. And that is rose gold.”

Lew requested to fulfill right here for a particular objective. She’d made a midafternoon appointment subsequent door at Kazanjian, a storied 109-year-old jeweler that had lent her the ring the day earlier than the poker recreation. She needed the shop to rigorously examine the piece for something suspicious, a course of she was planning to file on her iPhone so she might share it later together with her social media followers.

Lew spoke freely and quickly about what occurred at Hustler. Her chair appeared to vibrate, she stated, as a result of she was hungover and had forgotten to take her ADHD meds, inflicting her to shake her leg. She didn’t have something in her leggings apart from her mic pack within the again; the obvious rectangular bulge was simply glare from the on line casino lights. Having one other participant on the desk stake her is just not in opposition to the principles and she or he’s not obligated to disclose the phrases of the deal (she stated she and her backers usually break up her earnings 50-50).

“I’m not nervous about any of this. I’ve nothing to cover, you understand?” she stated. “I really feel like if I keep quiet and let the world provide you with their very own tales and their very own storyline, that for me mentally is extra detrimental than popping out and talking my very own piece.”

Lew is mystified by the flood of consideration — followers DMing her from “each friggin’ nation,” daytime discuss exhibits asking her to be a visitor, producers reaching out with leisure offers — and, although she insists she didn’t need any of this, she appears intrigued by the chances. She has retained a administration and public relations group to assist area requests.

Shortly after 2 p.m., Lew led the best way to Kazanjian, a closely guarded jewellery retailer on Camden Drive. Ft away from the diamond tiara that Madonna wore throughout her wedding ceremony to Man Ritchie and an 888.88-carat $5-million star sapphire named after Angelina Jolie, she introduced gallery supervisor Joseph Barrios with the now-infamous ring.

Joseph Barrios, gallery supervisor at Beverly Hills jeweler Kazanjian, inspects the seven-carat ruby ring worn by Robbi Jade Lew throughout a controversial poker hand.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Instances)

“I don’t see something that may be thought-about as a technological add-on to it,” Barrios stated after a number of moments of analyzing the magenta-hued rock with a loupe magnifier. “It’s insane. Would which have occurred to a man? No.”

Charles Lew was additionally there, wearing a grey and black camouflage sweatsuit. He has his personal line of bijou that’s bought on the retailer, and got here by to pay for his spouse’s newest acquisition: a customized diamond-encrusted brushed rose gold horseshoe ring to match the black model she wore on her index finger throughout the poker recreation.

Lew had been uncertain about whether or not to maintain the ruby ring after what occurred final week. However whereas within the retailer, she made up her thoughts.

“I’m additionally gonna purchase that one — I need it,” she stated impulsively. “You understand why? It’s going to be story. I’ll most likely put on it on each stream.”