Garrett Adelstein was 4 months out of faculty, grinding his approach via hundreds of on-line poker palms a day whereas he discovered what he wished to do along with his life.

He was profitable a median of $500 an hour and had calculated that he might make as a lot as half 1,000,000 {dollars} over the subsequent yr if he stored at it. However Adelstein was conflicted, turning one afternoon to poker discussion board Two Plus Two to solicit recommendation.

“The principle downside with poker for me is that day after day, I’ve combined emotions about how comfortable I’m doing this as a residing,” he wrote within the 2008 put up. “I simply can’t see myself enjoying poker as a profession for greater than one other 1-2 years at most.”

Fourteen years of enjoying skilled poker later, Adelstein is among the sport’s finest and most worthwhile high-stakes money gamers, recognized to viewers of fashionable on line casino broadcasts for his loose-aggressive fashion of no-limit maintain ’em and his willingness to purchase in for big sums of cash, bringing as a lot as $1 million to the desk.

On Sept. 29, Adelstein made the most important wager of his life: risking his well-respected fame, and presumably his poker profession, when he accused rookie participant Robbi Jade Lew of dishonest in a $269,000 hand towards him on “Hustler On line casino Reside.”

Video of the hand — wherein Lew’s unorthodox all-in name with the jack of golf equipment and the 4 of hearts led to an unbelievable win — was watched by 20,000 folks because it was streamed and by thousands and thousands extra because the clip went viral. Some fellow professionals have mentioned Lew’s technique within the hand was inexplicable until she knew Adelstein’s playing cards; Lew later mentioned she was confused about what she had however outplayed him nonetheless. The manufacturing firm behind “Hustler On line casino Reside” mentioned it’s investigating and has but to show up proof of dishonest by Lew or anybody else.

With out concrete proof, the bombshell allegation has roiled the poker group, creating deep divisions throughout each stage of the sport as gamers and followers debate the hand and subsequent revelations. The fallout for each side has been extreme, with Adelstein and Lew every going through bitter character assaults and questions on their motives.

Lew has maintained her innocence: “I 100% unequivocally didn’t cheat,” she instructed The Occasions, “and I’m simply ready for the investigation to indicate that.”

Adelstein, 36, hasn’t performed poker since. Whereas he as soon as spent a lot of his time finding out optimum technique, reviewing previous palms and showing on streams from Hustler On line casino in Gardena and Bicycle On line casino in Bell Gardens, he’s now hyper-focused on conducting his personal investigation to show his case.

In a greater than four-hour interview from his Manhattan Seaside dwelling on Tuesday, Adelstein mentioned he was “extraordinarily assured” that he was the goal of a dishonest ring involving not simply Lew however different gamers and no less than one member of the present’s manufacturing crew. Lew, 37, denied the allegation, which she referred to as “defamatory.”

The drama has left Adelstein unsure when he’ll return to the poker desk. After I carry up his 2008 Two Plus Two put up, wherein a then-22-year-old Adelstein grappled along with his ambivalence over a profession enjoying playing cards, he says: “Regardless of not figuring out a lot about something at the moment, I feel I noticed spending my skilled life on a zero-sum sport was going to have issues.”

Adelstein says he has been cheated earlier than. When he was 26, he was invited to a house sport the place he purchased in for $100,000.

Excessive-stakes poker dwelling video games are notoriously rife with dishonest and illicit actions, and Adelstein mentioned he had a “actually, actually dangerous vibe” all through the evening. He believed the seller was setting the deck in collusion with 4 gamers on the desk, a suspicion that was heightened when his second-nut flush was overwhelmed by the nut flush — the absolute best 5 suited playing cards in a given hand. It’s a situation that occurs, “however fairly hardly ever,” Adelstein mentioned.

Having misplaced all his cash, Adelstein left. However the incident rattled him and he quickly bought in contact with the host of the sport, who provided to satisfy at Q’s Billiard Room in West Los Angeles. There, Adelstein mentioned, he laid out his suspicions in regards to the intricacies of the operation to the host and a enterprise companion, and mentioned he would go public with what occurred.

“They provided me a deal the place they might refund me my cash in trade for my silence,” he mentioned. “After which they paid me in six installments, as soon as a month, for a six-month interval.”

The incident, which he relayed on a poker podcast final yr, confirmed Adelstein the darker aspect of poker and left him cautious.

He by no means performed in a high-stakes dwelling sport with strangers once more, selecting to solely play in casinos, the place he reasoned dishonest could be much less possible. Nonetheless, “I’m at all times searching for it,” he mentioned. “I’m not the world’s most trusting man with regards to poker.”

Dishonest has been a long-standing concern inside the poker group.

There are the house sport horror tales and the well-documented issues with unregulated on-line poker rooms. About 15 years in the past, main on-line poker web sites have been busted for operating fastened video games wherein “superuser” accounts — usually held by staff of the websites — had entry to each participant’s facedown playing cards, generally known as gap playing cards; figuring out that info gave superusers an insurmountable benefit. Some gamers have shared their strategies of in-person dishonest, corresponding to Houston Curtis, government producer of rival poker stream “Reside on the Bike,” who detailed how he rigged video games in a 2020 ebook and on YouTube.

In casinos, measures corresponding to computerized card shufflers, flooring supervisors, safety guards, cameras and frequent seller rotations present some stage of safety, however cheaters nonetheless get via. And new safety dangers have emerged as poker rooms introduce extra fashionable options to enliven the sport and develop its fan base.

“Everytime you’re speaking about giant sums of cash and enjoying a sport, there’s at all times going to be people who find themselves attempting to skirt the system, cheat, steal or search for any edge they will discover,” poker professional Daniel Negreanu mentioned. “Now with poker being streamed, there are new avenues wherein folks can cheat.”

In 2019, a civil lawsuit was filed towards poker participant Mike Postle, Stones Playing Corridor close to Sacramento and a poker site supervisor. In it, dozens of poker gamers alleged that Postle, whereas enjoying on the on line casino’s streamed video games, was fed details about opponents’ gap playing cards in actual time by an confederate. Video games featured on the stream used enjoying playing cards embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that transmitted every card’s distinctive go well with and rank to a receiver.

The go well with was ultimately dismissed, with a decide ruling that the damages have been “quintessential playing losses which are barred for restoration by California public coverage.”

“In the event you cheat in every other sport, you’re dishonest the home and so they’ll completely hammer you,” poker commentator Veronica Brill, one of many plaintiffs, mentioned. “With poker, it’s unimaginable — nobody goes to jail. Nothing actually occurs to anybody; it’s so irritating.”

“In the case of stream safety and a majority of these video games, as professionals we’re clearly at all times looking out so it doesn’t occur once more,” poker participant Matt Berkey mentioned of the aftermath. “Garrett’s one of many greatest gamers who performs on stream, so he himself is extra of a possible goal.”

“Hustler On line casino Reside,” the streaming present that hosted the now-infamous Sept. 29 sport, additionally makes use of RFID enjoying playing cards. Since its first present aired in August 2021, it has grow to be the world’s most-watched poker stream, combining the drama of the sport with big quantities of money, poker’s high gamers, celebrities and different colourful personalities. “Hustler On line casino Reside” now has greater than 1 million month-to-month distinctive viewers and 185,000 subscribers.

A picture of Garrett Adelstein is displayed on a display at Hustler On line casino in Gardena. The poker professional is essentially the most worthwhile participant on “Hustler On line casino Reside.”

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)

The present’s video games are streamed 5 days per week on a delay of 1 to 4 hours to stop info from being handed to gamers reside. However now its stream safety has been referred to as into query, with gamers saying tighter protocols must be applied. They’ve raised issues over the variety of staff who had entry to the management room the place gap playing cards have been being monitored, and some have mentioned the stream ought to quickly shut down whereas the investigation is ongoing.

Adelstein was featured about as soon as per week on “Hustler On line casino Reside” and is its most profitable participant, racking up greater than $1.5 million in winnings over 53 appearances. Being an everyday on the present, taped quarter-hour away from his dwelling, supplied a measure of stability that’s uncommon amongst professional poker gamers, who usually should journey around the globe to seek out honest video games at excessive sufficient stakes.

“I believed that streamed poker was, no less than by comparability to the opposite choices, one of many final secure havens,” Adelstein mentioned. “And at this level, I’ve so little religion in that.”

With its most distinguished star refusing to play, the manufacturing firm behind “Hustler On line casino Reside” rapidly launched an investigation into the Sept. 29 incident, hiring a personal investigator, a cybersecurity agency and a legislation agency. Nick Vertucci, co-owner of Excessive Stakes Poker Productions, mentioned in an interview Monday that the method is anticipated to take a number of extra weeks to finish.

“I’m constructing the perimeter,” he mentioned. “These items take time.”

He added that the corporate was reviewing its safety protocols and would make modifications to make sure its stream is “as safe as doable.”

A nonetheless from the Sept. 29 version of the streaming present “Hustler On line casino Reside” displaying Garrett Adelstein and Robbi Jade Lew, moments after Lew gained a hand value $269,000.

(Excessive Stakes Poker Productions)

Scores {of professional} and leisure poker gamers have jumped in to conduct their very own beginner sleuthing, touting their findings and opinions across the clock on Twitter, Reddit and YouTube.

“There are a whole lot of accusations, a whole lot of hypothesis, and a whole lot of harmless folks will probably be damage by the circus and the conspiracy theories,” Vertucci mentioned. “This factor is being blown up for clicks, views and cash. It’s disgusting what’s taking place.”

Excessive Stakes Poker Productions launched the primary of its findings Oct. 6, saying a assessment of its video footage confirmed that certainly one of its staff, 24-year-old Bryan Sagbigsal, was caught taking $15,000 in chips from Lew’s stack after cameras stopped rolling Sept. 29. The corporate additionally mentioned Lew declined to press prices after being knowledgeable in regards to the incident.

That call led many to suspect that Lew and Sagbigsal have been working collectively, which she denied. Two days later, she introduced on Twitter that she had modified her thoughts and would file prices. Reached outdoors his girlfriend’s dwelling in Lengthy Seaside on Sunday afternoon, Sagbigsal declined to reply questions.

On Thursday afternoon, Lew and Vertucci met with a detective from the Gardena Police Division at Hustler On line casino. She mentioned she turned over direct messages that she acquired on Twitter from Sagbigsal after the Sept. 29 incident.

Robbi Jade Lew outdoors Hustler On line casino in Gardena on Thursday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)

In the meantime, Adelstein launched his personal 5,600-word report on Oct. 7. In it, he asserted “with nice confidence” that Lew was “very possible a part of a dishonest ring of no less than three members,” certainly one of whom was capable of entry hole-card info and sign the playing cards to others throughout a number of palms of play throughout a number of broadcasts. A lot of the report centered on circumstantial proof, suspicious-seeming habits and inconsistencies in Lew’s statements. Adelstein wrote that his authorized staff had suggested him to depart out hypothesis about “the particular methodology and roles of every member of the dishonest ring.”

“It was about six or seven days, 20 hours a day, of turning into this investigator,” Adelstein mentioned, sitting on a curvy upholstered armchair in his spacious gray-toned lounge. “That was my mind-set: that the one approach that I might really feel assured that the reality would come out is that if I went and bought it myself.”

Responding to Adelstein’s report, Lew mentioned on Twitter that it was “stuffed with inaccuracies and conjecture” and used a poop emoji to characterize his presentation of proof. Through textual content message, she added, “I can’t reply to anything as a result of every thing he has acknowledged is defamatory.”

Adelstein was born and raised in Tucson, the eldest of three youngsters in a middle-class household that lived within the middle-class a part of city, within the shadow of the nicer Catalina Foothills group.

“We couldn’t afford to reside there,” he mentioned. “From a really younger age, I fairly deeply believed that turning into very rich was the important thing technique to discover happiness in life. And I undoubtedly had a impolite awakening in my mid-20s by way of, that isn’t true in any respect.”

He started enjoying poker in 2003, a monumental yr for the sport. That Might, Chris Moneymaker gained the World Collection of Poker Predominant Occasion as an beginner participant, kicking off a worldwide poker growth.

Adelstein moved to L.A. a few years after graduating from the College of Arizona, the place he double-majored in entrepreneurship and advertising. Whereas consuming with pals at Cabo Cantina in Marina del Rey one evening, he was approached by two casting administrators from “Survivor.” He joined the Season 28 forged in 2013 however was the second contestant voted off, an early exit that despatched him right into a deep despair.

Throughout that interval, Adelstein mentioned he hardly ever left his one-bedroom West L.A. house, ordering supply and packing on 50 kilos. Round his thirtieth birthday, he sought assist from a psychologist and within the years since has used his platform as a widely known poker participant to talk frankly about his lifelong bouts with despair.

“I’ve made nice strides whereas previously, I might lay in mattress for months,” he mentioned. “Convincing my spouse to marry me and, to a big extent, overcoming these psychological well being struggles I feel are the 2 issues I’m most pleased with.”

After being cheated in a house sport early in his profession, “I’m not the world’s most trusting man with regards to poker,” Garrett Adelstein says.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

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He’s a voracious reader of self-help books and biographies, and a health fanatic who in July drove to Mt. Whitney in the midst of the evening when he observed a last-minute allow to hike the mountain had grow to be accessible. He summited the 14,505-foot peak alone later that day.

Skilled and leisure poker gamers on each side of the present controversy described Adelstein as an affable man who is thought for taking even large losses in stride.

“Garrett would have reacted usually if his opponent made an excellent, even heroic, name that value him $100,000,” mentioned Jennifer Shahade, a professional poker participant and chess champion. “I feel the preliminary hand, the decision and the state of affairs could be suspicious beneath any circumstances, any gender.”

Negreanu mentioned Adelstein has lengthy been “a category act” within the poker world and an envoy of the sport.

“Having mentioned that, he’s doubled down,” Negreanu mentioned of the dishonest allegations. “I feel he might have dealt with this very otherwise and higher than he did. However that’s to not counsel that it ought to besmirch him or muddy his title.”

Adelstein has seen the raging debates play out on Twitter, YouTube and Reddit during the last two weeks, the 12-hour-long podcasts dissecting the day’s developments, memes of his shellshocked face after Lew revealed her playing cards, the video parodies of the varied characters concerned.

If he might redo issues, he mentioned, he would tone down his preliminary statement on the evening of the sport. Aside from that, “I wouldn’t change a factor,” he mentioned. “And that, to me, virtually signifies it was inevitable: My skilled life was going to be without end altered.”

“Reside on the Bike,” on which Adelstein has performed a number of instances, has been hitting him up since Sept. 29 within the hopes that he’ll be part of its stream. However he says he’s not in the suitable headspace for it.

“There’s I suppose a world within the subsequent a number of weeks or months the place perhaps I’m capable of course of this and need to play a poker sport. However in the mean time, that’s not how I really feel,” he mentioned.

“I’m not enjoying poker on a stream once more until I see tangible, noticeable, measurable variations in livestream safety,” he continued. “That’s for my very own profit and it’s for the advantage of the poker group at giant.”