As the excitement following allegations of fraud against poker player Robbi Jade Lew somehow still rumbling, an investigation into the casino where the g ame took place has revealed that a clerk dug into Lew’s stack as the brouhaha went down. He took $15,000 before he was later caught.
To catch up on the previous story, pro Garrett Adelstein accused Robbi Jade Lew of cheating during a live-streamed high-stakes Texas Hold’em cash game after he oddly played an extremely weak hand and secured himself a whopping $269,000. The accusation made little sense considering that if Lew had cheated, almost any information she could have gleaned would have caused her to fold her cards and stop calling with them. Anyway, Lew returned the money after claiming Adelstein “cornered me and threatened me” (something Adelstein denies), and the streaming company has launched a full investigation.
According to a statement released by High Stakes Poker Productions, a company that streams games from Hustler Casino in Vegas, they have assembled “a team of experts” from Gaming Laboratory International’s Bulletproof for their investigation, which will include testing their technology and security. At the same time, they hired a law firm called Sheppard Mullin to help them with this.
“The investigation will attempt to determine: 1) whether there is evidence that players have used compromising technologies in our streamed games; and 2) how secure our system and protocols are.”
The production company then promises to immediately improve any defects found and to make the entire investigation “transparent”. Which is why they then report on some extraordinary news they’ve already found: A completely different crime that happened at the same time.
While reviewing the video of the infamous High Stake poker handit’s The investigative team spotted one of their employees “removing chips from Robbi’s stack after the broadcast ended and Robbi was not at the table.”
The person involved, Bryan Sagbigsal, has since admitted to taking $15,000 worth of chips from Lew’s stack. He was immediately fired and the company informed Lew and the Gardena police.
However, at the time of the announcement, Lew has opted not to press charges, meaning police have said they will not pursue any prosecution.
Continue reading: Pro Poker rocked by alleged cheating scandal in which winner paid loser $269,000 back
Since then, Lew has changed her position on the impeachment. She tweeted over the weekend She issued a statement, explaining that at the time she was called by detectives, she had a “split-second decision” to make and had based her decision on the fact that he had no “predecessors.” However, Lew says that “I have since received new information that has caused me to reconsider” and that she plans to follow up on the incident on Monday (today). She comes to the conclusion
“Until then, I will try to get a much-needed two-day mental break. Have fun in my absence. If there’s an emergency, don’t call me.”
Regarding the cheating allegations, which Lew has denied (in many confusing, sometimes contradictory ways), the investigation needs to be so thorough because of the situation so peculiar. Adelstein had a draw for both flushes and a straight with even the potential of both, while Lew only had an overcard. Adelstein had so many outs that he had a 70-30 lead on the flop and was able to win 53 percent on the turn. Lew was dead in every way.
In order for Lew to get useful information in a hand where she was still behind on the draw despite having better pocket cards, she would either have been given inaccurate information leading her to believe she was ahead, or just incredibly primitive information told her that her hand at this time was the better one. And in a strange twist, knowing the primitive information would have required the most sophisticated fraud.
All the most obvious methods of cheating in such circumstances would be required letting someone else know what cards were in Adelstein’s hand. There are two realistic ways of knowing this. Do you have a friend who just peesks, then signals the information to Lew, in which case she should have known to pass because she was behind. Or somehow i have hackedn the RFID information in the cards, and then that data is used to send some sort of signal that, for example, makes an item in her pocket buzz when she has the better hand. In this case, it would have been the most incredibly elaborate setup deployed in the weirdest way.
Or, you know, she was just playing very weird for a lot of money and got lucky. Apparently, with an investigation this thorough, there’s a good chance we’ll find out if at least the stranger possibilities are ruled out.
Meanwhile, high stakes offered to repay Robbi Jade Lew the money stolen from her, although it is not clear if she accepted. (We asked.)
