Robbi Jade Lew
| Current Residence | Los Angeles, USA |
| Born | December, 1985 |
| Birth Place | Saudi Arabia |
| Total Winnings | $65,100 |
Cheating in poker has always been a topic of conversation as there have been many incidents in the past, but none recently that has polarized and captured the attention of the entire poker community was the alleged cheating that took place involving Robbi Jade Lew. The problem is – not many know who Robbi Jade Lew is.
Robbi’s Early Years & Personal Life
Robbi Jade Lew was born in December of 1985 in Saudi Arabia and has an identical twin sister. She spent 5 years there before her parents – her mom is a doctor and her father is a physicist – had a third child, a boy, and decided to immigrate to the United States. They settled down in Berkeley where they grew up but they did eventually move to Orinda.
Robbi attended UC Santa Barbara where she studied and graduated with a double major in law and society, as well as philosophy. She took a job working with the pharmaceutical company Bayer where she held a senior level role. She married over 10 years ago to Charles Lew, a very successful journalist, professor, and businessman. He is a lawyer at Lew Firm which specializes in the metaverse. He lectures at Loyola Law school where he teaches a class in the metaverse. He is also an owner-partner is several bars, restaurants, and hotels. This allowed her to leave Bayer and focus on her passions of fashion and jewelry, where she became a model and grew her Instagram following to over 18k followers.
COVID-19 Hit the World; The Poker Bug Hit Robbi
The pandemic was hard on the world, but it opened Robbi’s eye to the world of poker. She initially picked up the game early in her marriage when she read Poker Is for Dummies and learned the basics of the game from her husband. Initially she did not have much success, although there are recorded cashes from her as early as 2010. But, now with a financial backing and the world turned upside down, Robbi started playing more poker. The love for the game grew and in 2021 she hired two high profile poker coaches, and she started travelling to play in tournaments. As that continued, she turned to the game full time in the spring of 2022 and recorded cashes at a more regular rate. She participated in the fall WSOP in 2021 and landed in the money twice before doubling that effort a year later at the 2022 series. Her biggest win to date was in August of 2022 when she took event #36 – the $2200 Get Even Survivor of the WPT Legends of Poker in LA for $20k.
September 29th, 2022 – J4
Call it a hero call like none other, or the cumulation of a cheating ring within the HCL stream, but It started like most other Hustler Casino Live streams did with Robbi Jade Lew and Garrett Adelstein at the streamed table playing $100 / $200 / $400. Robbi had $133k on the table when she was dealt J4o UTG and straddled to $400. Garrett raised from the blinds with 87c to $3k and Robbi called. On a TT9 two club flop Garrett led out for $2.5k and Robbi came along. A 3h on the turn brought a $10k bet into a $11.7k pot from Garrett and Robbi raised him to $20k before Garrett shoved on Robbi. Robbi took time, but eventually found a call, starting right at Garrett when she threw her chips in. After running it twice, a 9d bricked the first pot, and the As on the second board gave Robbi the entire $269k pot.
Garrett was beyond stunned. His reaction was not of a gracious defeat; rather, he appeared suspicious of the situation and has gone on to accuse Robbi of cheating him out of more than $130k. Several odd turns to this story took place after that hand – Robbi giving the money back, theories that she had a device inserted within her to aid in her cheating, Robbi taking a lie detector test, and both maintaining their stories.
Robbi – What’s Next?
We may never know exactly what took place on that night, but a few things are certain: J4 will forever be know as Robbi’s hand, Garrett and Robbi are forever tied together in one of the most controversial real money poker hands ever, and the poker community cannot come to a conscious in terms of did Robbi cheat. One thing that is not clear right now is whether Robbi will play poker again. She has not made public her plans after the “J4” but given that she has maintained presence in social media, nothing would surprise us.
