Accused poker cheater Robbi Jade Lew took a giant leap forward towards proving her innocence by not only passing a polygraph test, but also pushing to have charges filed against her alleged co-conspirator, Bryan Sagbigsal.
Lew, who resides in Southern California, traveled to Las Vegas on Wednesday to take a polygraph test in hopes of proving that she didn't cheat against Garrett Adelstein in a $269,000 pot on Hustler Casino Live. She released the results of the test Thursday night on Twitter, but many have questioned the legitimacy of the test and if passing proves much.
Lie Detector Test Detects No Lies
It should be noted that polygraph tests are not admissible in court — not that this cheating scandal was ever going to see a court of law — because they aren't always accurate. According to PsychologyToday.com, lie detector tests are only accurate an estimated 87% of the time.
But the result of the test did, if nothing else, make it more likely that she wasn't cheating. Lew, whose actions following the hand have been criticized by many in the poker community, dunked on the haters in a two-part tweet.
The test was administered by James Hannah, and the final determination was "No Deception Detected." She was asked a series of questions, but the main ones were as follows:
- Were you using any cheating devices while engaged in the Hustler Casino Live poker games?
- Did you cheat in any way during the Hustler Casino Live poker games?
- Did you conspire with anyone during the Hustler Casino live poker games to cheat?
Lew, who was immediately accused of cheating by Adelstein on Sept. 29, answered "no" to those three questions. The full list of questions wasn't provided.
Charges to Be Filed Against Poker Chip Thief?
Passing a lie detector likely isn't enough to prove to many doubters that she didn't cheat. But Lew has also taken additional steps in showing the poker community she beat Adelstein fair and square.
According to her two-part Thursday night tweet, the recreational poker player informed her followers that she spent the afternoon at Hustler Casino where she met with Gardena Police detective Hugo Gualotuna to present evidence against chip thief, Bryan Sagbigsal, a now fired employee of the production team.
This certainly helps her case of proving innocence because it was initially presumed by many within the poker world that Sagbigsal was involved in the cheating scandal.
During Hustler's investigation into the alleged incident, a casino camera spotted Sagbigsal snatching $15,000 worth of poker chips from Lew's stack following the Sept. 29 Hustler Casino Live stream. She refused to encourage police to press charges that night, which seemed suspicious to many poker players.
Lew then changed her mind and informed the poker community that she would, to prove she wasn't working in cahoots with Sagbigsal, call for charges to be filed. Per her Thursday tweet, she met with detective Gualotuna to present "concrete evidence" against the former High Stakes Poker Productions employee who has since admitted to the theft. It is now up to the district attorney to determine if Sagbigsal will face criminal proceedings.
Lew has denied having ever previously known Sagbigsal and said she was initially unaware of the 24-year-old's criminal background when she declined to press charges two weeks ago. Upon finding out that he has quite an extensive rap sheet, she claims, she decided to push for an arrest.
Poker Community Still isn't Convinced
Not everyone is buying the legitimacy of the polygraph test. Bill Perkins, who has challenged Lew to a $2 million heads-up match, still questions her innocence, and he's one of many doubters remaining out there.
"Your behavior after the hand is not consistent with somebody who didn't cheat," Perkins said on Joe Ingram's Thursday live-stream.
Tom Dwan, one of the most vocal Lew detractors, continued his aggressive questioning on Ingram's stream. He called her out for collusion with Jacob "Rip" Chavez, the player who staked her in the infamous Hustler Casino Live game. Lew admitted to Dwan that she soft-played Chavez, her friend, in a heads-up pot they played together on stream.
One other theory that a few on poker Twitter suggested was that Lew's twin sister took the lie detector test on her behalf. That, of course, hasn't been proven and has no evidence to support it. There were, however, many poker fans who argued that the polygraph results vindicate the recreational poker player.
"All these poker pros will now ignore the fact of what they have said and did. Gman made a shit bluff and not 1 so called pro ever looked at his play for her call," @BeerLeaguePoker tweeted.
"Waiting for poker world players to comment on this. Who had opinion in favour or otherwise. In ur face," @mishalsurani30 bragged.
"@RobbiJadeLew passes polygraph test and submits phone records. Probably never gonna be good enough for butt hurt @GmanPoker," @Ditchwitch007 writes.
The investigation into the alleged cheating incident has been handed over to a third-party firm. Hard evidence that cheating occurred has yet to be found.
