ShareNew information in the Hustler Casino Live cheating scandal has seen police unable to locate and arrest chip thief Bryan Sagbigsal, while accused cheat Robbie Jade Lew has reportedly failed to hand over her phones despite claiming she had...
The double whammy of updates sparked life into the year’s biggest news story, with LA Times reporter Andrea Chang reporting on the inability of Gardena Police Department officers to locate and arrest High Stakes Poker production staffer, Bryan Sagbigsal.
Meanwhile, Garrett Adelstein was tweeting out the news about Robbie Jade Lew’s apparent lies, the poker newbie at the centre of the cheating row apparently lying about handing over her phone records to The Times newspaper to clear her name.
Chip Thief “missing” after being thrown out
Starting with Sagbigsal, it appears that efforts to track him down have been unsuccessful, Chang revealing that police “were unable to locate him after an all-day search Wednesday” according to lead detective, Hugo Gualotuna.Sagbigsal was sacked by HSP following the discovery he had palmed three $5k chips from Lew’s stack after filming of the livestreamed cash game had ended.
Lew only pressed charges after a Twitter outcry suggested failing to do so made her look guilty of some dubious connivance with the production crew member. Sagbigsal, meanwhile, had warned reporter Chang off following him.
With police looking to arrest the 24-year-old on “suspicion of grand theft,” a search that started at 7a.m. at his last known address in Long Beach proved fruitless.
Reportedly, Sagbigsal had been kicked out two weeks’ previously and he wasn’t answering his phone and had left no forwarding address.
Lies and a different kind of cheating?
On the Lew side of matters, public opinion had been swaying in her favour recently following her last-woman-standing 49th spot and cash at the WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic, as well as passing a lie detector test....However, on the back of news that she may have been cheating on her husband in public with fellow HCL player, Jacob “Rip” Chavez...
...came this week’s bombshell that, contrary to her claims, Lew has yet to pass on her phone records to the Times. She had offered the newspaper access to her phone records to, in her own words, “prove I’ve NEVER communicated with him (Bryan Sagbigsal).”
Chang reports that Lew invited The Times to meet with her, Detective Gualotuna, and HSP co-owner Nick Vertucci to discuss the Sagbigsal case.
“Afterward, she said on Twitter and on a podcast that she had turned over her phone records to the newspaper; The Times has yet to receive any, despite repeated follow-up requests,” said Chang yesterday.
HighstakesDB has reported on all aspects of the HCL cheating scandal in detail, and you can catch up on Adelstein’s accusations against Lew and others, the views of Daniel Negreanu on the story, and the for and against arguments that Lew was cheating.
Update: As we go to press, it appears that Robbi Jade Lew has finally turned over phone records to Chang, though she doesn’t explain why the delay and earlier claims to have already done so...
