ShareAlmost a week after the latest cheating controversy hit the poker world, opinion is clearly still divided throughout the community. And weâre also nowhere nearer to being any closer to a conclusive answer, too.
That said, there are still plenty of new opinions getting posted every day and one angle in particular seems to have touched a nerve: is the sharp reaction to potential cheating by Robbi Jade Lew pure misogyny? Some people seem to think so.
Misogyny
When Katie Martin, Canadian PhD student, decided to post her feelings on Twitter about the scandal, she certainly wouldnât have been expecting the viral reaction that took place.She probably also wasnât prepared for the type of reaction only the poker community is capable of giving.
But claiming that this is about men being angry because a woman won a hand is a stretch, even for social media. Her point that âshe gambled on a statistically bad hand after reading her opponentâs tellsâ is far from an accurate description of what took place last week.
She added: âDo I know anything about poker? absolutely not. but once I won 50 bucks off a bunch of band nerds and this story involves misogyny and thus I feel I am qualified to comment.â
Fedor Holz tried to politely explain: âFor most people it has little to do with her being a woman and more with the play itself. I understand it can be hard to put into context if you are not very experienced with poker, but it's a hand that's definitely way out of the ordinary and highly unlikely she âhad a read.ââ
Liv Boeree, one of the best female players in recent times, added: âFormer female pro poker player here: please understand you are DEAD wrong about this - there is a *real chance* she was cheating in this case, & misogyny has v little to do with it. Your tweet is hurting the perception of women in poker in the long run so pls stop.â
Vanessa Kade is a confirmed feminist and even she concedes that the matter is worth an investigation âin a vacuum.â
Sadly, there was no real reaction when it was pointed out that Mike Postle received the same scrutiny as soon as people thought something was amiss.
Eventually, the thread ran to more than 250K likes and almost 1,300 replies!
Bart Hanson tweeted that even as a man who is often called âwokeâ he also doesnât think misogyny played any part in Garrett Adelsteinâs reaction after the hand. He also produced a video detailing why he doesnât think thereâs enough evidence to make an allegation of cheating.
Phil Galfond also did his best to politely explain why smart people who do not know about poker might be struggling to understand why there is so much heated discussion going on right now.
âClearly smart person mistakenly perceives injustice, which is entirely reasonable given limited subject matter expertise. Makes good faith, well-crafted tweet expressing anger about said injustice. 250k+ ppl w/o expertise agree & canât be convinced otherwise. Weâre all doomed.â
He also added that there are plenty of misogynistic comments about Robbi Lew on Twitter but this has nothing to do with the reaction of the community.
On a more surprising note, Doug Polk actually found himself being defended by none other than Charlie Carrel after Vanessa Kade took a swipe at his review videos on the case. Kade was unhappy at what she perceived as sexist undertones.
âFurthermore both videos have some serious sexist undertones, seems like youâre looking for excuses to call her stupid repeatedly and belittle her (whilst pointing to other things sheâd have to be a genius to pull off - canât have it both ways). You say youâre 90% sure sheâs cheating but provide absolutely no evidence while ignoring a pile of evidence to the contrary. Riling the mob up at people for clicks through sensationalized bullshit, at someone elseâs cost is really scummy. All of this is a bad for poker. â
Former high stakes cash game player Melissa Burr took the opposite stance and praised both Doug Polk and Joey Ingram for analysing through a critical lens regardless of gender.
More of these threads have topped up over the last couple of days, each less objective than the previous one. Even Liv Boeree found herself blocked after identifying herself as a female pro and saying the original poster didnât know what the real story was.
Check out two of the latest review videos on the Hustler Casino Live scandal.
In case you missed anything from this story over the last week, check out our coverage so far in the links below:
Garrett Adelstein Storms Off Hustler Casino Live Amid Suspicious Play
Doug Polk Says itâs 90% Likely Robbi Lew Cheated on Hustler Casino Live
