ShareA list of the biggest winners and losers in Hustler Casino Live’s high stakes cash games is doing the rounds and it makes for remarkably interesting reading, with Garrett Adelstein, JRB and Nick Vertucci taking more than $3million in combined winnings.
On the loser’s side, Alan Keating, Eric Persson and Phil Ivey have posted a similar number of total combined losses.
The HCL highstakes game has been front and centre for the past month with cheating allegations levied by Adelstein against Robbie Jade Lew after she made an incredible, though repulsive call...
Adelstein’s accusations sparked a feeding frenzy in the poker world, with allegations of a cheating ring, an investigation that discovered an employee stealing chips on camera, and Lew taking a lie detector test among the headlines.
The win/loss charts for regulars and guests on the California-based livestreamed show, however, is just as interesting in its own way - revealing that Adelstein is the biggest winner.
Long known as a crusher, Adelstein’s $1,532,075 winnings across 53 episodes means he takes home an average of close to $30k every time he appears on the show.
Jean-Robert Bellande, known popularly as JRB, comes in second with $1,014,000 from only two appearances on HCL. The majority of that came in August of this year when he took more than $800k from the table...
Perhaps the most interesting of all the big winners is the show’s co-founder, Nick Vertucci, who himself has been at the center of a massive shitstorm surrounding the cheating allegations.
After launching an investigation into Adelstein’s claims, Vertucci fell out with Matt Berkey and also claimed he was using his investigators to find out the real identity of Twitter account ThePokerKaren, who has been ripping him on Twitter...
At the tables – his own tables – Vertucci has been crushing it, up $689,840 over 157 shows, not as impressive an hourly as many in the winners list, but a healthy sideline nonetheless.
Other big names in the big winners list are chess streamer Alexandra Botez (+$462,675), Matt Berkey (+$409,275) and Robbie Jade lew herself (+$254,650). Lew’s total doesn’t include the $135,000 she returned to Adelstein after he complained of the suspicious hand that sparked the storm.
In poker, losers are often just as newsworthy as winners, because the money to buy fast cars and private jets has to come from somewhere.
The biggest loser by far is Alan Keating, down $1,608,400 over just 5 HCL appearances, this despite the following hand and his all-action style being great for the fans watching at home...
Another of the biggest losers will be well-known to those keeping up with the poker gossip columns, Maverick Gaming CEO Eric Persson falling out with Phil Hellmuth earlier this year.
The pair clashed in the PGT Heads-Up Showdown and Persson defeated Hellmuth in an ill-tempered match, which saw the Poker Brat facing his own verbal medicine for once. The fallout even led to Hellmuth blocking Daniel Negreanu on Twitter...
Phil Ivey also makes the losers list, down $387,000 over four HCL sessions. A chunk of that came against person this summer when Ivey decided on a $110k bluff-raise on the river with As QS on a board of J♠6♣ 7♥ 4♥ 10♥.
Unfortunately for Ivey, Persson had J♥ 5♥ and snap-called to win the $250k pot.
There’s no denying the Hustler Casino Live show is one of the most entertaining livestreamed cash game shows around, but what can we expect next? At this stage, your guess is as good as mine!
