'The Anonymous' Star Robbi Jade Lew Was Involved in a Major Poker Scandal After Going Pro

In August 2024, USA debuted its reality competition show, The Anonymous. On the show, 12 contestants vie for $100,000 by befriending one another before they plot against them in anonymous mode. While everyone in the cast is playing the game for the first time, some have more experience than others in being competitive and reading their opponents.

The series premiere showed some contestants from past reality TV shows, like Big Brother winner Xavier Prather and Survivor champ (and daughter of one of its legends) Nina Twine.

Viewers also met Robbi Jade Lew during The Anonymous Season 1. While The Anonymous was Robbi's first foray into reality, her stellar work in the poker industry thoroughly prepared her to be strategic in the competition.

Here's the rundown on Robbi's poker career.

From what we've learned of Robbi on The Anonymous, she will do whatever it takes to win the game, even if it means making a few enemies as her player, "Dice." Her high-stakes approach to the game likely stems from her time as a professional poker player.

After working in the Biomedical field, Robbi made a career change during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She spent time her time on lockdown playing poker and eventually decided to learn how to play for money.

Robbi had her first live poker tournament in October 2021 and finished in the money in a $400 Daily Deep Stack event at the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP). By 2022, she had turned her poker hobby into a professional career and studied under Faraz Jaka, founder of the poker training site Jaka Coaching. With Jaka's coaching, she cashed out four times at the 2022 WSOP, including in the $10,000 Main Event. To date, she has reportedly won over $137,000 in live poker tournaments.

Although she started her poker career later in life, Robbi has already become a household name in the industry. In 2022, she was involved in a controversial game that rocked the poker world.

In September 2022, Robbi played against pro poker player Garrett Adelstein on an episode of the popular poker game show, Hustler Casino Live.

During the game, she made an unconventional play in the wild hand, in which she called Garrett'’s huge all-in bet with jack high. The move earned her a win of a $269,000 pot. Garrett later accused her of cheating to secure the hand, leading to a three-month investigation into the tournament. According to The Los Angeles Times, he also accused Robbi of "colluding" with at least one other player at the table and with a production employee. The video of the disagreement circulated on social media and on poker blogs.

The USA star denied all of Garrett's allegations and agreed to take a polygraph test in December. The test and the investigation concluded there were no findings of wrongdoing on her end, which she told the Times she "expected" would happen. Robbi also said she planned to take legal action to make "subsequent commentary and statements."

In March 2024, Robbi won her first poker tournament at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Rolling Thunder Championship. The win was her first since the J4 scandal, after her move of holding the jack of clubs and the four of hearts. She celebrated her win with a shady response to Garrett's allegation, as she had a jack of spades and four clubs in her hand. Robbi also shared what led to her comeback after a challenging year.

"There's two things that have to happen when winning tournaments — you have to play well and run well," she told Poker News after her win. "That's really what it comes down to — make the right calls, make the right folds, and it just so happened it went down for me."

Watch new episodes of The Anonymous on Mondays at 11 p.m. EST.