Garrett Adelstein

Garrett was born on May 16, 1986, in Arizona. Like a lot of players from his generation, he got hooked on poker after watching Chris Moneymaker's famous 2003 WSOP win. He turned 18 in 2004 and registered his first online account under the name GMan. By 2005, he'd already made his way up to the high-stakes tables.
Up until 2011, Garrett focused on online cash games while dabbling in live tournaments on the side. His first notable result came at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where a 24th-place finish earned him $48,000 — still one of his largest tournament scores to this day. He wouldn't top it until WSOP 2016, finishing 143rd in the Main Event for $49,108, which remains his biggest MTT result.

After Black Friday, Adelstein shifted his focus toward live games and coaching, taking a position at Phil Galfond's Run It Once training academy. In 2013, he appeared on the American version of Survivor — Survivor: Cagayan — which raised his profile well beyond poker circles. By 2017, he'd become a fixture on the TV shows Live at the Bike and Poker After Dark, quickly turning into one of their most reliable regulars.

Garrett's biggest wave of mainstream attention came in 2021–2022, when he became one of the standout stars on Hustler Casino Live, known for his aggressive style, big bluffs, and willingness to gamble for large sums. That's where the now-infamous hand against Robbie Lew took place — she called down his J-high bluff and took a roughly $269,000 pot. Adelstein accused Robbie of cheating afterward, and she returned $135,000 "to keep him calm." Garrett took the money, walked away from the stream, and never returned to Hustler Casino Live.

Even after the incident, Garrett kept accusing Lew of playing dishonestly and published a detailed breakdown of the hand on the 2+2 forum. Hustler Casino Live launched its own investigation, checking cameras, chips, and staff. In December 2022, they announced there was no evidence of cheating. In March 2023, Garrett sat down with Doug Polk on his podcast to discuss the whole saga. After that, he mostly stayed out of the public eye until 2025, making only occasional appearances on poker shows.

In March 2026, Garrett announced a memoir titled "Beneath the Cards," set for release on September 1, 2026. In it, he lays out his side of the story in detail — the fallout from the scandal and his poker life as a whole.