UPDATE: Garrett Adelstein Ready to Play Poker "ASAP": Where Might He Play?
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Update: Shortly after this article was published, Adelstein announced he will play Dec. 13 on Bally Live Poker and on Dec. 15 in the WPT Million Dollar Cash Game.
It's been 435 days since Garrett Adelstein last appeared on a poker live-stream, and the Los Angeles high-stakes legend is nearing his return, according to a post on X. But where will he end up? Let's take a look at some of the possibilities.
https://twitter.com/GmanPoker/status/1732816125849751937
Adelstein, aka "G-Man," is a longtime popular player and crusher on Live at the Bike and Hustler Casino Live. On Sept. 29, 2022, however, he left HCL in the middle of the session after coming to the conclusion that his opponent, Robbi Jade Lew cheated him out of a six-figure pot.
Although many poker fans still to this day agree that Adelstein was cheated, there are many others who disagree. Love him or dislike how he handled the J4 situation, one thing is certain — when he's back in action on one of the following streams, poker fans will tune in.
The Lodge in Texas
Given that Adelstein rarely plays tournaments and only plays at high-stakes (think $50/$100 at the bare minimum), we can go ahead and cancel out the many great low-stakes streams out there, and assume his initial return to the game won't be in a tournmanet.
One of the most reasonable guesses as to where he'll first pop up is The Lodge Card Club near Austin, Texas, which often has nosebleed games and big name pros on stream. The card room is co-owned by Doug Polk, who has made it known that he'd love to have the popular poker pro on his stream.
Adelstein doesn't tend to travel away from Los Angeles to play on a stream, except in a few instances when he played in Las Vegas on shows such as High Stakes Poker. If the two parties can figure out the logistics and he's interested in traveling to play in Texas, The Lodge makes sense.
Poker Night in America
Another closer option to Adelstein's Southern California residence is Las Vegas to compete on Poker Night in America. The longtime show has some pretty sweet new digs at Studio 52, and that could be enticing. Playing against some other high-profile players could also entice the LA poker legend to play.
Poker Night in America will host a heads-up match on Sunday between Phil Galfond and Hustler Casino Live regular Eshaan Bhalla. The show has plans to film next week as well, and who knows, maybe Adelstein will be in the game?
Bally Poker Live
There were rumors this past summer that Adelstein would appear on Bally's Big Bet Poker at Tropicana in Las Vegas, which has been renamed Bally Poker Live. It made sense given the producers of the show ran the now extinct Live at the Bike, a stream Adelstein played on and crushed hundreds of times.
Although that never materialized and Bally Poker Live has only streamed once in the past few months, this seems like a possibility even if it's just a one-off. In Garrett's tweet, he mentioned he'd like to make "multiple stream appearances."
WPT World Championship
The wild card in this is the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship series at Wynn Las Vegas. No, not the tournaments, although perhaps he'll give that a shot as well. We're talking about a million dollar cash game that will be live-streamed on WPT.com Dec. 15.
It's been more than a year since Garrett has played poker, so there's always the possibility he doesn't want to jump into such a big game right off the bat. If so, the WPT has two other lower buy-in high-stakes cash game streams during the festival — Dec. 9 and Dec. 10. In fact, our best guess as to where he'll make his poker return is next week at the Wynn.
Hustler Casino Live
This one's obviously the longest of longshots given that Adelstein is no longer welcome on Hustler Casino Live, and his relationship with the show's co-owner, Nick Vertucci, appears to be irreparable. But there's always the, admittedly slim, possibility the two sides will make up or at least put their differences aside for views and entertainment purposes.
Hey, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez got back together, didn't they? Sammy Hagar reunited with Van Halen in 2004. LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, four years after his relationship with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert seemed irreparable. You get the point.
It's unlikely Adelstein will return to Hustler Casino Live, the show he won over $1.5 million on during a 14-month span, in the near future, and likely ever. But if you're looking to gamble on a longshot — we'll say +6000 odds — go for it.
