The Muck: Garrett Adelstein & HCL's Ryan Feldman Trade Jabs On X
Hustler Casino Live once again found itself in the middle of controversy as one of the show's most popular former players publicly feuded with the show's producer and co-owner, Ryan Feldman.
Garrett Adelstein called out Feldman and fellow stream player Chris "Luda Chris" Chen on X on Wednesday after attention was brought to a hand Chen played on stream recently where he cracked aces in a big pot.
While Adelstein said the hand was "not suspicious," he said he "specifically chose to avoid playing in games with Luda despite how poorly he played" and claimed Chen was "banned from LATB (Live At The Bike) after winning heaps playing like a maniac on stream in a game that played 20x bigger than the $5/$5 game he played otherwise."
Feldman, a former producer of the now defunct LATB who had a falling out with Adelstein after the infamous jack-four hand against Robbi Jade Lew, shot back against Adelstein's "blatant lies" by sharing a private text exchange where Adelstein apparently called Chen a good player.
The two went back and forth in several exchanges on X and other members of the poker community weighed in. The jabs and accusations traded this week make up PokerNews' latest edition of The Muck.
Read About Garrett's Live Stream Return!
The recent feud between Feldman and Adelstein seemed to kick off when Feldman appeared on The Nick Vertucci Show last week and, in the words of Adelstein, "regurgitat(ed) the same, year old talking points that still nobody cares about in regards to lineups" and "claim(ed) people think I 'stole Robbi's money' after you yourself hilariously claimed there was a 40% chance she cheated."
"I was wondering when you would stop having guys like Airball do your dirty work in your weak attempts at discrediting me, fearful your many secrets would get out," Adelstein wrote. "You and your echo chamber "HCL family" have done all you can to tarnish my reputation to protect your business interests, it's not gonna work."
In response to Adelstein saying he avoided playing with Chen, Feldman shared a text message from Adelstein in 2022 where he commented on Chen's play and said "he did many things very well."
"Cmon man, enough with the blatant lies, Feldman wrote. "You were never once invited to a game he played in. Not even once. You didn’t specifically choose not to play with him."
Adelstein took offense to Feldman sharing a screenshot of the private text exchange and offered a lengthy rebuke. Here is an excerpt:
Ryan, there were countless times I confirmed with you directly that Luda would not be playing on HCL before I'd agree to play that day. Period. Why? By then, I was extremely concerned the many things people told me about him were true.
While we're at it, wanna talk about why you hid from everyone including your co-owners at LATB that Luda was your roommate?
Wanna talk about why you broke down in tears pleading on several occasions for the former COO of the Bike to remove the ban on Luda? Why was that decision so devastating for you?
Wanna talk about why the other owners of LATB and casino management banned Luda in the first place? Wanna talk about how the rest of the players in that ante game felt about him playing after several hands they claimed were suspicious? Wanna talk about the wildly different way others told me he played off-stream versus on it?
We're only scratching the surface here man. Happy to chat about home games and online app games next if you'd like...
Feldman shot right back that he would be "happy to discuss any and all of this anytime with you or anyone publicly on a podcast so that everyone can see how blatantly false this is and there’s literally nothing to any of this."
Adelstein and Feldman then took the feud to X Spaces as both spoke during a nearly five-hour stream hosted by Eden Rocks. More than 10,000 listeners tuned into the discussion.
About two hours into the show, Adelstein and Feldman went one-on-one as the former stated that he was "not directly accusing Luda Chris of cheating."
"I am simply stating a series of factual things that happened and looking for Ryan to answer the questions," said Adelstein.
The two butted heads over whether Chen had been banned from LATB, with Feldman ultimately conceding that there were meetings about Chen and it was ultimately decided he wouldn't play on the stream anymore.
In the heated back-and-forth, Feldman, who maintained Chen hadn't cheated at LATB, questioned Adelstein's motives for bringing up past incidents with Chen. “What is the point of dragging somebody down?”
“This is information," Adelstein replied. "I think the poker community deserves to know.”
The feud between Adelstein and Feldman got many in the poker community talking and was a point of discussion on the Only Friends podcast.
Doug Polk criticized Feldman for sharing the text exchange, while HCL regular Nikhil "Nik Airball" Arcot defended Feldman by saying that "If Garrett is going to continue to lie then Ryan should post screenshots."
"I just don't like the idea that private communication is something people will use publicly with no context," Polk replied. "Private conversations are meant to be that, private."
Chen is a regular on the HCL stream and is known for his "insane aggression and no-fear play style," according to the poker stream tracker Highroll Poker. Chen made his first stream appearance in August 2021 and has $348,068 in net winnings on stream.
Adelstein was a regular on HCL and other high-stakes streams before the infamous jack-four hand, where he thought he was cheated. Adelstein took more than a year off from playing streams before making his return in December 2023.
