Accused poker-chip thief Bryan Sagbigsal has emerged from virtual radio silence to begin telling his version of events related to his secondary role in the controversial "Hustler Casino Live" saga and the infamous "J-4" hand between Garrett Adelstein and Robbi Jade Lew last September. Sagbigsal, still technically a fugitive from justice and wanted by Los Angeles County authorities related to the theft of chips inside Hustler Casino, appeared on the debut episode of Patrick Curran's "PatrickWhatUp" Twitch stream on Sunday night. Curran touted the post-Super Bowl Twitch stream with much ado on Sunday.
Sagbigsal's appearance is intended to promote a documentary on the J-4 scandal, produced by and starring Sagbigsal, which details his role in the HCL saga. The tale began with Adelstein accusing Lew of cheating in a huge $269,000 pot, and during a follow-up investigation, Sagbigsal was discovered to have stolen $15,000 in chips from Lew's stack immediately following the September 29 "J-4" game.
Curran, like Sagbigsal, is a former HCL employee. They worked together for more than a year before Curran left the HCL show last August for what he described as reasons unrelated to the Adelstein/Lew controversy, which occurred a month after his departure. Curran has maintained a friendship with Sagbigsal, and he is also the person who reported to PokerNews last October that Sagbigsal planned to turn himself in to the L.A. County authorities after Sagbigsal's chip theft was discovered and charges were filed.
Instead, Sagbigsal disappeared from public view. That included a day-long search by authorities that came up empty, and Curran verified during his live Twitch stream that Sagbigsal was phoning in from an unknown location, to "speak my truth," as Sagbigsal described it, after months of "exercising my right to privacy."
No change in details of controversial Adelstein/Lew hand
Sagbigsal offered no new or significant details regarding the controversial J-4 hand between Adelstein and Lew. He continued to maintain his innocence and asserted that he was never part of any scheme to communicate hole-card information to Lew or any other HCL participant at any time. That doesn't mean that security on the HCL set was overly strict, according to Sagbigsal, something that the show has admitted to and attempted to address after its internal investigation.
""We have, essentially, God Mode, when it comes to these cards," Sagbigsal stated on the PatrickWhatUp show. "When it comes to these cards, we can see exactly the equity percentage, we know the card removal, we can see everybody's hands."
That, though, is distinct from communicating that knowledge or conspiring with the show's participants to cheat, especially as it pertained to Adelstein's accusations that Sagbigsal somehow communicated Adelstein's weak holdings in the J-4 hand to Lew or another player. "If we were to want to try to assist somebody, why would I pick the worst spot in history, in the biggest game ever, with over 25,000 people watching?" Sagbigsal asked rhetorically.
Sagbigsal decried some of the theories that had been launched alleging his participation in a cheating scheme with Lew and possibly others. He singled out Doug Polk as one prominent podcaster whose theory of a black file cabinet being moved to aid the alleged cheating was flat-out wrong, which Curran affirmed as false. Sagbigsal described Polk's theory as "a very asinine take."
Some details filled in regarding chip theft and discovery
A good portion of Sagbigsal's appearance, as one would expect, was devoted to his own already-admitted theft of three $5,000 chips from Lew's unguarded stack after the Sep. 29 livestream ended. Sagbigsal affirmed that there was no intent to steal from Lew specifically, as some conspiracy theorists believed, as possible payment for his alleged role in an insider-cheating scheme.
Instead, Sagbigsal described it as a moment of opportunity. "A once-in-a-lifetime shot for me," he described it, as he contemplated the chip grab. He said he told himself, "If I could take care of this, I would never do anything again."
Sagbigsal also affirmed that he was owed a $10,000 poker debt to an HCL and Hustler player, Billy "DGAF" McNulty. "I needed to repay this debt," claimed Sagbigsal. "I was on the clock."
Unfortunately for Sagbigsal, his theft was discovered soon after Hustler's casino security team reviewed footage of the September 29 stream. He was then called into a meeting in a private baccarat room with one of the casino's internal investigators, where it slowly dawned on him that they'd already learned of his theft. He then met with both the investigator and HCL co-owner Nick Vertucci and was summarily terminated from his role with HCL. Vertucci and HCL co-owner Ryan Feldman later refunded to Lew the amount of money that Sagbigsal stole from her stack.
One matter that was not brought up at any time during Sagbigsal's appearance was the second charge levied against him, for a separate theft of $5,000 directly from the Hustler Casino itself. Few details have emerged to date about the circumstances surrounding that charge.
Venom saved for L.A. Times reporter Chang
While Sagbigsal had sharp words for Adelstein, Polk, and others, his harshest take targeted Los Angeles Times reporter Andrea Chang. Chang attempted an ambush interview on Sagbigsal while reporting on the Hustler Casino Live controversy, showing up one morning at the home of Sagbigsal's then-girlfriend's parents, where he had been living.
Chang's interview attempt may have precipitated Sagbigsal's going underground, as he was kicked out of that residence following Chang's visit. His physical whereabouts have been unknown ever since.
Sagbigsal described Chang to Curran and the show's audience as "... probably the biggest cancer. She's like a parasite when it comes to reporting, she's a blood-sucking mosquito. She showed up to my house, started knocking on all of the doors, demanding that she finds out where I am. It's somewhere where I didn't even live at the time. It was, like, my girlfriend at the time's house. And she came there, trying to figure out where I'm at, and it was a really weird and invasive, disrespectful way of trying to go about this. I never received any sort of, you know, notification, no sort of … proper inquiry, no sort of formal agreement to meeting. She decided to go take matters into her hands, which she was very bold for doing that."
Curran then asked if Sagbigsal would've agreed to a formal interview, and Sagbigsal claimed, "In hindsight, yeah. I probably would have." He then added, referring to Chang, "Seriously, get a new job. You suck."
Some statements open to subjective interpretation
As with Sagbigsal's post-confrontation declaration that he might have consented to an interview with Chang had he been approached differently, other statements he made also drew questioning commentary from some of the stream's chatroom observers. Whether or not his appearance and upcoming documentary are exercises in casting himself as the victim of the situation are other subjective matters.
At one point, he told Curran, "I got the short end of the stick, where I'm just, like, trying to figure out where I'm going to go with my life." He also implied that the theft charges should have been dropped, as Lew originally declined to press any charges. She later reversed course, probably because of the pressure of Adelstein's and others' public accusations. "When they allowed me to leave, I thought that would be the end of things," Sagbigsal said about his meeting with the casino investigator and his HCL bosses.
Sagbigsal also took offense with news reports that focused on his conviction for theft years earlier. He shared his version of what occurred at that time:
"The only time I ever had any sort of police trouble was when I was 18. This" -- meaning the HCL saga -- "happened when I was 25, so there was a seven-year gap between all of this. It's something that I definitely want to tell the full story on because it's a crazy story…. Long story short, I was framed, when I was 19 -- 18 turning 19 -- for a robbery that I actually did not commit. [] The case is closed; I've been convicted. It's something that I will address in a future story time or video where I will detail that.
"That happen[ed] at a crazy time in my life when I was really young. They tried to make it where they were going to give me years and -- they lied, basically, and tried to make me take a deal on my situation. I got probation out of that. I ended up messing up on probation and having to go to jail.
"I am not a career criminal…. That was something that I learned from and would never do again."
"But then again," Curran interjected in the show's sharpest exchange, "we're back here where you just stole $15,000 in chips and you're kind of saying the same thing. How can we believe you this time?"
"Yeah, I want to shift all of the attention to the documentary that's coming out and everything," replied Sagbigsal. "Take a listen. Watch it. Go through everything like that. What you don't understand is all the details behind that. I think everybody just takes a record for face value, and they don't take the time, like, have you ever requested all of the documents for the case, and have you looked at the case and all the evidence…. Without that proper context, you can't actually make a claim on what you believe happened."
Legal counsel also retained
Sagbigsal also confirmed, after some conversational parrying, that he's retained counsel that is actively negotiating on his behalf with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. He stated, "I am dealing with the legal ramifications. I have a legal team that's taking care of everything they need to take care of on my end."
Sagbigsal downplayed the fact that he is technically a fugitive from justice at this juncture. "[I] have to make sure that the legal representation handles this properly, [and] it doesn't necessarily mean that I have to be in custody. I have different things that I'm working on as far as trying to work on my life as I let the legal people handle what they need to on their end. And it doesn't require me to turn myself in."
Whether his legal representation approved of his appearance on Curran's stream or his upcoming J-4 documentary is unknown. Sagbigsal did share, though, that he plans to pursue a new career in filmmaking and documentaries once the chip-theft matter is behind him. "[I'll] make some documentaries, current events, political stuff. I'll be posting more trailers." Sagbigsal plans to post the link to his J-4 documentary on Tuesday via his @BryanPlaysPoker Twitter account.
Featured image source: Hustler Casino Live
