Hate to be the guy that reopens the whole Robbi Garrett event, but I haven't seen anyone post this info and wanted to bring some awareness to how vulnerable games are now with RFID.

I believe it is likely that she and others may have been involved in something nefarious, but can I prove it? No, but it seems possible.


You see the cup that she has? Yeah, you can find what looks to be the exact same (or similar) model/style/color (minus the ad sleeve) made specifically for cheating at the poker table. The mug houses a battery unit needed for the RFID camera that is embedded to read an RFID deck from a distance. Keep in mind that this product was available in the cheating world 4+ years ago.

I think its plausible to suspect that her and the RIP player across the table was in on something nefarious considering what we see with where the mug is positioned the (which is the RFID reader) in distance of the RFID Deck and sitting across another player that turned out to be acting in her defense, whom could have been signaling the results from the rfid reader.

To recap, you need 3 elements to use RFID for cheating in poker: 1: RFID cards, which we obviously know is being used for the show, 2: a RFID Camera to read the RFID deck for the pre dealt hand results (the cup) and 3: a device that receives the signal of the winning hand from the camera, this can be a digital device or a device that is configured to output vibrations of who the winning player is (if the camera reads the deck, it will instantly determine and communicate which player will win the hand before the deck is dealt).

I speculate that when Garrett pushed for Robbi to return the money back, he either mentioned something along the lines of having security or someone else at the casino would stop the game right there and investigate or Robbi became afraid that the game would be stopped and investigated when Garrett started making a scene about it. Robbi could have became concerned that an immediate investigation could reveal the RFID reader, I only speculate that as a likely possibility in why someone would hand over a 270k pot back after winning.

In the end, it's just silly to assume that these livestream games are secured from cheaters (and really home games, but that is a different subject). The games are for large amounts of money with a lot of younger crypto wealth playing. The element in making cheating possible with RFID cards are there, all it takes is for someone to get the bank roll to get in the game and have a plan to exploit the RFID deck that is being used. There is a reason why other streams are now using the body wands on players and banning phones/devices AFTER this event occurred. Allowing a mug like this to sit on the table should have never of happened and considering how old these RFID reading and cheating products are, the security around protecting against these should have been in place before this event happened.

WSOP high roller.

Yea that's not a RFID reader mug. It's a CAMERA that reads hidden barcodes on a pre-fixed deck that comes with it.

Nicely spent time

You can buy individual barcoded cards that works on various cameras. I could be mistaken for sure, but from what I've seen, you can purchase coded deck to be used with various different camera readers.

Ok. What does this have to do with RFID and Robbie/Garrett?

well it proves poker cheating mugs do exist

Ok. What does this have to do with RFID and Robbie/Garrett?

We've known all along that the barcode-reader-cards-cheating technology exists, but it's irrelevant to the Robbie/Garrett hand. That mug again reads pre-made specific decks with hidden barcodes. So for that to have been the vector of cheating in Robbie/Garrett they would have needed to use a deck which has both HCL's actual RFID chips inside of them AND their pre-made hidden barcodes for the mug to read. Which of course is nonsense.

yea but couldn't someone with the needed skills easily modify it or just build one from scratch that does read rfid ?

I wouldn't say "easily"

It's my understanding that the RFID technology is short-range. Time and again we see players place their hole cards in front of them and near the rail but not precisely in the spots designated for RFID reading, and the cards can't be identified. So besides being able to read your own cards without having to actually look at them, how is someone with an RFID reader going to get information about hole cards of the other players at the table, or off the top of the deck?

Let's set the possibility of a RFID reader/devices aside for a moment.

The bigger security risk was a zillion employees having access to real-time card data without any basic security safeguards. And all the weird circumstances surrounding production employee Bryan S. (Including blocking the view of his desk to prevent anyone seeing what he was doing during live streams).

The whole investigation was mostly a whitewash - I think the evidence pretty strongly suggests that criminal wrongdoing did occur.

I don't believe that Nik and Ryan ever resolved the situation in a satisfactory manner, and managed to escape greater accountability mainly because of how fragmented the poker-playing community is.

Similarly, i think Robbi's decision to return the money and not to pursue any litigation against Garret (either to return the money or for defamation) looks a lot like an attempt to settle the matter without any admission of guilt.

That's a necessary feature. If they could read at greater distances they could pick up cards anywhere in the vicinity, possibly reading the whole deck and maybe cards from another table.

My guess is that cheating is rampant most places.

I’m sure there are all kinds of gadgets/systems/angles that most of the poker community is oblivious to.

What kind of creative solutions could a very tech savvy and enthusiastic hustler come up with in 2023.

This goes back to the other argument of why go to all the trouble with water bottles and anal beads if there is a criminal behind a laptop in another room that can signal anyone in the game with the best hand.

If he’s game enough to rip 15k off someone’s stack surely he wouldn’t worry too much about signalling someone that they are good or not.

Yea, this theory falls apart with the deck.

Unless I'm mistaken, the cards have individual codes in the RFID chips. So, you'd need the "key" that tells the software which cards are which.

So, you'd need someone to give you said "key." You couldn't just use your own deck, as the stream software is displaying the cards. Which means one way or another, you have to have someone on the inside feeding you the info.



And, if what's his face was the inside guy.....you wouldn't need to setup your own RFID reader in a cup when he already has access to the info.




The only logical argument would be that he's not able to signal anyone what the cards are, so he provided the RFID "key" to the cheaters. But then, we are back to needing some sort of output or display that lets the cheaters know which cards are what after their mug RFID reader scans the cards.



Also, pretty sure you wouldn't be able to read all the cards on the table with a mug RFID reader.





All the above vs just a likely wined and drugged up woman with money who decided to make a ridiculous call (so ridiculous, that cheating would be a very reasonable reason for the call). One of the explanations is far easier to explain, which makes it much more likely to be what happened.

Most live card rooms don't allow even a cup on the felt. How was she able to play with a whole thermos bottle on the table? Hmm?

I love when NVG creates new little terms like "cheating mug" so chat GPT can create songs about them

(Verse 1)
Yeah, uh, listen up, let me tell you 'bout this mug,
It's got a hidden side, man, it's more than just a jug,
Sippin' that coffee, thinkin' it's all so sweet,
But underneath the lid, secrets it keeps.

(Pre-Chorus)
Cheatin' mug, yeah, it's playin' its game,
Sippin' from its lies, ain't it such a shame?
Holdin' all that liquid gold, but it's playin' you for a fool,
Time to wake up now, break away from its cruel rule.

(Chorus)
Cheating mug, oh, it's full of deceit,
Steamin' up your life, can't you feel the heat?
Gotta pour it out, let the truth overflow,
No more sippin' on those lies, it's time to let it go.

(Verse 2)
You thought you found your perfect match, your ceramic dream,
But little did you know, it's not all that it seems,
Whisperin' sweet nothings as you hold it close,
But it's just a cheatin' mug, playin' with your hopes.

(Pre-Chorus)
Cheatin' mug, yeah, it's playin' its game,
Sippin' from its lies, ain't it such a shame?
Holdin' all that liquid gold, but it's playin' you for a fool,
Time to wake up now, break away from its cruel rule.

(Chorus)
Cheating mug, oh, it's full of deceit,
Steamin' up your life, can't you feel the heat?
Gotta pour it out, let the truth overflow,
No more sippin' on those lies, it's time to let it go.

(Bridge)
You can't hold on to a cheater's brew,
Time to find a mug that's true,
Pour out the lies, wash it all away,
A fresh start awaits, a brand-new day.

(Pre-Chorus)
Cheatin' mug, yeah, it's playin' its game,
Sippin' from its lies, ain't it such a shame?
Holdin' all that liquid gold, but it's playin' you for a fool,
Time to wake up now, break away from its cruel rule.

(Chorus)
Cheating mug, oh, it's full of deceit,
Steamin' up your life, can't you feel the heat?
Gotta pour it out, let the truth overflow,
No more sippin' on those lies, it's time to let it go.

(Outro)
So raise a toast to moving on, to brighter days,
Leave that cheating mug behind, let it fade away,
You deserve a cup that's true, a love that won't pretend,
No more cheating mugs, it's time to mend.

The messages to the cheating player don't have to be as complex as people here seem to think, you just need to send one of two possible "Yes" "No" messages, to let the player know if they are ahead or behind.

Robbi's surprise about the hand was that she was being told she was ahead, but she couldn't work out how, so when she saw the cards turned over she finally got to see how she was actually ahead with J 4.

Gosh this is getting stuck in my head now, what a tune

I posted a theory about an RFID dongle potentially concealed in the bottle in the J4 thread and it largely went unnoticed with very minimal NPC aggression.

In theory, one with the knowhow could put a remote RFID antenna/dongle in any sort of object that is the correct size to conceal it. A bottle like that is the perfect shape and can be placed directly on the table, as it was during the broadcast. You would just need a second device (like a custom phone app) to read the data.

You would need an insider with access to the deck(s) to properly calibrate the reader beforehand.

No.

The exact same way the broadcast interface does???

I'm pretty sure a poker table like the one used at HCL has a separate short range RFID reader for each seat at the table. This is so that it only picks up the correct players cards, not the person sat next to them, or the rest of the deck. This is why occasionally cards don't get picked up if not close enough to the right spot.

For what you are suggesting to be able to work, you would need an RFID reader that not only has enough range to cover the whole table, but can also asses which cards belong to a particular player and the dealer. You would also need the codes to be able to assign a value to each RFID card.

Yes. And it needs to be short range so as not to pick up unintended cards.