Why Garrett Adelstein’s “I’ve Got It” Speech Play Backfired
This hand comes from Garrett Adelstein’s book, Beneath the Cards, which was released today, September 1st! The memoir goes beyond the action to explore the triumphs, setbacks, missteps, and lessons that shaped his poker career.
In the hand, Garrett’s reputation as one of poker’s most honorable players becomes a liability in a way he never expected. Be sure to read to the end as Garrett includes a couple of brand new excerpts from the book!
Playing $100/$200/$400 against Ethan, a successful businessman visiting from the Midwest, Garrett had reached the river with a sneaky set and roughly $55,000 in the pot. Ethan appeared to have only top pair, and Garrett had just moved all-in for his remaining $66,000.
Then, the livestream legend did something we rarely saw from him midhand: He spoke.
A Straightforward Start
The hand begins with Ethan raising to $1,200 from middle position with Ad Qd. Garrett looks down at Js Jd on the button and 3-bets to $5,500, which Ethan calls.
Preflop is straightforward. Garrett considers himself more skilled than his opponent, has a premium hand, and sees little reason to complicate things by mixing flats. In this scenario, he’s highly incentivized to start building the pot.
The flop comes: As7d5h
There is roughly $13,000 in the middle. Ethan checks, and Garrett bets $4,000.
Much like preflop, the flop is standard as well. In this configuration, Garrett says he can bet around half his hands using a small sizing. Ethan isn’t likely to check-raise much here, which makes Garrett’s bet with plenty of his range even more appealing.
Pocket jacks in particular benefits from a bet here, as the hand is more vulnerable than something like two kings. Ethan can have plenty of overcards that Garrett is content folding out immediately. And if Ethan suddenly comes to life with a check-raise, Garrett has a super easy fold given his reads.
Ethan calls with top pair. His Ad Qd can theoretically raise occasionally, particularly with the backdoor flush possibilities, but Garrett expects him to just call nearly always with this hand (and probably AK as well).
Trust the Read
Garrett turns the dream card: As7d5hJc
He’s now improved to a disguised set. Ethan checks, and Garrett bets a solver-approved $17,000 into approximately $21,000.
Ethan had been playing tight to this point, and Garrett believed he was trying to avoid getting into tricky spots against him. That made it likely Ethan held a strong top pair a good amount of the time. In Beneath the Cards, Garrett explains what happened after betting the $17,000:
Watching his body language, I noticed some discomfort. Eventually, Ethan called anyway.
How can I tell the difference between someone who’s truly uneasy as opposed to feigning weakness and giving off a false tell? You can rarely be 100 percent certain of much in poker, but I’ve played thousands of hours with guys like Ethan—wealthy, yes, but also a fish out of water, understandably spooked by the prospect of losing six figures in a hand. After calling my turn bet, it was likely he had an ace with a good kicker like AK, AQ, or AT. These hands were too strong to fold but far from a slam dunk.
The river comes the Ts, completing the board: As7d5hJcTs
Ethan checks.
There are some positives for Garrett. AT has now improved to two pair and isn’t going anywhere. AK remains top pair, top kicker, another hand unlikely to fold.
The more difficult question is what happens when Ethan holds exactly the sort of hand he actually has: AQ or a worse ace?
Garrett considers betting between $15,000-$25,000. Against those sizings, it would be extremely difficult for Ethan to fold any ace. But if Ethan has AK or better, these amounts would leave money on the table. Ultimately, Garrett shoves all-in for $66,000.
He knew a one-size, all-in bet was theoretically best with only about 1.2x pot remaining, but theory wasn’t the primary variable driving his decision. The concern was that Garrett had recognized Ethan probably didn’t love his hand, so following the GTO playbook was no good. Instead, he’s now convinced he should have used a smaller, more exploitative sizing like $20,000.
“I’ve Got It”
Almost immediately, Garrett regretted his greedy sizing, suspecting he’d gone too big. As he explains in the book:
Everything about his body language indicated that he only had one pair—and he was going to fold it. I decided on a whim to call an audible, reaching for a tool I rarely utilized when the action wasn’t on me: I spoke. Usually, this psychological tactic is a negative freeroll that can only have adverse consequences. Talking gives my opponent more information to consider before making his decision. Information is power, on and off the green felt.
On the other hand, I was extremely confident he was about to fold anyway. I decided to throw up a Hail Mary by declaring, “I’ve got it.”
I did this in hopes he’d decode my words through the lens of “strong means weak” and wrongly conclude I was bluffing. Instead, the opposite happened. Ethan, clearly surprised I said anything at all, was convinced my words were genuine—certain I was such a mensch that I wanted to cut the successful businessman a break to the tune of $66,000! He didn’t take long to slide his cards into the muck.
Takeaways and Conclusion, from Garrett’s Book:
This hand was a critical lesson in remaining hyperaware of how others perceive you at the table. The image I sought to project—a skilled yet benevolent competitor—had bitten me in the ass. Although Ethan knew I was unafraid to run a big bluff, he also, as he later told me, thought I was as much of a class act as anyone in poker. From where he was sitting, I was just too good of a guy to ever lie about the strength of my hand.
Nick Vertucci was in the booth, providing commentary as the hand played out. And upon hearing me say “I’ve got it,” he too presumed I was trying to give a good-looking, affluent young man I’d just met a gift that exceeded the median US annual income: “You want to talk about giving someone some mercy.… Did Garrett just tell Ethan ‘I’ve got it’ and save him sixty-six thousand dollars…? That changes so many things for me, and I already love the guy.”
Nick didn’t love me; he loved the money I put in his pocket by showing up twice a week. He loved perpetuating the narrative that I could do no wrong because it was good for business.
The hand immediately went viral, with most viewers misinterpreting my words just as the HCL owner did. I stayed mum on my motivations for talking; I didn’t want to let my fans down. The reality, however, was clear to numerous seasoned pros who weighed in, who assumed “I’ve got it” was a last-ditch attempt to earn a call—and not a particularly clever one. They were right, of course.
Processing the online feedback, I realized something unsettling that I should’ve already known: I had little control over how the public saw me. By then, some fans and announcers had stopped calling me by my name or longtime alias, “Gman.” Instead, they referred to me only as “the GOAT” (greatest of all time) or, thanks to Vertucci’s commentary, “the Eighth Wonder (of the World).”
Although this had its perks, it also set the bar impossibly high for a guy just trying to play poker well. I was not—and never will be—an infallible hero. I wasn’t immune to all the praise, which ironically is proof of my fallibility right there. I read far too many of the tweets, Reddit threads, and YouTube comments singing my praises. I can’t lie, the dopamine hit felt good; it kept me coming back for more.
As long as the chatter is overwhelmingly positive, I thought, how bad can a little indulgence be?
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