An Interview with Robbi Jade Lew from ‘The Anonymous’

THE ANONYMOUS -- "Build. Bluff. Betray." Episode 105 -- Pictured: Robbi Jade Lew -- (Photo by: Rico Torres/USA Network)

Another week, another surprise elimination on the USA Network series, The Anonymous. For after four weeks of navigating under the radar and doing her best to misdirect and use her poker skills to win the match, Robbi Jade Lew was sent home by Victoria and to properly bid farewell to Robbi, we here at NTG sat down with her to discuss her time on the show.
 
John Betancourt: I'm very curious to start with how you came to be involved in the show as a poker player.
 
Robbi Jade Lew: So, I don't know if you've noticed there's a lot of poker players on a lot of these reality type of, like, competition shows. They tend to love us. (Laughter from Robbi and John) This one was obviously a very good opportunity for poker player to get on there. It's a show about deception, about kind of being two faced. There was even a challenge called Face-Off, which unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to play. It was like, one of the times that I was safe. But yeah, I just, like, I looked at what the show was all about. It made sense. They reached out. And I was like, “this is the one that I'm going to go with.” And it was just the perfect fit. I thought I was supposed to win it. Unfortunately, I just didn't get there, I will win the next one, I suppose. But yeah, that's really kind of what got me here. And a poker player schedule is very, very flexible, so these types of things are really easy to just kind of incorporate into your daily life, unless there's like a super big event going on.
 
John Betancourt: I do want to talk a lot about your poker skills today, because you were something of a unique competitor, because I’ve noticed that some really struggle with that dynamic in the house, having to play nice, but also keep secrets. You didn't seem to have that problem all that much. And I'm curious how much of your poker training you injected into that dynamic.
 
Robbie Jade Lew: A lot. So, I did have a really hard time for figuring out whether I was going to come out as being a poker player or not. And I remember wondering, like, “is anyone going to know me?” And that was, like, a really difficult kind of, like, aspect of the show where I was like, “How do I hide? I'm not going to,” so I felt I got away with it. I did. I remember meeting Marcel, being like, “Oh, shoot. He's a gamer,” and the gamer world is really closely associated with the poker playing world. So, I was like, “Oh gosh,” I tried to keep it very low key and kind of stay away from him. So, he didn't, like, somehow connect the dots. Luckily, he was in, like, the yellow room, when we were sleeping, arrangements were even separate. So, I thought that I was keeping myself pretty, like, separate from the two because, like, if I maybe say I'm a poker player, he can associate me with who I am. And so that was one of the things. And the other things that made me nervous was meeting Wayne and hearing that he was from Vegas, um, Henderson, which is, like, right outside of Vegas. And then I heard, he like, played poker. I was like, “Oh, what do you do out there? You gamble?” He was like, “Oh I’m not a gambler.” I was like, “Oh, awesome. So, he doesn't know what I am.” Then I felt really confident about it.
 
And I thought it was hilarious that I made my handle dice, because I did not think that I gave any dice vibes off, other than the fact that I was a little snarky in the chat, they kind of associated me with it a little bit. But ultimately, I think I did a really good job of making myself sound like Tyrenna. So, it was one of those things where I just thought that I had gotten away with it all up until the very end, the only thing that I think that really kind of threw me in for a loop, and I that I still am a little like, I don't get it. I don't get why… I was, like, considered the biggest threat in the house, outside of, like, winning the first challenge. I felt like I tried to kind of stay under the radar for the most part, but for whatever reason, I was considered a big threat all the way until the end. And depending on what your strategy is, when it comes to who you want to eliminate, should you have the opportunity to do so, you're either going to get rid of the threat, the biggest threat, or the weakest link, and unfortunately, I was the biggest threat at this time. So yeah, really interesting to see that I had only gotten one vote, and I was unfortunately eliminated. But that's the crazy, like, structure, right?
 
John Betancourt: Now obviously, you know, all gaming aside, I mean, you're in that house for several days, I can only imagine there had to be a little bit of pressure that came with, you know, the constant watching over your shoulder and the constant little chats and barrages. How did you navigate that dynamic, though, in such a calm and cool manner?
 
Robbi Jade Lew: I think I decided pretty earlier on who I wanted to be in alliance with. I really connected with Xavier. I felt like Chris was somebody that I could have on my side. They were very much aligned with my personality traits, so it was really easy to connect with them. And when we had started that kind of alliance process, I felt very confident that we would be the ones that were standing in the end, so long as like somebody that we were kind of rooting against -- which our strategy was really to get rid of the weakest players in the beginning, because we all collectively felt that we were doing a good job for contributing to the prize pool. And ultimately, that's the first angle that we wanted to take. And I know that at the end, we'd all be fighting with each other, but at the beginning, it was all about just like making sure that we keep the players who are contributing to the prize pool, and maybe strategize towards kind of removing the more of the weaker players.
 
But you know, with the three new players coming in, that really threw everything for a loop. I thought we were doing a very good job. Xavier was up as The Anonymous. So, you know, it worked. Our strategy was working, and unfortunately, it just -- everything changed, and three new people came in. And I just kind of knew when Andy was saved, I'm like, shoot the person tonight, that is going to, like, eliminate somebody, is going to eliminate a threat and not somebody on the weaker side. And I already knew that I was a huge target after Andy was saved.
 
John Betancourt: Obviously how winning was on your mind, and that's obviously the competitor in you. So, I’ve got a two-part question for you. How tough was it to say goodbye, and what were some of the toughest aspects you faced in this competition?
 
Robbi Jade Lew: Um, it was, it was really, really quiet. And I feel like there's like… that you don't want to be too secretive, because then it looks like you're hiding something, but you don't want to say too much. And I felt like, if I could do it over again, looking back at it, I wish I said less in the chat. It's really, Jack makes a point of saying, how do you defend yourself without adding your handle? It's just like he did a good job of that. And it's like, you just want to… just like… it's like one-word matters, like, even the punctuation mattered, like, exclamation made it seem like you might be one person over another, versus a period versus like, I love to use, like, the ellipses, the dot, dot, dot. But nobody, only people in the real world know that I like to use that.
 
So, I remember thinking, well, they don't know how I write. And so, it's one of those things. And you had to tell DANI what to do and how to write. And they were very specific, you literally were like, “DANI question mark,” you know, because you had to really, like, make sure that you just didn't out yourself, even down to the just the punctuations. So, it was really, really, hard not to say too much, not to say too little. I just felt like I didn't want to be around those that I didn't think I had time to connect with right away, because I felt like the ones that were in alliance with me had my back. And one of the most comforting things, I think, even watching back on who eliminates me, is knowing that it wasn't somebody in my alliance. I--I'm not surprised Victoria did it. I can see why I would be the biggest threat. And it was probably a good angle on her end, because I probably would have won it.
 
John Betancourt: What did you take away from this experience?
 
Robbi Jade Lew: I'm a competitor by heart. And so that was, like, one of the really hard things is that I don't want to come off looking as too much of a competitor, because that was not my job. So, it was really, really, hard not to, like, want to really fight for it to look like I wasn't, like, a team player, but I am generally a team player, poker players, it's very much so like, a zero-sum kind of, kind of profession where it's like, you're the one man show you're like, you know, it's either you or nobody. There's no team proponent, but we try to make it a team component by having like, pieces of ourselves in tournaments and trying to kind of make it like that. But I've always been a team player. I've been like, raised in sports and everything, but this was “12 Perfect Strangers” in this house, and I knew that friendships would be made. I knew that was going to happen. I just have, like, a -- I know who I connect with immediately, and I'm very good with kind of, like first impression, type of things and intuition you have to be as a poker player.
 
And I already knew who I was going to connect with, but I also knew that ultimately there were going to have to be somebody that I might have to eliminate near the end. So, for me, the whole time, I'm thinking, it's just a game, and someone's gotta go. And that was a line that they used, obviously, in the advertisement, because we're still in a game, someone's gotta go. I can't be personally offended by how this game plays out. All I can possibly do is try not to be the biggest threat and try not to be the weakest one. But unfortunately, I wasn't able to kind of stay in the in the middle, like I think most winners are able to do, until the end, where they can really, like, hit hard. So, something I realized with other reality shows, reality game shows like this, is, like, it's always a person in the end that wasn't like, outshining everyone at the beginning that wins.
 
John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, what did it mean to you to be part of a show that is this different in this dynamic?
 
Robbi Jade Lew: So, one of, like, the main reasons I wanted to come out to the show like this was like, I wanted an opportunity to kind of like, be in a competitive environment outside of this, like underground poker network, and just see what it's like, when I'm not competing with other poker players and I'm competing with, as you can see, contestants that are very, very different. All of us were so drastically different from each other. So, it's very cool to see that you can get along with people that are different personalities, but also band with them when you need to and see where your actual skill sets lie in this outside world, and really who out there is two faced.
 
It was just one of those cool, like, opportunities to really see what I can do when I'm not in like, the comfort and confinements of my poker industry. So, I had a very cool experience, and I would do it all over again if I absolutely could. And I think that if anyone ever gets the opportunity to kind of be in this, like reality game show in the middle of nowhere with people you absolutely do not know, disconnected from the outside world, that you should absolutely do it. It's one of those, like developmental opportunities that can only make you stronger. And for me, and I feel like I did develop personally and even professionally, just having that experience behind me.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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