(Image credit: Hustler Casino Live – more on this below)
Look: Some people found out about Garrett from the Survivor TV show, most people know him from the streamed high stakes poker games he often participates in, and pretty much everyone wonders:
- What does he do for work?
- What does Garrett Adelstein do for a living?
- Where/how does G-man make his money? Is he getting staked?
And that’s exactly what we’re going to cover today.
How Did Garrett Adelstein Make His Money?
It was NOT thanks to CBS’ Survivor show, poker brand sponsorships, or crypto investments. Garrett Adelstein is a professional poker player and he makes a lot of money from the high stakes poker games where he buys-in for at least $100,000 USD. His other sources of wealth likely come from owning real estate properties (both in the US and outside of it), stock investments, and other business ventures.
Disclaimer: This is a question that no one can answer with 100%, certainty except for Garrett himself, but in here we’ll discuss several certain and possible sources of income. Let’s get started.
High Stakes Poker Cash Games
As a professional poker player this means that he makes his money mainly from poker. That includes poker tournaments and cash games. While Garrett has played the tournaments he only cashed four times.
So, how much money has he won? Here are his past tournament results according to CardPlayer.com:
- 2016 World Series of Poker $10,000 NLH – $49,108
- 2010 World Series of Poker $10,000 NLH Main Event – $48,847
- 2008 EPT PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure – $48,000
- 2011 World Series of Poker $15,000 NLH – $25,919
Don’t let these results fool you though. G-man is actually a silent killer on the felt.
The thing is that Adelstein is mainly a cash game player and more specifically plays in very high stakes poker. Check out this video where he absolutely DESTROYED his opponents in ONE session alone:
(You can watch him participate on televised poker shows/livestreams like PokerGO, Live at the Bike, and Hustler Casino Live.)
As you’ll notice, the usual stakes he plays at are $100/200/400 which is a lot of action with all the wealthy people from all walks of life.
For example, he often plays with a crypto whale Wesley Fei, the co-founders of Hustler Casino Nick Vertucci and Andy Tsai, and the famous poker vlogger Mariano.
Over his poker career, Adelstein has also played with famous high rollers like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Bill Klein, Doyle Brunson, Patrik Antonius, Phil Galfond, and others.
Without a doubt, Garrett’s main source of income seems to come from these high stakes poker games.
If you watch the streams, G-man usually buys-in for at least twice more than the stack of his opponents, his minimum amounts are $100,000 USD and he will always top up if needed.
This alone means that his net worth must be in millions of dollars.
(All aspiring poker players know that you must have the bankroll at least 30-50x of your stakes level.)
One of the questions people often wonder is does he get staked? I mean it is a lot of money that he buys in four of those lifestream games. Let’s discuss this point.
Does Garrett Adelstein Get Staked? Sponsorships?
First, let’s talk about what does it mean to get staked/sell action in poker, being the backer/horse.
In a nutshell, the backer is the one who invests in a player (gives cash) in hopes that the said player will win. In the event they do, the winnings are split between the backer (investor) and the horse (player).
Generally, the goal of getting staked in cash games should always be to build up a poker bankroll, so that eventually you can play on your own without backup.
However, getting staked is more common in tournaments than cash games because the tourney results can easily be reviewed via the right sources/news outlets.
While it’s common for poker players to sell action or have sponsorships, when it comes to Garrett, he shared in Joey “GTO Papi” Ingram and Doug Polk podcasts that he always had 100% of himself.
According to him he’s never owned a dime to anybody, which is admirable. And it seems to be so because nobody ever came out to say otherwise or tainted his reputation.
It makes sense why Adelstein does not get staked. There’s no point for him to do that since he’s properly bankrolled for his high stakes poker sessions. It is like withdrawing cash from the ATM machine with a credit card, when you have plenty on your debit card.
The same goes for sponsorships. He’s not with PokerStars, GGPoker, PokerBROS, or any other poker app/brand company. He just doesn’t it.
Truth is, G-man doesn’t actually have to play poker for a living anymore, he has a very high net worth and multiple sources of income, and therefore he can afford having 100% of himself.
READ ALSO: Garrett Adelstein Frequently Asked Questions (Answered!)
Now…
What are the other possible income streams? Let’s discuss those.
Real Estate Properties and Business Ventures
We already establish that Garrett can afford having 100% of himself.
And the reason for that is not only because he’s grown his bankroll in poker throughout his adult life, but also because he has other significant income streams.
The main obvious one would be real estate properties.
His wife is a successful realtor in California and it only makes sense that they themselves buy properties and rent them out for passive income, or sell for a profit.
Many people know that investing in real estate is a lucrative business especially if you have the capital. Then you just rinse and repeat, and grow your net worth even more.
G-Man has graduated Summa Cum Laude from the UArizona with a dual degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, so my guess he also has other business projects and investments.
A smart man like Adelstein likely is financially literate, and would totally diversify his portfolio to protect himself and his family on all sides. The diversification can also include doing private lending deals and stock investments (ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, REITs, and other investments like that).
Speaking of… What about cryptocurrency?
Does Garrett Invest in Cryptocurrency?
Has Garrett actually invested in crypto?
While there was a boom with cryptocurrency in the last few years, and a lot of poker players promoting their crypto companies/investments, G-man hasn’t actually explicitly mentioned any crypto investments.
As most successful people he likely has some money invested in this area, but he didn’t openly promote in your company whatsoever, and likely didn’t put all his eggs in a cryptocurrency basket.
Which might be a good move because you never know what might happen and how volatile things can get.
Let’s take an example of Doug Polk who was an Ambassador for CoinFlex company and he had to step down because of the issue with the company not paying out their investors.
Because of that, Doug received a lot of backlash because a lot of poker players lost money following his recommendations. Check out the video below:
(Word of advice: Everyone makes mistakes and can be mislead, so always do your own due diligence! Your financial freedom is your responsibility, and no one else’s.)
Family Capital/Trust Fund
Many say that Garrett Adelstein came from a wealthy family (even his surname is one of the ‘elite’ ones in Los Angeles), so it’s very possible that he had a trust fun/capital that he could fall back on or use for his investments and poker career.
This then explains why he said he’s never been staked and he’s never owed anyone any money. Good stuff!
Did He Get Paid on Survivor?
Some people assume that you would get paid to be on reality shows regardless of whether you win or loss the contest.
While there’s some truth to that, it only depends on a number of factors, for example, getting paid if you come back for the finale episode even if you’ve been voted out. But even then, the amount is not huge, according to some sources, it’s about $10,000 per person just for their present.
The most amount of money the contestants would make if they actually won in the show. Garrett was voted out second in the season 28 of Survivor TV show.
==> READ ALSO: What Happened to Garrett After Survivor?
In conclusion, he might’ve made some cash there, but compared to his net worth it was likely a chum change.
Final Thoughts
So, I hope I’ve answered your question on how does Garrett Adelstein make money. Like I mentioned earlier, no one know exact Garrett Adelstein net worth or all of his income streams, but we can logically come to certain conclusions.
As we’ve established here, he makes a living mainly from his high stakes poker winnings where he owns 100% of himself, real estate property, and stock investments.
It’s very possible that he’s had help with a family trust fund, and likely has invested some of his income in cryptos.
Have we missed anything else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!