While most of the poker world's eyes remain fixated on the goings-on at the 2025 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, there's another live series that's just kicked off proceedings. Lex Live, the brainchild of PokerStars Pro and Twitch poker streamer Lex Veldhuis, runs from June 23-29 in Bratislava.
PokerOrg reached out to the man himself to learn a little more about what to expect from Lex Live 2025.
What's the one thing you're most excited about at Lex Live?
I haven't been able to stream poker for a while, and I've been wanting to. And one of the things that I really like during the streams is connecting with people, hanging out with people, and talking about poker. It's definitely the number one thing I'm looking forward to — to reconnect with people.
What's the one can't-miss event of the series for those planning to attend?
We did a big survey to see what people would like more of. I think there are about four times as many poker tournaments now as there were in Barcelona. We have hypers pretty much every day, we have mixed games, and more Main Event flights. The Main Event is a $200K guarantee, which is great for a €250 buy-in. We have a big Mystery Bounty on the Saturday as well.
Besides the poker, there are going to be a lot of community events. We're renting out 12 padel courts, we're going to organize a card game that's titled after my wife because we play a lot at home, we're going beer tasting, and I rented out a cruise ship. I'm super excited for that. There's not a whole lot of that happening during poker tournaments, and I think that's something that makes Lex Live special.
We used to see you playing at the WSOP semi-regularly, but not so much in the last decade – do you ever miss the action there?
It's funny you say that. I loved the WSOP grind. I think I played six or seven full schedules where I played like 40 events and cash games on the side. I didn't really do it in the most healthy way, but I just loved it — the craziness, the grind. And I'll be very honest, I have insane FOMO every single year.
I remember in 2019 my stream was really blowing up, and it just felt like a really dumb decision to take the time off. Then COVID hit, and we had our first baby right at the end of it. I just didn't want to travel. I was already going to PokerStars tournaments, and that's where my priority was at the time, and I didn't want to add more on top of that. The FOMO is real, though. I think the time where I just grind four weeks of WSOP isn't happening again anytime soon.
Does Lex Live scratch that itch for live poker?
Lex Live is more of an extension of what I do online – it creates more depth. It's a really cool, logical step forward for the platform I've created. It gives it more meaning. It'll be fun to play live poker for sure; it's been a while for me, but the community aspect is really why I'm doing the event. It doesn't scratch my poker grind itch, if you know what I mean.
Lex Live is playing now at the Banco Casino Bratislava. If you can't make it down there, Lex will be posting regular updates on his Instagram and X accounts.
