Lex Veldhuis' poker career spans two decades, starting with a $10 deposit on PokerStars in 2005 as a 21-year-old transplant from the world of competitive Starcraft.
With 2025 approaching, Veldhuis has 20 years of poker experience behind him, and he's perhaps the most popular poker streamer in the world. Veldhuis achieved some of the biggest successes of his career at the poker table in 2024, and according to him, that's no coincidence.
'My third youth in poker'
PokerOrg sat down with Veldhuis at the 2024 NAPT Las Vegas series, a setting in which he'll compete in the upcoming season of The Big Game on Tour. The longtime PokerStars Team Pro told us that his thirst for the game has never been greater than it is right now.
"I've been playing a lot," Veldhuis said. "I played a lot live over the summer. I’ve been playing a lot online. Studying a lot. It’s been very poker-heavy. But I’m really enjoying it. I feel like I’m in sort of my third youth in poker."
Veldhuis won his first career SCOOP title in May and followed up that milestone with his first WCOOP title in September. A breakthrough in study habits this past summer revitalized his passion for the game, and has Veldhuis playing some of the best poker of his career.
The theme for Veldhuis' new approach to poker is pressure.
"I get coached by BBZ Poker," Veldhuis said. "And I noticed that while I was streaming, people would ask me like hey, I qualified for a higher-stakes tournament, what do I do? And I would always tell them never let up the aggression. Don’t be intimidated by the moment. You have to just keep playing aggressive."
"And then I started correlating that to my own experiences, where there are lots of tournaments that I only play because I’m streaming. Let’s say there’s a $10,000 freezeout. And if you look at the player list, I’m in like the bottom five percent of skill. For whatever reason. But I also like putting on a show and showcasing the high level of poker that there is during those tournament series. Then I realize the one thing that I want to do in this tournament is play aggressively."
Ratcheting up the pressure
Veldhuis and his coach, Jordan "BBZ" Drummond, went to work this summer on ratcheting up the pressure in Veldhuis' poker approach.
"I started forming this idea in my head about making this a theme," Veldhuis said. "And me and my coach actually created a course for it, called Pressure Systems Bundle. And the only thing we spent time training on all summer long is what spots can I barrel, when can I overbet, when can I check-raise, when can I all-in, when can I three-bet preflop. So all of the things surrounding the theme of pressure."
"And something clicked in my head. For some reason I kind of feel like I see part of the matrix now. Whereas before you do your best and you try, and you see certain things. But playing WCOOP, I just felt like my old self, when I was just a player, when I was just grinding day in and day out. Climbing the stakes and playing people heads-up. Really climbing the mountain. I felt like I was doing things that were in line with trying to be the king of the hill. That has been almost like a transformative experience."
As a prolific streamer, entrepreneur, and father of two, Veldhuis is well aware that the top players in the game commit time to poker study that he simply doesn't have.
"I try to, as efficiently as I can, catch up to players that just play poker," Veldhuis said. "Because if I want to play 2Ks and 5Ks and 10Ks, and all the time I put into community management, or organizing Lex Live, or organizing storyboard and graphics and stuff, other people are studying. They’re advancing quicker than I am, so how do I catch up, or how do I maintain the distance as efficiently as I can?"
"I think that I am improving at a decent rate. But this was something exponential that just clicked something in my head, and I just feel unleashed when I’m playing now. It’s crazy. Over the summer I just feel like a different player now."
The Big Game
Veldhuis isn't planning on playing any tournaments at this year's NAPT Las Vegas, as he's strictly focusing on playing the best he can in the cash game format of The Big Game on Tour. The lineup for the upcoming season includes Veldhuis, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Alan Keating, Nick Wright, Rob Gronkowski, and, of course, the Loose Cannon.
"One thing I realized playing the Big Game last year, one thing that I did that really worked well for me is playing some higher-stakes cash games before it started," Veldhuis said. "Because it’s not something that I play week in and week out, and I don’t want my first 20 hands at the Big Game to be let’s see how this goes."
Whether it's at the Big Game, a live tournament, or a Twitch-streamed online event, expect the current version of Veldhuis to be a tough out at the poker table.
"I feel like the excitement that I have for poker right now, it’s almost like my first three months," Veldhus said. "Those moments where I can’t wait to play, I can’t wait to do stuff."
"Since I started streaming, and starting a family, it’s sort of like a second chance to do things right. So I feel like I’m a really good poker professional now as well. The titles are sort of like a crown on that. It feels like I’m coming full circle and doing things the right way now."
Photos courtesy of PokerStars/Danny Maxwell/Joe Giron
