'I like surprising people' – Lex Veldhuis' formula for success at Lex Live

It's a really interesting question because the first one was very raw, but it really felt like lightning in a bottle in a certain way, community-wise. It was super warm, everybody was having so much fun. There were people who booked one day extra so they could be the last ones to leave. It really felt like the best summer camp you experienced as a kid, but for grown ups. 

I think one of the biggest challenges, or things to keep in mind, is to really harness that and not step away from it. So, I want to scale the event in terms of getting bigger and better, but I never want to lose that personal touch or personal feeling that people have. 

I think so far we've been able to do that and because we know exactly what we're protecting, it does feel very organic and natural to come up with the things that we do. But because it scales, the planning becomes a bit harder. You know, planning a very tight-knit event for 50-60 people is a lot easier than when 250 are coming from the community alone, right? You also have to constantly come up with new things.

All in all, I would say it's smoother and it's easier because the events feel really good. It's also something very exciting to be working on. It gives me energy, so it's not stressful. 

Lex Live is, first and foremost, a poker tournament festival.

What should potential first-time attendees of Lex Live know about the festival? What can they expect?

It's a poker tournament series with a very deep layer of hanging out with other people that love poker. When I think about poker tournaments back in the day, like if you went to the EPT, everybody would play the tournament and then everybody would go to the bar to hang out. You would know, like, 150 people at the bar. 

Over time, that big group has split up into smaller groups. Obviously, people take poker as a craft more seriously – as they should – so people go to bed a bit earlier. I really missed that feeling of seeing everyone at the bar and hanging out there. I think that's really how Lex Live is different than most other tournament series. 

There's going to be a ton of poker, you can play bounty tournaments, there will probably be a team event, turbos, mixed games. So, you can just go for that, but as we do with all Lex Live events, we'll have a hangout area. If you want to just go there to play chess, or have a beer, or play other card games, all that kind of stuff. When the poker stops, there's still a lot of fun things to do.

Do you have a favorite memory from past Lex Live festivals?

That's a tough one. One of my favorite activities was when I rented out a movie theater. This was during Lex Live 2 in London and Joker had just come out. It was almost like a childhood dream fulfilled, to rent out a theater and fill it with people I know, that felt really special. We did a pub quiz in Belgium that I really liked, we asked questions about the stream to find a diehard fan and had a big giveaway for the winners. 

At Lex Live 3 I really enjoyed the presence of the Taverna, which was a bar right next to Casino Barcelona that we had to ourselves the whole week. Just being in there, talking to people and seeing people mix. I had a lot of family and friends from back home so seeing all of them mixing with the online community was amazing. 

There's plenty of fun to be had off the felt at Lex Live.

You mentioned a secret/mystery community event in your video announcement – any chance at hint as to what it is?

It's not necessarily a secret, I just don't really like to give out the whole schedule beforehand. There's definitely a chance that people would like that and maybe it's my mistake to not do it because people like knowing what they're getting into, but I also like surprising people with stuff. The movie theater was a big surprise back in the day and we like to do these sort of pop-up style things. 

I really want people to just get to the event and then we just sweep them along in constant activities, entertainment, poker, and then you're just out of it after a week. I feel like it's a bit easier to sweep people up like that if some of the activities are surprises. I know people like to plan around the poker, but I'm not sure yet if we'll announce an activities schedule so everyone can plan accordingly or keep the surprise element. But it's not like we have a box that opens and Spraggy pops out, there's nothing crazy planned, as of yet.

It's not like we have a box that opens and Spraggy pops out.

 

You're obviously the face of Lex Live and responsible for much of its success, but I'm guessing you have a team working with you behind the scenes – if so, what does that work dynamic look like? How exactly does one go about organizing a festival on this scale? 

Well, it's interesting. I first originated the idea of Lex Live with Dave Curtis, who I work very closely with at PokerStars. We pretty much started brainstorming around the fact that my stream has always been a little rough around the edges, but there's a very tight-knit sense of community. We wanted to keep the event raw so it would represent the online situation really well. For instance, we had a tournament called the 'F*ck You Flip' where at the start of every new blind level, everybody had to flip for two big blinds off their stack. So, thinking outside the box without making stuff too crazy. 

The team behind Lex Live is a big one.

So, Dave and I originated the idea of the event back in the day and I've worked and leaned on PokerStars' experience in terms of organizing tournaments. I have two moderators, Ruth Ann and Croaks, and they are fundamental in everything that comes with organizing the community because they know it like nobody else. For Lex Live 3, we had a really good team from PokerStars with Julia Brecar and Tony, who both work in Live Events. And Elliot, who does all the groundwork at live events and was very loved by people. We had Sharon who helped in Taverna and Manal with satellites. As you can see, it's a very big team. 

One of the biggest driving factors of the event is Nadia who is pretty much my right hand in organizing the event. She does an insane amount of work and is in the channel, known as KaboomPoker. She's a speaking point for a lot of people and she helps a lot with the logistics. She's actually the one who came up with the idea for a 'How To Survive Lex Live' document. 

If you look at the whole team, I'm just really lucky to have them. It's amazing and you can really see what works and then build on that for the next one.

Lex Live 4 takes place at the Banco Casino in Bratislava, Slovakia from June 23-29.

^{Images courtesy of Manuel Kovsca/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd}