The first ever Lex Live event kicked off last night in Namur, Belgium, with plenty of recognisable faces from the world of poker and Twitch taking part.

The man of the hour—or should we say the man of the week, as we’re here until Sunday—was, of course, Lex Veldhuis. His name and face (both real and in Beaker form) adorn the Grand Casino de Namur, and it’s his Twitch community who have made the journey to play in this event.

Yesterday we told you about some of the online qualifiers who would be in attendance, but before play even started at 6pm it was clear that this was to be no small get together.

Packed house for Day 1A of Lex Live

“I’m really happy with the turnout,” Veldhuis told PokerNews when the day was done. “I was happy when there were only 80 players registered, so to get 168 runners on Day 1A is amazing. I expect Day 1B and 1C to be even bigger. If we cross the 800 player mark I would be extremely happy but everything above the 500 is amazing.”

Of those 168 entrants, just 56 would survive, led by France’s Moise Alloun who managed to almost 10x his 50,000 starting stack to bag up a massive 490,000.

The field was an interesting mix of Veldhuis’s Twitch community (including active members Ben Martin and Ivo Shoofs), professional poker players (PokerStars Championship Prague winner Kalidou Sow played but didn’t survive), and the Namur locals.

All in all, it was a fun night and a huge success.

Check out the video below, then keep reading to find out how both Veldhuis and Spraggy fared.

LEX VS SPRAGGY

Before he sat down to play Veldhuis hung out at the bar; a chance to meet and greet everyone and put faces to the Twitch names he knows so well. When he would eventually take his seat, however, he was faced with a fellow Twitch poker superstar and PokerStars Team Online member that he already knows pretty well.

Lex and Spraggy hang out with fellow Twitchers

Yep, you guessed it. It was Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, who had arrived in Namur not long before buying in to Day 1A.

Arrived here at Namur, Belgium. Registered the main event. Get this clown at my table. He's already confused and losing chips quickly! Sad. pic.twitter.com/CfItH3rEKR

— Benj Spragg (@spraggy) March 27, 2019

The two were at the same table from the off, and the battle commenced. Veldhuis was quick to tell PokerNews about a bluff he got through during the 300/600/600 blind level.

“Spraggy opened to 1,500 and another player called,” Veldhuis explained from the table. “I three-bet to 6,000 and Spraggy called me. The other guy folded. The flop came queen-eight-five with one heart and I fired a bet of 5,500. He called again and the turn was another queen. This time I bet 17,000 and he folded, so I showed him jack-four.”

Spraggy then added: “I played king-jack of hearts by the way, and I played that hand 200% more reasonable than he did”.

Things went from bad (getting bluffed by your friend) to worse (busting with pocket aces versus pocket tens) for Spraggy, who then fired a second bullet. Veldhuis’s stack continued to swell until the final level of the day when a huge three-way all-in saw his chips diminish substantially.

Veldhuis had K♦Q♣ and was up against Patrick Prijot’s A♠A♣ and Thierry Penders’ Q♠Q♦. The aces held up, and Veldhuis would end the day with just 23,000 (the shortest stack of the night). He’ll need a spin on Saturday’s Day 2, when the blinds will begin at 2,000/4,000/4,000.

Spraggy fared slightly better, bagging up 49,500 for just under starting stack.

Spraggy with Morten ‘Zeeth’ Ottosen

Another notable player to make it through was Veldhuis’s famous Twitch moderator, Germany’s “Croaks”, who ended the night with 44,500. Click here for the full Day 1A chip counts.

A Day 1A turbo flight (with 15-minute levels instead of 30 minutes) also ran from 10pm, attracting 12 players, four of whom made it through, led by Daniel Dinulescu with 240,000.

Here’s a look at some of your tweets:

I’m really, really bummed I can’t be at Lex Live this week, but unbelievably proud of @RaSZi. A whole event with your name on it! Man, my chest* would swell all the way from Rotterdam to Namur.

*not my chest

— Joe Stapleton (@Stapes) March 27, 2019

And we're off to #LexLive! No streams until 2nd of April but we will be vlogging so expect some vlogs up on our YouTube channel next week! pic.twitter.com/nm895HFIDO

— OP-Poker (@OfficialOPPoker) March 27, 2019

On my way to Namur for the Lex Live Spring Festival! Can’t wait to see tons of people from @RaSZi his community. See you in a bit guys! @croakspkr @MPADAM666 pic.twitter.com/3J7d0uymhg

— Milko @ Lex Live (@DegenOnTour) March 27, 2019

Played Day 1A here at #LexLive unfortunately i busted with 3 hands to go in a What would have been a 30 Big blinds pot on the start of Day 2! Nothing to do when you literally get 6 playable hands on a entire Day! Playing again later pic.twitter.com/pkFG4YzCxU

— Morten Ottosen (@zeeth__) March 28, 2019

TONIGHT, TONIGHT

For those arriving tonight, there will be a welcome party in the Grand Casino de Namur bar, where you’ll have a chance to meet Veldhuis, Spraggy, and everyone from the community.

Of course, there’s also some poker to be played, with Day 1B kicking off at 6pm, followed by another turbo flight at 10pm.

PokerStars Blog will be in attendance. We’ll see you there.

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

The biggest PokerStars tournaments every week are part of the High Roller Club. With buy-ins between $530 and $2,100 these events are already flush with cash. Starting in April they’ll become even more valuable with the debut of the new monthly High Roller Club leaderboard.

The High Roller Club is worth even more now that there’s a monthly leaderboard.

Earning points for the High Roller Club leaderboard is simple. Just play in any regularly scheduled HRC tournament with a buy-in between $530 and $2,100, giving you seven opportunities to earn points every Sunday and six opportunities every other day during the week. Everyone who cashes in a tournament earns at least 10 points. Those who appear at a final table earn 15 points, and winners earns 50 points per tournament.

At the end of every month prizes will be distributed to the top 40 point earners. In April those prizes will be SCOOP 2019 tickets. The top High Roller Club performer this coming month will earn free entry into the $10,300 SCOOP Main Event, while the others will split a total of $38,000 worth of SCOOP entries.

You can begin earning points for the High Roller Club leaderboard on April 1st. Check out the full High Roller Club schedule to start planning. For more details – including structures, payouts, and satellite details – login to your PokerStars software and head to the ‘High Roller Club‘ tab on your device.

The Grand Casino de Namur was jam-packed last night for another starting flight of the €225 Lex Live Main Event.

If you saw inside the casino and poker room last night, you’d never have guessed it was a Thursday. It definitely had a Friday night feeling.

With more players continuing to arrive in Namur for Lex Live, the sense of community from Lex Veldhuis’s Twitch channel grows stronger. That was evident last night at the Lex Live welcome party, which we’ll bring you some video footage of later today.

But first, there was some poker we need to cover. Let’s fill you in on what went down on Day 1B of the €225 Main Event.

Following on from Day 1A’s 180 total entries, Thursday’s Day 1B saw an additional 305 entries split over the two starting flights (one at 6pm, and the turbo at 10pm). That means the €100K guarantee is guaranteed to be smashed later on tonight when Day 1C plays out. If previous Day 1Cs have taught us anything, it’s that people like to come out on a Friday night and play some cards. Expect this one to be very popular.

MORE FROM LEX LIVE: MEET THE QUALIFIERS | WATCH VIDEO FROM DAY 1A

WHO MADE IT THROUGH?

After 12 levels of play it was Belgium’s Soufiane Gherbi who bagged the chip lead, having spun his 50,000 starting stack up to 514,000. That also makes him the overall chip leader right now, as he pipped Day 1A’s leader Moise Alloun by 24,000. You can read through all of the blow-by-blow action here.

Overall chip leader Soufiane Gherbi

The next biggest stacks after Gherbi belonged to Randee Clybouw (420,000), Damase Verlinde (365,000), Marc Hansens (326,000), and France’s Samy Barka (324,500).

As for the turbo flight, it was Raphael Housni who bagged biggest. He’ll return on Day 2 with 309,500.

Click here to check out full chip counts.

Raphael Housni topped the Day 1B turbo flight

H1Z1 superstar Morten “Zeeth” Ottosen busted just before the end of Day 1A on Wednesday, but he fared better last night on his second bullet. “Zeeth” will return on Saturday with a stack of 58,500, in part thanks to a double up when he made quads holding pocket kings versus Constantin Smintanca’s pocket queens.

Made Day 2 of #LexLive with 58.5k = 14.5 bbs overall satisfied i had the Solomans as @KevinRobMartin knows and made Daily quads! So Thanks Kevin! Hopefully Day 2 Will make me more! Now 🍺🍺🍺🍺

— Morten Ottosen (@zeeth__) March 29, 2019

Other members of the Twitch community to advance include Tjenno “TjennoE” Eskes (79,500), Markus “l4zy_pigeon” Borel (42,000), and Ger “eyesolater” Kamerling (25,500).

Kalidou Sow, who took down the PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event and PokerStars Festival London Main Event in back-to-back months (December 2017 and January 2018), fired his second bullet into the Main. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he couldn’t find a bag and will need to return tonight if he wants a final shot at advancing.

In total there were 103 survivors joining the 60 who advanced from Day 1A. 

Join us back here on the PokerStars Blog later today for more features from Lex Live in Namur.

No luck for Kalidou Sow

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

All poker players want to improve their skills and thus their chance of success. But what is the most effective way to go about such study? Reading the forthcoming Purposeful Practice for Poker is a good place to start.

Appearing this July, Purposeful Practice for Poker: The Modern Approach to Studying Poker by Dr. Tricia Cardner and Gareth James provides readers advice about the “right sort of practice” to start improving their games.

In Purposeful Practice for Poker, Cardner builds on her work in her earlier books Peak Poker Performance and Positive Poker. As in those books, this new one similarly finds Cardner sharing her expertise in psychology (in which she holds one of her two doctorates), as well as what she’s learned from her work as a licensed professional counselor and her experience at the poker tables where she’s collected six figures’ worth of tournament cashes.

This time Cardner has collaborated with tournament poker coach Gareth “Gazellig” James to provide players concrete advice for how to make the most out of their study in order to improve their games. In the book, the pair present and explain the concept of “purposeful practice” and how it can apply to poker, including outlining numerous techniques and exercises to help poker players build their own plans for improvement.

Here’s an excerpt from the book describing what psychological assets help poker players to develop the necessary “grit” to achieve long-term goals in poker.

The Four Psychological Assets of Gritty Poker Players

It is possible to learn and develop our grit and according to [psychologist Angela] Duckworth, there are four psychological assets that will help you do that. They are: Interest, Practice, Purpose, and Hope.

In order to follow your passion, you first have to start off with an interest in something. Having an interest is what encourages you to go deep with something and passion grows in relation to nuance. When you look at poker on the surface, it might only mildly interest you or you may just be enthralled with the money. But if you cultivate your interest and dig a little deeper, you’ll find that there are many subtleties and exhilarations to study. There are so many facets to a game as complex as poker and the only way to start understanding and appreciating the nuances is to go deep and stick around for awhile!

Once you’ve found your interest, the next psychological asset is practice. One of Duckworth’s earliest studies on grit was with National Spelling Bee champions. She found that the winners practiced more than their less gritty competitors. Extra hours of practice ended up explaining most of the variance in their superior performances. If you want to enhance your grittiness for poker, think about how much you are currently practicing and studying. Could you be doing more? Are you interested in excelling beyond your current level? Do you have a persistent desire to be better?

The research is unequivocal on one point. The proper type of gritty practice to use is purposeful practice. Remember that to undertake gritty practice you want to set a stretch goal where you zero in on one aspect of your overall performance that you want to improve. You are looking for your Achilles heel and when you purposefully practice you give your full undivided attention and great focus to fixing and improving your leaks. Get feedback on what you are doing wrong and continue working to improve. This type of practice is effortful and not particularly enjoyable, but it is necessary. Purposeful practice is about going into problem solving mode, analyzing everything that you do in an attempt to bring it closer to your ideal outcome.

Purposeful practice needs to become a habit if you want to get the full value out of it. All experts are creatures of habit. Developing a routine for practice will make it easier to complete — especially when your practice tasks are difficult to do. Learn to embrace the challenge of purposeful practice. It can take years and years to become a fully optimized poker player, so you might as well enjoy the journey!

The third psychological asset of gritty people is purpose. Gritty people tend to talk about their passions in terms of purpose. The long days of toil and struggle need something to undergird them. Most research shows that gritty people view their pursuits as a calling. They are engaging in the long slog to expertise for some reason outside of themselves. Whether it is to contribute to their families, a special cause, or even to advance their sport, gritty people perceive some higher calling. How about you? What is your purpose? How can you becoming a better player benefit society (or your family or community)?

The fourth psychological asset to grit is one we have already talked about earlier and that is hope. Duckworth says that grit depends on a certain type of hope. The hopeful gritty person believes that tomorrow will be better because of their efforts. She says suffering does not lead to hopelessness. It is suffering that we think we can’t control that leads to hopelessness. The best way to keep a hopeful mindset is to think about what you can learn from setbacks and disappointments. When you keep searching for ways to improve your situation, you are likely to find them. It is also infinitely easier to be hopeful when you have a growth mindset. It is possible to get smarter if you have the right opportunities, teachers, and a belief that you can do it.

So as you can see, if you want to become a grittier poker player, you need to develop your four psychological assets: interest, practice, purpose and hope. If you are not as gritty as you’d like to be think about what you can do to increase one or more of the four assets and that should get you started in the right direction.

Purposeful Practice for Poker is available for pre-order in paperback and as an e-book at D&B Poker.

D&B Publishing (using the imprint D&B Poker) was created by Dan Addelman and Byron Jacobs 15 years ago. Since then it has become one of the leading publishers of poker books with titles by Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Chris Moorman, Dr. Patricia Cardner, Lance Bradley, Martin Harris and more, all of which are available at D&B Poker.

Ryan Riess first came to prominence in the poker world in 2013 when he won the tournament every player dreams about: the WSOP Main Event.

Ryan Riess (front, between Mark Newhouse and J.C. Tran) with the rest  of the 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine.

Since that victory altered his life’s trajectory, Riess has added cashes worth nearly $6 million to his résumé, bringing his total live tournament earnings to $14.1 million.

Riess is also known as a formidable opponent online, where he plays as “MrMaximize.” He showed his prowess most recently in the High Roller Club $1,050 Sunday Supersonic, topping a field of 207 players and chopping heads-up with Kristen “krissyb24” Bicknell, then going on to eliminate her to take the title and a $36K prize.

We caught up with Riess earlier this week for a chat about life since the WSOP, the world of high roller tournaments, and how he’s feeling about his alma mater’s chances during March Madness.

PokerStars Blog: How has your life evolved since winning the WSOP Main Event, both in broad strokes and specifically with regard to poker?

Ryan Riess: My life has evolved in many ways since I won the WSOP Main Event in 2013. At the time I was 23 years old, and didn’t really know what I was doing in poker. I actually lost money the following year in 2014 playing poker, followed by two years of essentially breaking even. 2017 is when I really stepped my game up and started to get better and play higher stakes.

Ryan Riess and family.

The last few years have been great. I have been able to consistently compete and put up good results at the highest level. I still have a lot of improving to do, and am always striving to get better. I really am looking forward to the rest of 2019 and beyond.

Outside of poker, I have also changed a lot. I have an amazing girlfriend and two beautiful daughters who constantly empower me to be the best version of myself.

In the year leading up to your Main Event win in 2013 you collected cashes pretty regularly on the WSOP Circuit. Did those small-to-mid-stakes tourneys serve as building blocks that allowed you to refine your game to where you were ready to take on the WSOP Main Event?

When I was playing low stakes tournaments, it was essentially a learning experience. I tried a lot of different lines, some worked, others not so much. I didn’t know too many people in the poker industry at the time, so the way I learned was through trial and error. That can be an expensive way to learn at times, but losing money can often times be the best way to learn from your mistakes and get better. Nobody likes to lose money.

Ryan Riess at the 2014 PCA Super High Roller.

You play a lot of poker, both live and online. What is your routine these days as far as scheduling/mixing the two?

I mainly focus on live poker tournaments. The stakes are higher and the games are softer in my opinion. The only time I play online poker is on Sundays or during big series (SCOOP, WCOOP, etc.). Playing online poker is a great way to practice, though. You are able to see way more hands, against tougher competition, and really work on improving from a technical and fundamental standpoint.

The Sunday Supersonic that you won this past week is a hyper-turbo tournament. How many hypers do you include in your regular playing mix?

I enjoy turbo tournaments the most, both live and online. Hyper turbos are great, too. Players’ ROIs are smaller the faster the structure is, but you are able to win a lot of money in a short time span. I would much rather play a $2K turbo online than play a $2K that lasts 12 hours.

Even after winning the 2013 WSOP Main Event, it took until 2017 for Riess to find his best game and begin winning consistently. “I still have a lot of improving to do,” he says, “and I am always striving to get better.”

You play high roller tourneys fairly regularly, both live and online. Do you vary your approach to the high rollers at all compared to lower buy-in tournaments, or is your game plan pretty much the same regardless?

My game plan for high stakes and low stakes tournaments varies a lot. At the highest stakes, the players are much better. I generally choose to run lower variance lines, control the size of the pot, and play unexploitably. In lower stakes tournaments, you don’t have to worry about being exploited as much and can instead be unbalanced and exploit others.

What’s your perception of the PokerStars High Roller Club these days?

The High Roller Club is basically just all of the best online players in the world battling. It’s fun, I enjoy it.

Finally, speaking of advancing deep in tournaments… the Michigan State Spartans have made the round of 16 in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament once again. You attended MSU. Have you ever been to a March Madness MSU game? What do you think of the Spartans’ chances to go all the way this year, and what needs to go right for them to make that happen?

Yes, I have been to a few Final Fours that Michigan State participated in. The atmosphere is incredible. I am planning on going back this year if we can get through LSU and Duke. We have a tough draw and we have a few injuries. But we also have one of the best players in the country in Cassius Winston, so don’t count us out just yet.

Lex Live is now in full swing here in Namur, Belgium, and last night saw the official welcome party take place in the Grand Casino bar.

The evening kicked off with a friendly €25 sit and go featuring Lex Veldhuis, Ben “Spraggy” Spragg, and members of Lex’s Twitch community including online satellite winner Sanne “Antim00n” Bombeek, Ben “TheBenMartin98” Martin, “TjennoE”, and the infamous moderator “Croaks”. Check back for our interview with “Croaks” later today.

It was “Zjoeri” who emerged victorious in the 18-player tournament though, banking €162 for his efforts and becoming the first winner at Lex Live.

When hundreds of players flooded in at 6pm for the start of Day 1B of the €225 Main Event (find out how that played out here) everyone headed to the bar for some on-the-house drinks, conversation, and a few laughs.

Name tags were worn (“PokerStars Blog” for us, Twitch handles for them), beers were drunk, and a lot of fun was had by all.

Inside the Lex Live party

There might be some sore heads today, but there’s no rest for the wicked here at Lex Live. Tonight will not only see big numbers for the final two Day 1C flights but at 8pm there’s the €60 FU Friday Flip event; a turbo with 10-minute levels and a five big blind flip for every player once per level. It should provide some great entertainment.

That’s followed by the €225 Fast and Furious turbo at 9pm, a freezeout hyper turbo with 10-minute levels.

Yep. We’re really in full swing.

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

Catch up on all of this week’s PokerStars Blog content…

• Select Sunday Major tourneys go PKO this week
• Lex Live festival kicks off in Belgium
• EPT takes over Sochi
• Charlie “JIZOINT” Combes gets back in the game
• Catching up with Ryan Riess

Plus:

• 5-Card Fiction: Poker Solves a Murder
• Book Excerpt: “Purposeful Practice in Poker” by Dr. Tricia Cardner and Gareth James

KNOCKOUT SUNDAY BOOSTS GUARANTEES, CONVERTS SUNDAY MAJORS TO PKO

There’s lots of money to be won on Knockout Sunday.

This Sunday, March 31st, PokerStars is mixing things up with a little something we’re calling Knockout Sunday.

For this weekend only, 10 of our regular Sunday tournaments are being converted into Progressive KO events. On top of that we’re adding a bundle of money to the guarantees. The best part is that players of all bankrolls can get involved. Buy-ins for these tournaments start as low as $11, plus you can always win your way in through a more affordable satellite.

Remember, this is for one weekend only. Next week the guarantees for these tournaments will be back to their regular levels and the Progressive KO structures will no longer be in play, so don’t miss out!

LEX LIVE LIGHTS UP NAMUR

This week Namur belongs to Lex Veldhuis and his Twitch community.

Lex Veldhuis and hundreds of members of his vibrant Twitch community have gathered in Namur, Belgium, this week for the first Lex Live festival. PokerStars Blog got to know some online qualifiers this week and was there for the first day of the festivities to catch up with Lex, Spraggy, and friends.

Our own intrepid reporter Jack Stanton is on the scene for the duration of the festival. Check out our Lex Live hub for coverage throughout the weekend.

EPT TAKES OVER SOCHI

The EPT is back in Sochi, Russia, and we’ve had our eyes on the action all week.

The first big event on tap was the EPT Sochi National. Yury Masliankou from Belarus entered the final table with the chip lead and held on against tough competition to walk away with $139,755, the biggest score of his career.

TV table at EPT Sochi

Next up was the EPT Sochi Main Event. After four days of play just six players remain in contention for the Israel’s Zakhar Babaev holds nearly three times as many chips as anybody else at the table. The final table will play out today and you can watch it here.

Finally there was the EPT Sochi High Roller. Just nine players, including PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas and Taiwanese pro Pete Chen, return today for the third and final day of play. Leading the way is Alvin Sarkarov of Azerbaijan, who had begun Day 2 with one of the shortest stacks.

Check out our EPT Sochi hub for access to full coverage of all the events.

CHARLIE “JIZOINT” COMBES GETS BACK IN THE GAME

Charlie Combes and his fiancée, Nicola.

With more than $7.9 million in cashes over a decade, Charlie “JIZOINT” Combes is undoubtedly one of the UK’s most successful online players. A couple of years ago Combes opted to take a break from poker in order to travel the world with his fiancée, and by his own admission, the game had passed him by upon his return.

Things didn’t get any easier when the couple had twin babies seven months ago. Now Combes is balancing fatherhood with working hard to get back to the top of his game. The results are speaking for themselves, as two weeks ago he chopped the Sunday Million for $83,813.

Check out the full interview here.

CATCHING UP WITH RYAN RIESS

2013 WSOP Main Event champ Ryan Riess.

Ryan Riess first came to prominence in the poker world in 2013 when he won the tournament every player dreams about: the WSOP Main Event.

“At the time I didn’t really know what I was doing in poker,” he told us in an interview this week. “I actually lost money the following year, followed by two years of essentially breaking even. 2017 is when I really stepped my game up and started to get better and play higher stakes.” Since then he’s worked to tirelessly to improve, inspired by his girlfriend and their two daughters, who he says “constantly empower me to be the best version of myself.”

Riess is now a regular competitor in the High Roller Club and in high roller tournaments worldwide. We chatted him up about how he prepares for the toughest competition around, and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Read the full Ryan Riess interview right here.

5-CARD FICTION: POKER SOLVES A MURDER

Poker solves a murder in 1929’s The Canary Murder Case.

Anthony Holden once famously wrote that a person’s “character is stripped bare at the poker table.” It’s a truth well understood by anyone who has played the game at all seriously. The 1929 film The Canary Murder Case tests this idea to an extreme, you could say. The film features a poker game expressly set up in order to get someone to expose himself sufficiently to reveal he could have committed a murder. And it works!

In this week’s 5-Card Fiction, Martin Harris walks us through detective Philo Vance’s use of deduction at a poker game to eliminate suspects from suspicion for the murder of a showgirl — complete with video clips from this early sound film.

Play along and solve the case of 5-Card Fiction, the Canary Murder Case edition.

BOOK EXCERPT: PURPOSEFUL PRACTICE FOR POKER

“Purposeful Practice for Poker” comes out this July.

All poker players want to improve their skills and thus their chance of success. But what is the most effective way to go about such study? Reading the forthcoming Purposeful Practice for Poker: The Modern Approach to Studying Poker is a good place to start.

Appearing this July, Purposeful Practice for Poker by Dr. Tricia Cardner and Gareth James provides readers advice about the “right sort of practice” to start improving their games.

Read the excerpt here.

Other pieces you might be interested in:

• How Twitch has changed the poker experience
• Can you use poker skills to win the Grand National?
• PokerStars School: Reading players in a live setting, and auto-rebuying in online cash games
• EPT Open Sochi packages to be won every week
• High Roller Club monthly leaderboard debuts in April

Have a great weekend!

You can play poker for free on PokerStars. Simply click here to open an account.

Everybody ready? Here we go, on the count of three. One…Two…Three…

#FUCKCROAKS!

Of all the people from Lex Veldhuis’s Twitch community who have travelled to Namur for Lex Live, only one of them has had others frequently coming up to them and swearing. All in the name of fun, I should point out.

That person is Croaks, also known as Adrian, and he’s one of Veldhuis’s Twitch moderators. As a cornerstone of the community, we caught up with Croaks at the welcome party to find out how he got into Twitch, what it takes to be a moderator, and the history behind his namesake meme.

PokerStars Blog: Hi Croaks. Where does that name come from?

Croaks: I was looking for a PokerStars username, and I didn’t know the English meaning of the word back in the day. I just wanted something English-sounding, that sounded kind of cool. Somehow Croaks got in my mind. I don’t know how!

Do you still play on PokerStars?

Yeah, I play a lot. I’ve actually been playing a lot the past two weeks, lots of Spin and Gos, grinding six-max hyper turbos. I usually don’t play during streams because I’m busy with other stuff. Sometimes I play one table because I’ll try and get on the same table as Lex to try and troll him! Those are usually $11 hypers. But normally I just get to my own grind afterwards.

I bet it’s quite common for viewers to register tournaments purely for the chance of playing on the same table as Lex and getting on stream.

Yeah, especially in those hypers! They usually only have a few hundred runners, and you’re just waiting for there to be a spot open on Lex’s table. The chances are pretty good to end up on his table.

How did you come to start working with Lex?

It’s a long story. It started off with me discovering Twitch poker in general, back when Jason “JCarver” Somerville was doing his streams, and I watched him for a long time. Before Lex had even started streaming I was a big part of the community, talking in chat, watching streams etc. When Lex started streaming I was watching a lot, and I saw him becoming one of the biggest streamers in Twitch poker. Jason wasn’t streaming as much as he was focused on building Run It Up behind the scenes.

I was kind of a troll in Lex’s stream one and a half years ago, but still a very active member of the community. At some point, I think I made a joke about being Lex’s moderator. Like, “ModCroaks” or something. But then I got to be the mod! I don’t know how it happened. I think I became an honorary mod for one day or something. But after that, Lex was like: ‘Maybe Croaks is actually good at it’. That’s how it happened, and I’m still mod!

What are your working days like?

Since I’ve also been working with Jason at Run It Up Studios, this is my full-time job now: to mod. So it’s kind of like an everyday job. I get up in the morning, I get ready for the stream, just like I’d get ready for work before. It’s a real job for me.

A lot of people might not though what it takes to be a Twitch mod. What can you tell us about it?

I can understand why people might say it’s more chilled than other jobs, and I agree with that, but there are situations–particularly during Sunday streams when it gets super busy and Lex is playing more than ten tables at a time–when it gets busy on my side too. I’m keeping track of payouts, making commands in our chat, and keeping an eye on the chat at the same time. There are a few people who post stuff that shouldn’t be in chat, so I’ve got to keep an eye on it.

We heard you’ve put together a quiz for Lex Live?

Yeah, we’re going to have the Lex Live pub quiz on Saturday, and my fellow mod RuthAnnK and I had to come up questions for it. We organised it, it’s been a lot of fun. I think anyone who has been part of the community for a long time can get a good score in it, so it’s not super hard. But you’ve got to know about poker, you’ve got to know the poker pros and events from the past.

How did #FuckCroaks come about then?

Well, I was a troll. Back in the day, I’d troll a lot. I’d make small donations just so I could get a voice message on stream to troll Lex. A few other people started doing the same, so it worked out. But at some point, Lex had a stream where someone donated $10 and just said: “Fuck you”. That’s where the “Fuck you <3” meme came from. One of our regular other trolls, aside from me, he donated and said: ‘why do we say fuck you, when we could say fuck Croaks and blame him for everything bad’.

It’s fun. I’m not mad about it all. I’m a troll myself, so I just see it as a fun meme. It’s actually crazy how many people have come up to me at this live event already and say “Fuck Croaks!”. Even online, I’m not kidding, when I’m playing on PokerStars tables people ask “Are you Croaks?” or “Fuck Croaks” every single day.

What’s it been like for you to watch Lex’s streams get bigger, both in terms of tournament buy-ins and viewers?

It’s insane. It’s great to be a part of it. He’s been doing so well. It’s become so big. When he peaked at 34,200 viewers, I could never have imagined he’d do that when I first started watching. Usually, people go to Twitch to watch games, but there were 34,200 people sitting at their computers watching a guy play cards. It’s insane. It’s awesome for the game of poker. I love poker, it’s why I do all this. I enjoy the game of poker, and I just want to see Twitch poker grow.

Lex is doing the best, and it couldn’t be going any better. He peaked at 8,000 subscribers on Twitch, as a poker streamer. A guy who plays cards. If you understand Twitch, you know how big that is.

Finally, how have you been enjoying Lex Live so far? 

‘ve met a lot of people. I’ve been kind of nervous before, especially meeting Lex. He was an idol of mine. A couple of years back I watched him on the PokerStars Big Game. I was watching him with Daniel Negreanu and others, and now I’m working with him, and Jason too. That’s why I was so nervous about meeting him, but when I actually met him he greeted me like a friend he’d known for so long. Now I work with him every fucking day!

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

EPT Sochi Main Event
Dates: March 25-29, 2019
Buy-in: 191,800₽ ($2,900 approx)
Entries: 758 (inc. 195 re-entries)
Prize pool: 145,500,000₽ ($2.21 million approx)

Event #5: Pot Limit Omaha
Dates: March 21, 2019
Buy-in: 18,200₽ ($280 approx)
Entries: 116
Prize pool: 1,866,690₽ ($28,750 approx)

*denotes deal

At the end of Day 1A of the €225 Lex Live Main Event, Lex Veldhuis said he’d be happy if this tournament got 500 runners. Little did he know, for when play wrapped up after last night’s final Day 1 flights, there would be more than double that amount.

The first edition of the #LexLive main event just passed 1000 people. Can’t believe it. Thanks everyone for showing up.

— LexVeldhuis (@RaSZi) March 29, 2019

The grand total of 1,064 entries (including 343 re-entries) means the €100K guarantee was well and truly smashed. The final amount was almost double that amount too, with €196,148 set to be split between the final 111 players. A min-cash is worth €492, but here’s a look at the top prizes:

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?

A massive field of 497 entries on Day 1C meant there was not an empty table in the entire Grand Casino de Namur. Add the 82 entries from the Day 1C turbo flight, and that’s 579 unique entries on the night.

Nadia Wanzi topped the turbo

Job Trekpop bagged the end-of-day chip lead in the main flight with 404,500, while Nadia Wanzi finished top from the turbo with 309,000. Neither managed to eclipse the 514,000 stack of Day 1B chip leader Soufiane Gherbi, so he’ll be the overall chip boss when Day 2 kicks off at 4pm today.

Having arrived on Thursday night, both Fintan “easywithaces” Hand and Felix “xflixx” Schneiders sat down to play last night. Alas, despite a hot start, Hand would bust before the night was through. Schneiders fared better, however, and bagged up 73,500 (good for 18 big blinds).

Other notables to advance yesterday include Steven ‘Aka_nosebud’ Eckl (167,000), Jorden Verbraeken (163,000), and Christophe de Meulder (38,000). It was a case of third time’s a charm for Frenchman Kalidou Sow, who eventually made it through with 140,000 on his third bullet last night.

You can read through the live updates here.

Unfortunately for Veldhuis’s Twitch community, we lost some of the online qualifiers. Sanne ‘Antim00n’ Bombeek won a full package to this event via a €3.30 satellite on PokerStars, but she busted halfway through the day. Her husband, fellow Lex Veldhuis community member Bart ‘Rizn00’ Verboven, also exited with a couple of hours left on the night.

#LEXLIVE

Here’s a look at some your tweets:

I am so jealous.

1. Wish I was at #lexlive as it looks like a ton of fun
2. Wish I had a cool name like lex that would make a rhyme https://t.co/L98GRminkx

— Chris Moneymaker (@CMONEYMAKER) March 29, 2019

Good and bad news… Good: bagged #LexLive main event for Day 2 with 309K! Bad: most awesome pub quiz in the history of mankind starts in 6 hours and I am nowhere near my bed… pic.twitter.com/nvokoEemG7

— KaboomPoker (@KaboomPoker1) March 30, 2019

Bagged 255K on day 1C of Lex Live Main Event in Namur. Tomorrow day 2 will resume with 2K/4K blinds Let's have more fun and make some moolah #LexLive

— Sertofiets (@Sertofiets) March 29, 2019

Tüte izzzda!
73.500 sinds geworden.
Morgen geht es mit Tag 2 weiter. Jetzt aber gute Nacht. Kroko out. #LexLive pic.twitter.com/xcSfy9faMw

— Flix (@xflixx) March 30, 2019

MORE FROM LEX LIVE: CROAKS INTERVIEW | PARTY TIME VIDEO | DAY 1B RECAP | MEET THE QUALIFIERS | WATCH VIDEO FROM DAY 1A

Enjoying Lex Live? You can play poker for free on PokerStars. Simply click here to open an account.

While it’s serious business over in the €225 Main Event, last night at Lex Live was all about fun.

The €60 FU Friday Flip was a side event most members of Lex Veldhuis’s Twitch community had circled from the off, and 56 of them (including this humble PokerStars Blog writer) took part. Here’s how it worked:

Lex Veldhuis plays the FU Friday Flip

Players started with 15,000 chips, blinds at 100/100, and a ten-minute clock. The hyper-turbo structure then saw the clock paused at the end of each level, and all players put five big blinds in the middle. The dealer deals one card face up and one card face down to each player at each table and then lays down a flop. At this point, all players can reveal their hidden cards, and the turn and river are dealt. Whoever has the best hand at the end scoops a huge pot, and play resumes as normal into the next level.

The idea is based on Veldhuis’s Friday home games that he holds on his Twitch streams. Each Friday he would have an all-in flip out for his community members, but the tweak to the live version means there’s actually some play in it.

We’re doing a new tournament format here. At the end of every blind level the whole table has to do a 5 bb flip. Just did the first flip and it’s awesome.

— LexVeldhuis (@RaSZi) March 29, 2019

Veldhuis was of course in attendance, as were the likes of Ben “Spraggy” Spragg, OP-Poker’s Nicholas Walsh, Morten “Zeeth” Ottosen, Twitch moderator “Croaks”, and many more.

OP-Poker’s Nick (centre left) and Croaks (centre right) flip out

Unfortunately for community member Markus ‘L4zy_pigeon’ Borel, he became this event’s bubble boy. The eventual champion was Christopher Hooper, who won €926 and the first Lex Live Beaker trophy of the festival.

MORE FROM LEX LIVE: DAY 1C RECAP | CROAKS INTERVIEW | PARTY TIME VIDEO | DAY 1B RECAP | MEET THE QUALIFIERS | WATCH VIDEO FROM DAY 1A

Oh, and how did PokerStars Blog get on, I hear you cry?

Well, after a good start (including winning the third flip), we busted. But we did get to bust Spraggy beforehand. So, y’know, every cloud.

Our pocket kings hold up to bust Spraggy with pocket nines

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

Following on from last night’s FU Friday Flip tournament, there was more fun to be had today at Lex Live in Namur.

Saturday afternoon saw Lex Veldhuis and his Twitch community take over the amazing Barnabeer bar in the city centre for a good old fashioned pub quiz. In this quiz, though, there was only one subject.

Lex Veldhuis.

How well did his community really know the man they’ve spent hours railing, supporting, and interacting with? This was the best way to find out, and trust us when we tell you, these guys came prepared.

When it comes to the man himself, nobody knows Veldhuis better than his mother, who was in attendance. Veldhuis’s fiancee Myrthe was also taking part.

MORE FROM LEX LIVE: DAY 2 LIVE UPDATES | FU FRIDAY FLIP | DAY 1C RECAP | CROAKS INTERVIEW | PARTY TIME VIDEO | DAY 1B RECAP | MEET THE QUALIFIERS | WATCH VIDEO FROM DAY 1A

Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, Fintan “EasyWithAces” Hand, and Felix “xflixx” Schneiders were all in the house too, testing their knowledge. But in a way, they’d already won.

You see, midway through the quiz Veldhuis announced that the four players with the highest quiz score would be taking part in a private sit and go tomorrow, streamed live on Veldhuis’s Twitch channel. The event will be a tag-team tournament, with each winner paired up with one of the PokerStars Ambassadors. They can sub in and out whenever they wish.

And who were the winners?

1st – Sanne Bombeek (Antim00n)

2nd – Milko van Winden (Milkovw)

Tied 3rd Tjenno Eskes (TjennoE)

Tied 3rd – Ben Martin (TheBenMartin98)

Those four will be paired up with either Lex, Spraggy, Fintan or Felix tomorrow in a draw tomorrow. Players five through eight received a goodie bag for their efforts.

Are you ready to take the quiz yourself? Then grab a pen and paper and get comfortable!

TAKE THE LEX LIVE PUB QUIZ!

Jot down your answers as you scroll through the quiz. You’ll find the answers at the end. Good luck!

Round 1:

1) When is Lex’s birthday?

2) What was Lex’s biggest score on Twitch and how much did he cash for?

3) Everyone knows him as Lex, but what is his real first name?

4) What was Lex’s longest stream (in hours)?

5) What date did Croaks become mod?

6) When was Lex’s first stream?

7) How many years has Lex been part of Team PokerStars?

8) How many countries has Lex streamed from, not counting IRL?

9) How many subs did Lex peak at?

10) What’s Lex’s daily sub record?

Round 2:

1) Lex is part of Team liquid, what game did he play?

2) Who was Lex’s first sub?

3) What’s Lex’s Final Table song (Artist + title)?

4) Lex doesn’t smoke weed these days. What’s the only thing he smokes?

5) How many ball fail clips are there?

6) Which member of Team PokerStars (past or present) did Lex teach poker to?

7) What did Lex do for 1,000 subs?

8) What is Lex’s biggest online score apart from Twitch?

9) How many labels does Lex have?

10) What is Lex’s favourite movie?

Round 3:

1) What’s Lex’s fiancee’s first name?

2) How old is Lex?

3) What is Lex’s favourite beer?

4) What kind of car does Lex drive (colour + brand)?

5) Which PokerStars tournament was called the “Lex Veldhuis Open”?

6) Which Dutch football player do people say Lex looks similar to?

7) Which Twitch Streamer does Lex watch the most?

8) What is Lex’s favourite Dota Hero?

9) What’s the correct amount of big blinds to raise to with A8 offsuit?

10) What game does Ruthann really want Lex to play, but secretly he’ll never finish?

Round 4:

1) Who is the fastest Mod on Twitch?

2) Who is Lex’s personal poker coach?

3) How many steps does Lex walk a day on his treadmill?

4) Who is better at Dota, Spraggy or Lex?

5) What was Eklusis’s name on Twitch before Eklusis?

6) In what city did Lex propose to Myrthe?

7) What’s the best sauce on steak?

8) What’s Lex’s favourite SNES game?

9) What’s the most kills Lex has got in a win on H1z1 on stream?

10) What’s the buy-in of the first tournament Lex ever won on stream?

Round 5:

1) Does extemp_re have an O or 0 in his name?

2) How many 6’s are in “mpadam”‘s Twitch name: 2 or 3?

3) Who edits Lex’s YouTube videos?

4) What did Lex do for reaching 500 subs the first time?

5) The faster you run from me…?

6) What Mini Game did Lex use to play on breaks?

7) What tournament did Lex call the “daily donation” when he was playing in Canada?

8) How many seconds are on the countdown in the last scene of Lex’s intro scene?

9) What’s Lex’s biggest live tournament score?

10) What hand did Lex call Doyle with on High Stakes Poker?

Round 6:

1) What’s Lex’s lowest tier donation song?

2) What’s the most Final Table’s Lex has ever got in one stream?

3) What is Lex’s gamer tag (get the spelling right!)?

4) Which three trolls from Lex’s viewers did a birthday video for him in 2017?

5) Who’s the bodybuilder in the motivation videos Lex used to watch?

6) What scares Lex the most?

7) Who is Lex’s favourite player on the triton episodes?

8) Name three players that Lex has tagged as “legend” on PokerStars?

9) What’s the first video on lex’s Youtube, that is NOT a guitar hero gameplay?

10) What was the most amount of bounties Lex has won while playing the $7.50BB all in every hand?

ANSWERS

Round 1:

1) Dec 29th

2) $1050 Thursday Thrill for $56k

3) Alexander

4) 25 hours

5) Dec 24th

6) Feb 29,2016

7) 10 years

8) 4

9) 8,007

10) 1,327

Round 2:

1) Starcraft 2

2) Delloor

3) Sway – Still Speedin’

4) FOOLS

5) 18

6) Fatima Moreira de Melo

7) Blow Up Week

8) 3rd in the Sunday Million for $77K

9) 13

10) American Beauty

Round 3:

1) Myrthe

2) 35

3) Hertog Jan

4) Matte Black BMW

5) $22 PLO Turbo

6) Robin van Persie

7) Gorgc

8) Shadow Fiend

9) Four

10) Hollow Knight

Round 4:

1) RuthAnnK

2) bencb

3) 10,000

4) Lex

5) Wheresmyelephant

6) Prague

7) Mayonnaise

8) Secret of Mana

9) 12

10) Big $16.50

Round 5:

1) It’s a 0 (zero)

2) Three

3) extemp0re

4) 24-hour stream

5) The faster you fall

6) Slither

7) $215 Bounty Builder

8) Three

9) $277K

10) 9♠2♠

Round 6:

1) Rockstar

2) Six

3) RaSZi

4) itskiwishaun, croaks, jobtrekpop

5) CT Fletcher

6) Clowns

7) Tan Xuan

8) C. Darwin2, girafganger7, etxnl01, €urop€an, Isildur1, poker@luffyD

9) The ElkY fight

10) Seven

How did you get on?

Tweet your results to us at @PokerStarsBlog, and make sure you tag @RaSZi too!

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

Watch a live-streamed sit and go featuring Lex, Spraggy, Fintan, Felix, and four members of the Twitch community. After that there will be Main Event coverage.

Yesterday we told you about the Lex Live Pub Quiz. It was a special event for everyone who attended.

One of the most fun stream-related experiences I’ve had so far. Check out the video to catch the feel of the live event. 👀.

Winners of the pub quiz play a sng for €6500 euro combined live on my channel at Noon CET https://t.co/UhGNFWBnPI

— LexVeldhuis (@RaSZi) March 30, 2019

The four winners of the quiz will now be playing a tag team sit and go (each of them paired with a PokerStars ambassador). There’s €3,000 for the winner.

The quiz winners were:

1st – Sanne Bombeek (Antim00n)

2nd – Milko van Winden (Milkovw)

Tied 3rd Tjenno Eskes (TjennoE)

Tied 3rd – Ben Martin (TheBenMartin98)

MORE FROM LEX LIVE:

TAKE THE PUB QUIZ | DAY 2 COVERAGE | FU FRIDAY FLIP | DAY 1C RECAP | CROAKS INTERVIEW | PARTY TIME VIDEO | DAY 1B RECAP | MEET THE QUALIFIERS | WATCH VIDEO FROM DAY 1A

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.

With both the Main Event and High Roller down to the one or two tables, we caught up with the man of the week, Lex Veldhuis, to gauge his reaction on what’s been an incredible festival.

That’s almost it, folks. Sadly, the first ever Lex Live festival is almost over (although not quite, as we’re still yet to discover who will become our Main Event champion).

We’ve had a blast getting to meet everyone from Lex Veldhuis’s Twitch community, playing some poker (how fun was that FU Friday Flip event?), and giving you a sense of what this event has been like.

But how does Veldhuis feel about everything? Over one last beer (OK, that’s a lie!) we sat down for a chat. Here’s what he had to say.

PokerStars Blog: Hey Lex. With everything starting to wind down, what has the Lex Live experience been like for you?

Lex Veldhuis: The crazy thing is, tomorrow when it’s done, everybody is going to head home and think: ‘Whoa, what the fucking hell happened last week?’. It’s been such a storm. There are still so many people hanging out, there’s still so much social interaction going on. Right now, in my head, it’s still not even close to finishing.

It sounds like you’re happy with everything?

I couldn’t be happier with everything. All of the tournaments were massive, not just the Main Event. The High Roller had a lot of people. There were lines and lines of people for the bounty tournament. I believe there were 180 people on the waiting list. Absolutely incredible.

What do you think it’s going to be like on your streams from now on?

I’m really excited to see what it’s going to be like on the channel and in the Discord. How is this going to progress? The deep connection that people have made, how is this going to play out on the channel? I think it’s going to be even more awesome and interactive. I would have said intimate, but intimate makes it sound like a small group. But lots of people showed up and everyone has felt included. It’s been a wild ride. It hasn’t really set in yet.

Has anything surprised you?

The Main Event numbers, for sure. I thought that was pretty incredible. It’s weird because the community has been exactly the way I hoped it would be. Everyone has been so insanely social and open. I thought there would be much more ice-breaking going on, y’know? Everybody settling in, some people skirting on the edges then joining on the second day etc. But everyone showed up for a beer and a chat. I was actually surprised by how comfortable everyone was with each other immediately.

What’s the feedback been like from the community members who couldn’t be here?

I think the way PokerStars Blog has been covering the event, people have really been able to get a feel for the way Lex Live has been. I think a lot of people in the Discord who couldn’t come will definitely be there next time. It’s just a massive stepping stone. It’s crazy to think that this was the first one when you look at the stuff we’ve done and how many people were here.

Is it safe to assume that this is going to be the first of many Lex Live festivals?

Yeah, it’s always dangerous to say, but I think I can say it’s almost 100 per cent sure that we’re going to do it again.

As for destinations, I have no clue. I usually like long-lasting working relationships, and to me, it’s going to come down to the same things: what’s the infrastructure like in the casino? How easy is it for people to get to travel-wise? etc. I’m going to listen to a lot of feedback from community members over the next few weeks, put that all in a document, and see what kind of improvements we can make.

What I’ve really loved about hosting it at the Grand Casino de Namur is the hang-out area right next to the poker area. We have a bar, a lounge, and a big poker area. It’s pretty cheap too! Everybody is coming here on a budget and putting money aside to get here, so all of that stuff will be taken into account. I think this venue provides some really good stuff for us, and they’ve done a really great job.

Are you looking forward to getting back on stream?

Yeah for sure. Thursday and Friday I’ll be back on stream. I’ll be doing some commentary on a high stakes cash game also for the first time. And then after that, it’ll be Sunday streaming. I can’t wait for the Sunday stream. It’s going to be Sunday tournaments all day, I’ll get to catch up with everybody, and from there it’s going to be the road towards the Spring Championship of Online Poker.

Do you know anyone still in the Main Event or the High Roller?

I don’t think so. Spraggy just busted the High Roller in 10th, which is nice, y’know? He’s had a few big cashes lately and we don’t want him to…he’s just the most annoying winner ever! He always needs to let everyone know!

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.