From many people’s perspective, Lex ‘RaSzi’ Velhuis is the base stereotype of the new generation of poker player: a high stakes, risk taking online hotshot with a gaming background and a burning ambition to take the poker world by storm. Like many his age, he’s fearless, aggressive, and treats money as little more than a useful tool in living life to the max.
It is likely for this reason that he was invited to play on High Stakes Poker, a show which brought his name to the masses and elevated him to a level of stardom that he hadn’t previously experienced. Many have won more, but Lex’s entertaining and unpredictable style made him the perfect candidate. On the back of this appearance, Lex moved on to the PokerStars.com Big Game, and is destined to become a regular of the small screen.
Hailing from Rotterdam, Holland, Veldhuis is considered to be one the ‘nice guys of poker’, always smiling and enjoying the game, win or lose, and is currently dating fellow poker player Evelyn Ng. As both were participating in this year’s WSOP Main Event, I decided to interrupt his progress during one of the scheduled breaks to discuss his online swings, friendship with ElkY, goals for the future and much, much more.
Snoopy: How’s your online game at the moment?
Lex Veldhuis: I’m actually playing a lot of PLO online, which is going really well. I’m still learning the game, so it’s refreshing to play online at the moment. Online got a little too robotic at certain points, but I’m really enjoying it now. I play a little less during the World Series, but when the Main Event is over, I will get back on the grind again.
Snoopy: You’ve experienced some big swings. How does that affect you emotionally?
LV: Emotionally, I don’t like it when I start doubting my game. That’s when I have emotional swings and I feel really bad, but although I have big swings, they don’t correlate to my emotions. Obviously, no ones like it when they lose.
Snoopy: How would you describe your attitude towards money?
LV: I spend a lot of money on stuff; I don’t really watch my money and I enjoy it right after I make it pretty much. I don’t think I’d be able to play my game if I didn’t think that way. I think it helps my game in a certain way because I have a disregard for money, otherwise I would never have played High Stakes Poker. Sometimes it would be better to be a little more careful, but I’m young and I have no responsibilities, so it doesn’t matter to me.
Snoopy: I understand you were a StarCraft player like ElkY. Does playing strategy games help with poker?
LV: I think StarCraft teaches you in the same way that chess teaches some poker players. I learned to think quickly and more strategically by playing StarCraft, and also how to multitask, which is really important when I multi-table online. For me, it’s mostly about thinking and handling speed, which then transfers over to online poker. I was nowhere near as good as ElkY, but I played it and I knew him through the game, and he was one of the people who got me into poker.
Snoopy: Do these skills come naturally to you?
LV: I think it’s mostly just conditioning because, for example, I’ve been playing Zelda since I was five, and it goes from there. If you play these crazy kind of games when you’re young, then you’re going to develop something in that department, which will naturally flow into another game. Luckily, I ended up playing a game that I can make money from.
Snoopy: How has your online game developed recently?
LV: In the last couple of months, my game has completely changed, and I think I improved something like 200 percent. I was really stuck into a certain way of playing that I wasn’t happy with and, through some trends, I rethought my whole No Limit game which motivated me to learn new games, and now I know how fun it is to play poker when you’re learning. I’m as confident as I can be in my game at the moment and it’s just really good to be playing poker that way again.
Snoopy: Do you have any weaknesses you’re looking to improve on?
LV: I think one of my biggest weaknesses right now is knowing when I should or should not play. Sometimes I really don’t feel like playing No Limit Hold’em cash and I do it anyway, whereas my EV might be higher in a game I hardly play. I guess that’s my biggest weakness.
Sometimes I don’t play enough because for the last five years I think I’ve played too much, and that annoys me a little. But now I’m playing PLO, it’s going a lot better again.
Snoopy: Have you ever reached a point where you feel you’re playing too much and starting to hate the lifestyle like Shaun Deeb and Timex?
LV: You can play too much poker but there are so many different varieties of poker to choose from. If I’m sick of online, I’ll go play live. If I’m sick of live cash games, I’ll go play tournaments. There’s always a form of poker that’s interesting. I think it’s a really stagnating process if you keep quitting and starting again as you’re never fully into it, and I think it’s important to just go for it if that’s what you want to do. I’m not going to have some setback demotivate me; I’ll just try something that can motivate me again.
Snoopy: I hear you’ve been playing more mixed games...
LV: I started this year where I registered for some WSOP events that I’d never played before and I thought it was so much fun, so it was a nice change for my WSOP. I’m really getting into that right now.
Snoopy: How did High Stakes Poker come about and what were your thoughts heading in?
LV: Actually, I went and talked to Daniel Negreanu during an EPT. I mentioned that I would love to play high stakes cash games and he said High Stakes Poker might have a slot and then, two weeks before it started, he called me, and he’d shown them WSOP footage and they liked it, so they gave me a shot.
Snoopy: What was your main purpose for playing?
LV: Like everything, to increase your profile. Also, because it’s fun, it’s the highest level of televised cash game, all that kinda stuff. And also because it’s value. Some of those games are really, really good.
Snoopy: Is there anyone in particular who you thought was out of their depth and maybe a soft spot?
LV: Well, Phil Hellmuth was supposed to play on my day, but he cancelled and I got Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl, who are a lot tougher. Hellmuth is definitely the worst, so you want to look for the tournament players that are with big sites and play those games.
Snoopy: Did you have any particular strategies heading in?
LV: I didn’t find out about my line-up until two days before. I heard that I was playing with the big three: Ivey, Patrik and durrrr, which is a little less good than Hellmuth, but still OK, I mean, if there are a few little soft spots in the game then it doesn’t matter.
A lot of people just avoid the top names, meaning the big pots are normally played out between them. I wasn’t going to do any real crazy stuff against them, I just wanted to pick a couple of spots after playing tight. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but overall it’s tough playing against them. Ivey and durrrr, they’re really annoying to play against. I was across the table from Ivey, so I hardly played any hands with him, but durrrr had position on me. Thankfully, we didn’t tangle that much.
Snoopy: How about the Big Game?
LV: We recorded it in May, so it’s going to be on next week, I think. I played with the qualifier [The Loose Cannon], Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver and Todd Brusnon. There are going to be more recordings in August, and I’ll definitely be there as well, but I don’t know anything about those line-ups yet.
Snoopy: How did the Loose Cannon affect the dynamics of the game?
LV: It’s pretty crazy actually, I mean, everybody knows he’s freerolling, and everybody knows he has to try to win, so you have to figure out when he’s going to switch to playing crazy or if he’s going to at all. I think it’s a really cool concept considering it’s also six-handed, so players can make more action. It’s really what TV poker needed I think.
Snoopy: Are you fussed about being famous or becoming a poker ‘celebrity’?
LV: I really like the media side of poker and those games are fun, and I definitely think I’m ahead of those games, so it works both ways for me. If it bothered me, then I probably wouldn’t play.
Snoopy: Is it a benefit to have a girlfriend who knows about and plays poker?
LV: We definitely know each other’s weaknesses and we can compliment each other really well in certain situations. She’s a little more tight with some stuff with me, and that has a great influence on me. She’s just a bit smarter and more responsible. She pulls me more into the middle when things get out of hand, stuff I did, swings. It’s definitely good, when you know how someone feels and what they want to hear, I like that. Otherwise you might alienate a little from each other if one person has no idea what’s going through the other person’s head.
Snoopy: How’s Vegas going for you this year?
LV: This is my third WSOP, but it’s going really bad. I’ve played 22 tournaments, but cashed only once. I keep making big volume though because I’m really confident in the way I’m playing. I think the stuff I’m doing is right, so it’s just variance.
Snoopy: What are your views on how they organise the World Series?
LV: I think it’s getting better and better. I would really love to see the 10-handed go, that’s just ridiculous. You get dealer troubles when it’s 10-handed. I also think they should plan the big events further away from each other. The $10K PLO is the day after the $25K short-handed which is stupid as it’s the same players. Other than that, there’s a lot of stuff that’s being done well this year. I like the two big rooms, instead of, like, four small ones. So there’s a lot of positives stuff too.
Snoopy: What are your plans for the next 12 months?
LV: I want to play a lot of TV cash games and try to be competent at a high level in mixed games and become profitable in all the $10,000 mixed games in next year’s WSOP.
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Phil Ivey
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John Juanda
Tom Dwan
Ian Frazer
Annette Obrestad
James Akenhead
Richard Ashby
Sammy George
Roland De Wolfe
Jeff Lisandro
Freddy Deeb
Barry Greenstein
Phil Laak
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Chris Moorman