Hand Reviews — Poker Streamer Lex Veldhuis

Hand #1 – New Year’s $1050 NLHE PKO

Lex loves playing at the highest stakes online and in our first review – which you can see here, we pick up the action post flop with Lex out of position against the pre-flop raiser – there is 5.25 BB in the middle, and both players are over 60 BB with Lex’s stack slightly larger. 

He called the raise with Nine-Five – odd considering he has not had an office job ever – and the flop comes A 5 5 with two clubs. Both check – but the 8 on the turn prompts a bet of 3 BB from Lex. The original raiser bumps it up to 14 BB – almost a 2 times pot bet – to which Lex calls.  The river is a dream 9 – Lex’s boat fills up and he mulls over a decision before checking. His opponent shoves 51.4 BB into a pot of 33.3 BB, looking to double up and Lex snap calls.  The shocking part – his opponent’s hand:

Lex picks up $125 for the call but this hand is fascinating for many reasons:

• His opponent raised pre-flop with K 4 under the gun – not exactly the type of hand you would see an under-the-gun player raise in a $1050 tournament.
• Lex defended his big blind with 5 9 off-suit – again, not exactly the type of hand you would expect a big blind to call with against an under-the-gun raiser.
• His opponent turned his hand into a bluff realizing that the flop hit his range more than Lex’s and decided to go with it – even though the flop and turn completed a straight and flush and he was the shorter stack.

In a PKO you always must be aware of stack sizes and who will be at risk in a hand, and the fact that Lex knew he was not at risk and then proceeded to flop trips committed himself to the pot, regardless of how the action went. In this case, it worked out perfectly, but this would not have been an automatic call on the turn in a non-PKO – there was not as much incentive to call knowing there was not $125 at stake for him. But – PKO’s change that dynamic when it comes to calling for a bounty.

Hand #2 – $215 Stackosaurus

Lex is UTG+1 in this hand from another PKO tournament that we featured recently here – with 10 8 and raises it up. He gets called by the high-jack with three times his stack, and the two go to an 8 7 6 flop with two diamonds and checks. 

His opponent bets 2.2 BB and Lex continues to a 4 flop.  Lex again checks and the other player tanks for a bit but then fires 7 BB into an 11 BB pot and again Lex calls. The [K] on the river puts Lex’s SPR (Stack to Pot Ratio) at 0.64. But Lex opts for the check, as does his opponent who tables the winning hand.

The surprising part of this hand is how Lex’s opponent played it – given Lex’s persona of an ultra aggressive player, this board provided an opportunity to bluff with such connected & suited cards but Lex is a smart player and knew that his stack being as small as it was when compared to his opponent, knew that he would be called by a lot of hands. His opponent being as passive with his betting had an opportunity to go for Lex’s bounty and didn’t pull the trigger – a note that Lex has surely made a note of for future hands. 

Hand #3 – $530 Bounty

In this hand Lex sits with a stack just under his opponent who is immediately to his right. 

The hand picks up post flop with Lex holding J 10 on the button and three-betting his opponent pre-flop and getting called. The flop is a dream 10 7 4 , two heart board for Lex who gets checked the action. The pot sits with 16.6 BB and Lex fires 5.46 BB into the middle, which his opponent says play on.

The turn comes the 4 – and Lex slows down, opting to check after his opponent did the same. The river is the 6 , and his opponent shoves 36.5 BB into a 44.6 BB pot. Lex puts his bounty on the line and is rewarded.

So why did we pick this hand?  When you see both hands you understand more why his opponent played it the way he did, but let us focus on several things here:

• Both players had top pair post flop against a board that is not the most favourable to a three-bet and call pre-flop with the stack sizes that both players had
• His opponent – Stonedream – played this hand quite odd considering he called a three-bet out of position and had top pair to the river with a bad kicker and all the draws in play on the flop.  He did not really do much to protect his hand at any point, electing to check the flop and turn.  The shove on the river looks like over kill but consider that both player’s stacks were less than the size of the pot, making it difficult to push a bluff through.

So, what was Stonedream’s goal of shoving the river? 

• If Lex was on the draw, he’s not getting called.
• If Lex had two over cards, he’s not getting called because Lex’s bounty was on the line.  If it was the other way around, I can see Lex hero calling for a bounty.
• If Lex had a pair less than ten, is he really going to risk elimination in this spot?  More than likely he might be able to put his opponent on a missed draw and trying to push him out without risking his bounty – but is Lex going to have a lot of hands that he’ll three-bet with pre?

It seems as if Stonedream fixated on the possibility of winning a bounty with a hand that might not be calling a three-bet pre-flop out of position and throwing Lex off, but at the end of the day his shove is probably only getting called by a better hand – now putting himself in the horrible position of having less than one big blind left.  I wonder how much of a feeding frenzy the next hand was going to be.

Hand #4 – $530 Bounty

In yet another PKO (which you can watch as part of our online poker highlight package on YouTube – this one the $530 Bounty, we find Lex in the top 15 out of over 125 players currently with everyone holding the minimum bounty of $125. 

Our opponent, named I sense Blood, clearly has to this point as he is a very short stack beginning with less than 25 BB.  Lex with an above average stack of 140 BB sits in the high jack with A 2 and raises with it, isolating the short stack in the big blind.

The flop misses Lex completely, but that doesn’t stop Lex from C-betting roughly 6 BB into the pot and getting called. The turn brings Lex a ton of outs and decides to put his opponent all in with a 12.1 BB bet.I sense blood may have sensed his own blood but could not pass up the chance to double up with second pair and called, only to see a horrible river ruin his day.

This hand really puts into perspective how ranges can change in a PKO. I sense blood realizes that Lex is going to be going after his $125 bounty without question given the stack sizes, and being an uber-aggressive player to start, expects Lex to be pushing him all in with a wider range of hands than one would typically expect. Unfortunately for I Smell Blood, had Lex pushed him all in on the river, I’d expect him to get away from the hand, but on the turn, he most likely felt that he was ahead and, in a position, to double up. Lex for his efforts took a flop that he missed totally and kept the pressure on, betting knowing that the chips were going to be going in – and when the river gave him hope, he took it.

Lesson here – short stacks need to know they are going to have their all-ins called wider than normal and will use that against aggressive players. Just make sure you say a prayer to the poker gods before the river card gets dealt.

Hand #5 – Fast $82

Our final hand comes from a Fast $82 tournament that Lex played recently – you can catch this one in our video here – and one that Lex may not have been at his best.

We find the action pre-flop with Lex in the big blind and a healthy 60.4 BB stack, while his opponent in this hand, OviPokerKid – sits with just 26.4 BB in UTG+1. Ovi min raises and Lex elects to just call. The flop isn’t the best for Ovi – J 6 6 and Lex and Ovi both check.

The turn is a very interesting 10 , giving Lex bottom two pairs and Ovi decides to bump the pot up with a 2.84 BB bet – which Lex calls rather quickly. With a pot now at 10.9 BB and Ovi’s stack at 21.4 BB – giving him a SPR just under 2, we see Lex again happy to check-call Ovi’s 7.5 BB. Lex was not happy once the cards were turned over.

It can be hard to critique a poker player’s play like Lex in any hand given how experienced and successful he is, but being as passive as he was in this hand it’s hard to wonder why he didn’t attempt to get more intel on his opponent’s hand – especially with how Ovi played this.

If you are playing a PKO and have a stack the size of Ovi’s, flopping a monster like a full house, your thought process needs to automatically turn to – How can I double up?  Against an aggressive player like Lex, one would think that if Lex had caught any piece of this flop, there is a good chance that you’re going to double up – so why didn’t he?

His river bet should have sent red flags up in Lex’s mind – someone with only 20 BB back against someone with three times their stack, in a PKO, is betting only 7.5 BB?  If Ovi thought Lex would call, why isn’t all of it going in?  More than likely, he wanted to be called – so by not shoving he’s giving Lex a better price – fair, but in a straight poker tournament this play makes more sense.  The incentive to win one’s bounty immediately should expand the range Lex is willing to call – and knowing that Lex had second pair + a club to block flushes and a nine to block straights, Lex probably would have called off if Ovi shoved.

The pot dynamics of a PKO tournament change when the bounties get involved and players that are not experienced enough playing PKO’s need to understand how this changes things and adapt how they approach a hand when they are the target, and when they are targeting someone else.  Ovi missed an opportunity here, but Lex’s passive play might have saved Ovi’s tournament in this hand.

Lex Veldhuis is one of the most entertaining poker streamers online today – a combination of his aggressive and exciting play, coupled with him playing some of the biggest buy-in tournaments daily will always draw a crowd to his stream.  Given that Lex has been in the game for two decades, he fully understands what it takes to be a professional poker player, and a professional streamer and we hope that Lex’s success will continue for decades to come!