Veldhuis Gunning for 2021 WCOOP Title and Elusive Six-Figure Score
Team PokerStars' Lex Veldhuis has been a professional poker player for 16 years. It is fair to say he has withstood the test of time. The popular Dutchman, known for his loose-aggressive style, has embraced the changes thrown at him by poker, including creating one of the most popular poker-related Twitch streams in the world.
It has been an incredible summer for Veldhuis, not least because of a major change in his everyday life; Veldhuis tied the knot and is now a married man. How is married life treating Veldhuis?
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Veldhuis The Married Man
The biggest change in Veldhuis' life is his marriage to wife Myrthe. He says that married life is treating him fantastiaclly, especially after spending time with both his wife and five-month-old son.
"It's just been the three of us," Veldhuis told PokerNews. "We had a lovely honeymoon that was two and a half weeks of great France sunshine and spending time together with the family which was great."
However, all eyes of the poker world are now on the World Championship of Online Poker this month on PokerStars, including Veldhuis. As usual, he will be streaming all of the action over on his Twitch channel in front of nearly 280,000 followers, and he says that he couldn't wait to get back to the grind.
"When we were away on trips, or doing something really fun, whenever I told [my wife] that I really miss streaming or that I can’t wait to start again she mistakenly took that for the fact that I would rather be streaming! I love downtime and sometimes I really don’t want to stream and feel like I need a break, but then when I’m actually on a break, the passion for streaming comes back so quickly, even after a long session."
Back Streaming In Time For the 2021 WCOOP
Veldhuis jumped straight back into the Twitch hot seat just in time for the beginning of WCOOP, and he says that everything soon came back to him, despite his extended absence.
"I really felt that my first stream back was good. It’s weird when you turn your PC on and there have been some Windows updates and all of a sudden your stream doesn’t work, which is always a bit stressful, but luckily I have some really good people I work with that helped me. Shout out to Robin.
"We were troubleshooting for a couple of hours but then after that, we got the show on the road. Normally I can quickly tell what my energy levels are like, especially upon the first stream, but I definitely felt energetic. "
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What Can Veldhuis' Fans Expect From His WCOOP Streams?
The WCOOP is the festival for online poker tournament grinders. There are hundreds of events, each with massive guaranteed prize pools. It is the perfect time for a streamer to log plenty of broadcasting hours, which is exactly what Veldhuis is doing throughout WCOOP. What should we expect from his WCOOP streams?
This time I’m going to go super hard and I’ll be grinding six days a week most weeks
"It’s going to be the same as all my previous COOPs pretty uch. This time I’m going to go super hard and I’ll be grinding six days a week most weeks. There are also days off on Friday which is fantastic. It’ll kind of be like the old-school WCOOP grind. We’re also going to go really big on adventures.
"We always do this COOP adventure where my moderators give me tasks and all that kind of stuff. It’s some really fun stuff which is a surprise for me and keeps the audience entertained as well. Sometimes even during my bad poker days, opening these tasks turns the mood around and keeps the stream so fun. I can’t wait for that, there’s a lot of giveaways, a lot of action there, and hopefully some entertaining stuff for people."
Veldhuis Is No Stranger To Success, Even When Streaming
The Dutch superstar is no stranger to WCOOP success, having walked away with a $91,000 score for a runner-up finish in a 2019 event. Obviously, he is looking forward to going deep in a 2021 WCOOP event and experiencing the feeling only poker gives.
"Wow, it’s really hard to explain what it feels like to go deep in such a big tournament series. I mean, even on a regular Sunday it’s insane, but for COOP, more viewers show up because people really don’t want to miss that kind of stuff.
"I’ve been fortunate to have a few deep runs in COOP in the last few rounds, but my word, it feels like you’re in a stadium full of people. At a certain point, that’s kind of what it is as well. It’s just really crazy. You stream for those moments, you really do. In terms of poker results, you really want to have top-three finishes or win a tournament to have that insane absolution of the end. But in a stream, even if you’re in the last seven or eight and have an insane stream with 20-30,000 watching, it can already make you feel like you’ve won the Champions League!
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"So, going deep is going to mean a lot to me. Playing a COOP and playing the High Rollers can be hard, and streaming it can be tiring, but it’s a sacrifice I happily make. I’m not complaining about it, but it’s nice to go through energetically and motivated. The buzz and the adrenaline of a deep run really keeps you going."
Chasing a Six-Figure Score and an Elusive WCOOP Title
In the run-up to the WCOOP, Veldhuis helped himself to a $97,000 score, while streaming, of course, in the Blowout Series. Does Veldhuis see himself getting his hands on a six-figure score before the curtain comes down on the WCOOP's action?
"That’s the goal now. I’ve never won a COOP so yeah. I won a Stadium Series tournament, my biggest score was in the Blowout Series, but I’ve never won a COOP. But I’ve come close! A title would be great, a six-figure score would be even better of course because that would be my record. I’ve never had a six-figure score online so that would be really cool.
"But that kind of stuff is out of your hands. It’s bound to happen. I’m going to keep playing high rollers and studying a lot, I’m playing really well, my life is at a great balance, and I’m super happy, so all the parameters are there. I’m putting a lot of hard work in, so results are going to come and they’ve been coming, and hopefully, they’re going to get bigger and bigger. That would be the plan."
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WCOOP Tips From an Online Legend
It would have been criminal not to ask Veldhuis for some WCOOP tips before he got back to his Twitch and tournament grind. If Veldhuis could give WCOOP champion wannabes three tips, what would they be?
- Don't get FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): "When you normally pay $30 tournaments, don’t look at tournaments that are $200/$300 or have the feeling you should play those all the time. Try to play satellites, don’t have the feeling like you need to play the higher buy-in tournaments."
- Take it Easy: "It’s very important to really think about the long run. Don’t be afraid to take off days. It’s better to take a day off and miss a few tournaments than to continue and exhaust it, so really take care of that. Balance is really important as well, don’t burn the candle at both ends."
- Have fun: "Go through your notes and do a warm-up, that always helps to get you in the right mindset."
Find out if Veldhuis does secure that elusive WCOOP title and the six-figure score he has his sights on by following all the 2021 WCOOP action right here at PokerNews.
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
