I teased in yesterday’s blog about starting my trip attending a poker community event in London called Lex Live 3.
Well, while my friends in the poker world probably know all about it, let me explain it all to my non poker readers.
Me and Poker
Now, I’m no poker guru or pro or anything like that but I have recreationally played poker for the last 15 years or so. My friends and I have played a small nickel and quarter game pretty much every week for years now. We play mostly for fun and for pride. If you had a good session, you’re up $5 and if you had a bad run of cards you’re down $5.
I’ve also had a Pokerstars online account for awhile, sporadically playing cheap buy-in tournaments whenever I felt the poker itch.
There was also a time when I was a regular at the poker tables at my local casino but I haven’t played live in a couple of years. The players knew me. The dealers knew me. I won. I lost. But, overall, I was always ahead.
Twitch
No, I’m not talking about an involuntary movement. Twitch is an online gaming platform where people like you and me live stream themselves playing video games. You know that Ninja guy everyone talks about? The one who plays Fortnite? Yeah, well, that’s where he plays (well, played – he’s moved on, but that’s another story….)
Anyway, a couple of years ago, I discovered Twitch. I’m not a big video game player but, for whatever reason, I found myself in the world of Twitch.
Now, along with all the different video game categories, there was this little niche category of poker.
Huh! Poker! I know that game! So, I started watching. And watching. And watching.
Lex Veldhuis
Back in the day, I used to watch poker on TV all the time. World Series of Poker, The Big Game, High Stakes Poker, and all the rest of them.
The shows showcased alot of different players and they became household names. Anyway, one of those players was this crazy aggressive dutch player by the name of Lex Veldhuis.
Well, wouldn’t you know it! At the very top of the twitch poker directory with the most viewers was Lex.
So, I tuned it and I liked what I saw. Here was this charismatic guy playing poker in front of 1000+ people explaining his play as he went along. I was learning things about poker that I had never thought about and my eyes were opened.
The Community
For those who don’t know about Twitch, there’s a whole community that revolves around it. Each channel has loyal followers who chat with the streamer and each other while the stream is live.
Now, most of the channels have alot of trolls and toxic chat but Lex’s community is amazingly free of all that toxicity. It’s part because of Lex, part because of the moderators but mostly because the people in the community are actually high quality people. The community is a mix of people new to the game of poker along with poker players who play regularly. As for me, I’m probably right in the middle of that pack.
Lex Live
About a year ago, Lex and Pokerstars created a community event called Lex Live. The first installment took place at the Grand Casino de Namur in Namur, Belgium and, while I couldn’t attend, it definitely left its’ mark.
There were poker tournaments, fun events and drinking. Alot of drinking. Like, alot!
Anyways, the event was a success and before you knew it, it was time for Lex Live 2 which took place last fall at Aspers Casino in London.
I came close, very close, to attending LL2 but the timing just wasn’t right for me as my plan was to attach a European trip to the event and I just didn’t have time to plan and organize it all.
Which brings us to Lex Live 3…
In just over a month, from April 17-26, dozens of members from Lex’s community will descend on London to attend the 10 day event.
I will be one of them.
The event was announced a couple of months ago which gave me ample enough time for me to plan out an epic Balkan trip which I’ll embark on the day after the event finishes.
For 10 days I’ll meet new friends, play some poker, drink some drinks and have alot of fun.
I can’t wait!
