Originally hailing from The Netherlands, Veldhuis first cut his teeth in competitive gaming as an esports player. The legend goes that a conversation with a fellow StarCraft player — who turned out to be future high-stakes pro Bernard ‘ElkY’ Grospellier — led to him making his first deposit at an online poker site and falling in love with the game.
A long partnership with PokerStars then followed, during which Veldhuis transitioned from playing a mix of online and live games — including appearances on early episodes of High Stakes Poker with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan (see below) — to an online specialist with a particular talent for streaming and growing a community.
A year of change ends with a new partnership
As he explained in our in-depth interview a couple of months ago, 2026 saw Veldhuis make several significant changes in his life, walking away from his longtime partnership with PokerStars and relocating his family from The Netherlands to Costa Rica.
From his new home in Central America, Veldhuis has been continuing to stream his online action to his army of fans. Highlights have included a first title at GGPoker, won in the $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event five months ago for $68K.
Veldhuis hinted at a desire to play more live poker in our recent interview.
After 17 years of working with PokerStars, Veldhuis was adamant that he would not seek out a new ambassadorial role for the sake of it.
He’s obviously seen something in GGPoker that he clicks with.
“Over the last year I’ve played exclusively on GG and have been genuinely impressed by the software and the size of the tournaments,” he says. “It has completely invigorated my enjoyment of poker and grinding again. Every time I’ve spoken with the GGPoker team I've been intrigued by their vision and their drive to innovate. It made me realize I wanted to be part of this process.”
Perfect timing for WSOP Paradise?
Veldhuis’ new deal with GGPoker raises the tantalising prospect of seeing him back in action at the live tables, with the WSOP Paradise series just a month away and taking place (relatively) close to his Costa Rican base.
Veldhuis has held regular live community meet-ups under the banner of 'Lex Live'.
With GGPoker and the WSOP sharing ownership, it’s a slam dunk that we’ll see many big names bearing the GG patch at the latter’s annual December series. Daniel Negreanu and Michael Mizrachi are two of the most popular players in the world, as well as GGPoker reps, and we’d be stunned if they weren’t involved in some of WSOP Paradise’s biggest pots, events and moments when the series returns at the Baha Mar Resort from December 2-17.
Will Veldhuis be joining them? As many of his viewers will likely tell you, he’s one of the most charismatic and engaging players in the modern game. Whether playing live or online, he’s always incredibly watchable; here’s hoping he takes the trip to The Bahamas to get back on the hunt for his first WSOP bracelet.
Additional images courtesy of Twitchmetrics.net/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.