The Scoop -- Lex Veldhuis

Lex Veldhuis has proven himself to be a talented online and live player; he has a huge amount of experience in multitabling [playing several tables simultaneously] cash games online, as well as a final-table finish in the $40,000 World Series of Poker anniversary event in 2009. His bold play in the 2009 WSOP main event, and more recently in the sixth season of High Stakes Poker, created a lot of buzz in the poker world. Veldhuis stopped by The Scoop studio to discuss some of the most interesting hands from High Stakes Poker, including one that he played against Phil Ivey.

Diego Cordovez: The one thing that is interesting about High Stakes Poker is that based on the hands that were shown that you were featured in, your image as this very loose maniacal three-bettor has been reinforced, even if you were doing it only 3 percent or 4 percent of the time.

Adam Schoenfeld: And three barrels, as well.

DC: Yeah. The memorable hands are the hand against Andrew Robl and the hand against Phil Ivey, where you put in a three-bet and he came back over the top. What was going on in that hand?

Lex Veldhuis: We’re playing $400-$800 with a $1,600 straddle, and Barry Greenstein makes it $5,800, or something along those lines. Ivey makes it $18,000 from the button, and I make it $51,600.

DC: So, you are the third guy in.

LV: Yeah, with the K J, and Barry folds. Ivey asks me how much more I’m playing, and I think I might have replied a little too fidgety. Believe me, I watched it a lot, and then he went all in after only seven seconds. I don’t know, he just destroyed me there.

DC: It took him only seven seconds after you gave him a count to move in?

AS: And Phil’s hand was something like 9 high?

LV: 5-2.

DC: Essentially the same, but he was confident about it.

LV: The thing that kind of shocked me about it was that he had three-bet Greenstein five times that day, and each time, I had made a point not to look like I was thinking about four-betting. You know how sometimes people think awhile and then throw their hand away; well, I didn’t do that, because I wanted to give him the sense that I might want to make that move later. In those hands, it went raise, reraise, and I just threw my hand away. I made a point not to take too long, because I knew that I was going to four-bet in that situation later.

DC: If it looks like you are thinking about it, it appears that you didn’t do it this time but are going to do it next time, no matter what you get.

LV: Exactly, and I wanted to avoid that. And then I looked at this situation and thought that it was a pretty good one, and I had some blockers. When I made it $51,600, it might have been too big. Maybe I should have four-bet smaller.

DC: But not against two guys, necessarily.

LV: It’s all right, because if Ivey makes it $18,000 and I make it $40,000, is he really going to put me on a bluff? I expect most people to call there, so then I can represent a stronger range of hands. I like to four-bet really small, so I think it was a little too big, maybe.

DC: But you didn’t ask him afterward?

LV: He’s not going to tell me anyway. He doesn’t do that stuff. He keeps it to himself, so there is no point in asking. I would die to know, because he seems to be the only one who sees things. I asked other people, and a lot of them didn’t see anything. Daniel Negreanu thought I was counting my chips a bit quickly, as if I wanted the hand to be over. But he said that he didn’t see anything that would make him want to shove a 5-2 over me, and he told me not to sweat it, because if Ivey is the only one who sees it … well, he’s Ivey. He’ll see it and act accordingly.

AS: Who knows what Phil Ivey sees that we don’t see? He might actually have one of those “Terminator” cameras in his head that sees everything.

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