Lex Veldhuis Is a Free Agent as WSOP Online Keeps Expanding
The longtime PokerStars streamer says he wants to chill while the online bracelet scene keeps giving players more ways to play from home.
Lex Veldhuis is a free agent after 17 years under the PokerStars banner, and he is not rushing into the next deal. He has said he is comfortable taking his time, because it’s also about what he wants.
Poker.org noted that Veldhuis has 145K YouTube subscribers, 59.7K Instagram followers and 76.9K X followers. The piece also said he stepped away from streaming as his PokerStars run wound down, then came back strongly in the new year.
Veldhuis has made clear that the decision is about more than the deal itself. He said he liked PokerStars for its approach to content and Twitch, and added that vision matters because it shapes the climate he would be working in. He also said he is “okay in terms of financials” and does not need to make “crazy decisions.”
He framed the moment as one of freedom, saying, “I trust in my platform, I trust what I do, I trust in my viewership, my skills. I’ve been with Stars for 17 years, let’s just chill.” In the same comments, he said he was enjoying that freedom and asked why he should not try spots like a Venom, streaming from Vienna, or checking out CoinPoker and WPT.
That free-agent status comes with a wider online poker backdrop. Pokerfuse describes WSOP Online bracelets as an online extension of the World Series of Poker, with players in the US and worldwide able to chase the same bracelets from home. The guide says WSOP Online usually runs twice a year, with a summer series and a fall series for US players.
For 2026, the summer WSOP Online series ran from May 30 to July 14 and featured 30 bracelet events, according to Pokerfuse. It also generated $24.5 million in prize money, which the site said was well below the $30 million awarded in 2025.
PokerNews reported the same 30-event summer slate when Caesars released the schedule in April. It said the series carried $7 million in guaranteed prize pools, was open to players in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and started with a $400 NL Hold’em Kick Off on May 30 followed by a $555 Mystery Bounty with a $1 million guarantee the next day.
The schedule also included $50,000 in leaderboard prizes and two $215 Scramble tournaments, each awarding 25 seats to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event. Pokerfuse said online bracelet buy-ins ran from $250 to $5,300.
