The first ever Lex Live event kicked off last night in Namur, Belgium, with plenty of recognisable faces from the world of poker and Twitch taking part.

The man of the hour—or should we say the man of the week, as we’re here until Sunday—was, of course, Lex Veldhuis. His name and face (both real and in Beaker form) adorn the Grand Casino de Namur, and it’s his Twitch community who have made the journey to play in this event.

Yesterday we told you about some of the online qualifiers who would be in attendance, but before play even started at 6pm it was clear that this was to be no small get together.

Packed house for Day 1A of Lex Live

“I’m really happy with the turnout,” Veldhuis told PokerNews when the day was done. “I was happy when there were only 80 players registered, so to get 168 runners on Day 1A is amazing. I expect Day 1B and 1C to be even bigger. If we cross the 800 player mark I would be extremely happy but everything above the 500 is amazing.”

Of those 168 entrants, just 56 would survive, led by France’s Moise Alloun who managed to almost 10x his 50,000 starting stack to bag up a massive 490,000.

The field was an interesting mix of Veldhuis’s Twitch community (including active members Ben Martin and Ivo Shoofs), professional poker players (PokerStars Championship Prague winner Kalidou Sow played but didn’t survive), and the Namur locals.

All in all, it was a fun night and a huge success.

Check out the video below, then keep reading to find out how both Veldhuis and Spraggy fared.

LEX VS SPRAGGY

Before he sat down to play Veldhuis hung out at the bar; a chance to meet and greet everyone and put faces to the Twitch names he knows so well. When he would eventually take his seat, however, he was faced with a fellow Twitch poker superstar and PokerStars Team Online member that he already knows pretty well.

Lex and Spraggy hang out with fellow Twitchers

Yep, you guessed it. It was Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, who had arrived in Namur not long before buying in to Day 1A.

Arrived here at Namur, Belgium. Registered the main event. Get this clown at my table. He's already confused and losing chips quickly! Sad. pic.twitter.com/CfItH3rEKR

— Benj Spragg (@spraggy) March 27, 2019

The two were at the same table from the off, and the battle commenced. Veldhuis was quick to tell PokerNews about a bluff he got through during the 300/600/600 blind level.

“Spraggy opened to 1,500 and another player called,” Veldhuis explained from the table. “I three-bet to 6,000 and Spraggy called me. The other guy folded. The flop came queen-eight-five with one heart and I fired a bet of 5,500. He called again and the turn was another queen. This time I bet 17,000 and he folded, so I showed him jack-four.”

Spraggy then added: “I played king-jack of hearts by the way, and I played that hand 200% more reasonable than he did”.

Things went from bad (getting bluffed by your friend) to worse (busting with pocket aces versus pocket tens) for Spraggy, who then fired a second bullet. Veldhuis’s stack continued to swell until the final level of the day when a huge three-way all-in saw his chips diminish substantially.

Veldhuis had K♦Q♣ and was up against Patrick Prijot’s A♠A♣ and Thierry Penders’ Q♠Q♦. The aces held up, and Veldhuis would end the day with just 23,000 (the shortest stack of the night). He’ll need a spin on Saturday’s Day 2, when the blinds will begin at 2,000/4,000/4,000.

Spraggy fared slightly better, bagging up 49,500 for just under starting stack.

Spraggy with Morten ‘Zeeth’ Ottosen

Another notable player to make it through was Veldhuis’s famous Twitch moderator, Germany’s “Croaks”, who ended the night with 44,500. Click here for the full Day 1A chip counts.

A Day 1A turbo flight (with 15-minute levels instead of 30 minutes) also ran from 10pm, attracting 12 players, four of whom made it through, led by Daniel Dinulescu with 240,000.

Here’s a look at some of your tweets:

I’m really, really bummed I can’t be at Lex Live this week, but unbelievably proud of @RaSZi. A whole event with your name on it! Man, my chest* would swell all the way from Rotterdam to Namur.

*not my chest

— Joe Stapleton (@Stapes) March 27, 2019

And we're off to #LexLive! No streams until 2nd of April but we will be vlogging so expect some vlogs up on our YouTube channel next week! pic.twitter.com/nm895HFIDO

— OP-Poker (@OfficialOPPoker) March 27, 2019

On my way to Namur for the Lex Live Spring Festival! Can’t wait to see tons of people from @RaSZi his community. See you in a bit guys! @croakspkr @MPADAM666 pic.twitter.com/3J7d0uymhg

— Milko @ Lex Live (@DegenOnTour) March 27, 2019

Played Day 1A here at #LexLive unfortunately i busted with 3 hands to go in a What would have been a 30 Big blinds pot on the start of Day 2! Nothing to do when you literally get 6 playable hands on a entire Day! Playing again later pic.twitter.com/pkFG4YzCxU

— Morten Ottosen (@zeeth__) March 28, 2019

TONIGHT, TONIGHT

For those arriving tonight, there will be a welcome party in the Grand Casino de Namur bar, where you’ll have a chance to meet Veldhuis, Spraggy, and everyone from the community.

Of course, there’s also some poker to be played, with Day 1B kicking off at 6pm, followed by another turbo flight at 10pm.

PokerStars Blog will be in attendance. We’ll see you there.

Have events at Lex Live inspired you to start playing poker? Click here to open a PokerStars account.