PokerStars is now offering players a chance to sharpen their skills with site ambassador Lex Veldhuis. The new “Level Up With Lex” feature allows players to ramp up their poker strategy and hone their poker skills.
The new offering allows online poker players to receive personalized videos from one of the most well-known faces in poker. The high-tech approach bases advice on a player’s own habits at the table.
“Personalization of our players’ experience and making their time with us more beneficial is at the heart of this innovation,” PokerStars managing director and commercial officer of poker, product, and innovation Severin Rasset said in a news release.
“We wanted to give our players a seamless and interesting way to improve and learn. When people are improving and progressing their skills, they generally enjoy the experience more and this is great for the game. This is the first large-scale, consumer-facing use of artificial intelligence for online poker and we are truly excited to bring this to our players who get the benefit of learning from Lex and one of the most sophisticated tools in online gaming.”
PokerStars offers players their own virtual mentor
The new feature allows players to have their own virtual poker coach with Veldhuis offering some guidance.
“Lex Veldhuis provides clear, simple and personalized poker advice videos based on a player’s real money Spin & Go game, helping to improve their skills in a safe environment and create more winning moments,” PokerStars notes of Level Up with Lex.
Veldhuis’s tips focus on improvement and education and the entire concept comes after quite a bit of work for PokerStars. Each piece of advice is based on data generated by the site’s proprietary machine learning platform.
Excited to launch this! Great way for people to quickly improve while playing spin and go's 👇 https://t.co/pf7omtx9Tv
— Lex Veldhuis (@LexVeldhuis) December 2, 2021
The technology reads and analyzes hand histories to detect mistakes. For example if a player struggles with playing on the button, that player might have advice on being more aggressive in that spot.
Each piece of advice is therefore correct and true to that individual player’s actions at the table.
PokerStars officials say the company recognized and invested in the potential of machine learning early on. The site’s proprietary technologies have been active for some time and play a key role in site security.
This technology allows Stars to police poker tables to protect the integrity of the game and ensure a level playing field. The goal is to enhance the customer experience and the Level Up feature now expands the use of this technology.
The personalized videos can be created by opting in on “The Rail” in the PokerStars client. The videos can then be viewed there or received via email or push notification. Players can select their own communication preferences in the settings area.
A quick look at Lex
Those taking advantage of “Level Up with Lex” will receive advice from someone with some real skins on the wall. Veldhuis is one of the most well-known and successful players in poker and has the most popular poker stream on Twitch.
Online, the Dutch poker pro has scored big in major tournaments like the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).
In 2020, Veldhuis’s Twitch stream reached a personal record of 58,543 concurrent viewers watching his SCOOP Main Event High run. He also has $687,955 in the live poker arena as well.
The new skill-building service now adds yet another interesting aspect to his poker resumé.
“Level Up With Lex aims to help the PokerStars community develop their skills in a unique way and I’m proud to be part of this innovation,” Veldhuis said.
“Learning poker strategy as a beginner can be challenging as there’s so many resources out there. But Level Up With Lex gives clear and simple advice that’s easy to take on board, meaning players get the most out of their time at the tables. It’s taken a lot of hard work and effort and I’m looking forward to seeing players benefitting from this technology.”