Alex Foxen has been one of the most consistent players on the live tournament cycle in recent years, with five consecutive top ten finishes. card player Player of the Year finishes, and his lowest showing in that time slot is eighth in 2020. His campaign to continue that amazing streak is off to a solid start in 2023, with a couple of big scores already in this year. Poker Joe Cup.
Foxen finished runner-up in the eight championship series starting event, then topped that by coming away with the title in event no. 6, $26,000 buy high reel. This victory saw Foxen win in a field of 50 entries to earn $317,040 and his first trophy of the year.
Foxin’s deep work at this festival has seen him earn $470,040 and $870 POY Point a few weeks into the new year. As a result, he has already re-established himself inside the top ten in POY Curated leaderboards Global Poker.
Foxen also got 190 PokerGO Tour points to win. He now sits in second place in both Poker Joe Cup Score and overall race PGT arrangement.
This final round of depth marked Foxen’s 55th cashout of six or more figures. The 31-year-old professional poker player now has over $27.8 million in lifetime winnings to his name.
This event ran from January 17th to 18th at PokerGO Studio in ARIA Resort and casino. The first day was scheduled to end when only six players remained. The winner of the bracelet, Brian Kim, was knocked off the bracelet by Nick Shulman on the bubble. Six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negrino earned his second cash out of the series with an eighth-place finish ($50,000). Shulman also made money for the second time in the series, finishing seventh for $62,500.
Day two started with Orpen Kisacikoglu up front and Foxen third. Bracelet winner Sam Soverel started the day with the shortest stack, eventually being sent home in sixth when his A-9 hit Cary Katz’s pocket queens.
Not long after that, the ever-talking Sean Berry was out in fifth place when his pocket scores gave way against Aram Oganian’s pocket knobs. Neither player improved in a high ace competition and Perry settled for $100,000. It was Perry’s first direct criticism since the previous September. Based on table talk from the final table, he has been focusing on sports betting on playing poker in recent months. This last result increased his tournament winnings to approximately $6.8 million.
A classic coin engraving featured the end of Katz’s run in the event, where five pockets couldn’t pass AJ of Oganyan (4th – $125,000). Payday saw Katz’ career earnings grow to nearly $35.9 million, good for 13th on the all-time money list.
While Kisacikoglu started the final day of the event strongly ahead of the rest of the group, he gave up much of that lead at the start. While playing three hands, he started to pull away again. He ended up entering the singles match with a 3:1 lead after his A-8 against Oganyan’s A-7 (3rd place – $175,000).
The follow-up alert was a swinging affair. Foxen fought all the way to the even, then took a massive lead of his own. In fact, he had over 10:1 at one point before Kisacikoglu could hit several doubles to get himself out of the danger zone. He came to the fore just in time for negotiations between the latter two over the cut, likely motivated in part by the imminent closing of registration for the next event on the schedule in Poker Joe Cup. They eventually agreed to redistribute the remaining prize money on a basis ICM, with Kisacikoglu taking home $345,460 and Foxen taking home $317,040. The pair agreed to flop for the title, with Foxen holding the QJ against Kisacikoglu’s J-6. Then the pair hurried to the registration window to register for event number. 7, the penultimate tournament of the High-Stakes Festival.
This second place was the seventh biggest result of Kisacikoglu’s career. His total earnings increased to approximately $10.7 million.
Here is a look at the payouts and ranking points awarded in the final table:
Place | player | earnings | POY points | PGT points |
1 | Alex Foxen | $317,040 | 420 | |
2 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | $345,460 | three hundred fifty | 207 |
3 | Aram Oganyan | $175,000 | 280 | 105 |
4 | Cary Katz | $125,000 | 210 | 75 |
5 | Sean Berry | $100,000 | 175 | 60 |
6 | Sam Sovrell | $75,000 | 140 | 45 |
Winner photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.