Alex Foxen Wins PokerGO Cup $26,000 High Roller

Alex Foxen has been one of the most consistent performers on the live tournament circuit in recent years, with five consecutive top ten Card Player Player of the Year finishes, with his lowest showing in that time span being eighth in 2020. His campaign to continue that incredible streak is off to a strong start in 2023, as he has made a pair of big scores already at this year’s PokerGO Cup.

Foxen finished as the runner-up in the kickoff event of the eight-tournament series, and then topped that by coming away with the title in event no. 6, a $26,000 buy-in high roller. That victory saw Foxen top a field of 50 entries to earn $317,040 and his first trophy of the year.

Foxen’s two deep runs at this festival have seen him accrue $470,040 in earnings and 870 POY points just a few weeks into the new year. As a result, he has already re-established himself inside the top ten in on the POY leaderboard sponsored by Global Poker.

Foxen was also awarded 240 PokerGO Tour points for the win. He now sits in second place in both the PokerGO Cup points race and the overall PGT standings.

This latest deep run marked Foxen’s 55th recorded cash for six figures or more. The 31-year-old poker pro now has more than $27.8 million in lifetime earnings to his name.

This event ran from Jan. 17-18 at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino. Day 1 was scheduled to conclude when just six players remained. Bracelet winner Brian Kim was knocked out by thee-time bracelet Nick Schulman on the bubble. Six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu secured his second cash of the series by finishing eighth ($50,000). Schulman also made the money for the second time in this series, ultimately placing seventh for $62,500.

Day 2 began with Orpen Kisacikoglu out in front and Foxen in third chip position. Bracelet winner Sam Soverel began the day with the shortest stack, and was ultimately sent home in sixth when his A-9 ran into the pocket queens of Cary Katz.

Not long after that, the ever-talkative Sean Perry was knocked out in fifth place when his pocket tens squared off against the pocket jacks of Aram Oganyan. Neither player improved on an ace-high runout and Perry settled for $100,000. This was Perry’s first live cash since last September. Based on table talk from the final table, he has been focusing on sports betting over playing poker in recent months. This latest score increased his tournament earnings to nearly $6.8 million.

A classic coin flip spelled the end of Katz’s run in this event, with his pocket fives unable to outrun the A-J of Oganyan (4th – $125,000). The payday saw Katz’s career earnings grow to nearly $35.9 million, good for 13th place on the all-time money list.

While Kisacikoglu started the final day of this event solidly ahead of the rest of the pack, he gave up much of that lead in the early going. During three-handed play, though, he began to pull away again. He ended up entering heads-up play with a 3:1 chip lead after his A-8 held against the A-7 of Oganyan (3rd – $175,000).

Heads-up was a swingy affair. Foxen battled all the way back to even, and then took a sizable lead of his own. In fact, he had more than a 10:1 chip advantage at one point before Kisacikoglu managed a couple of double ups to remove himself from the danger zone. He eeked into the lead in time for negotiations between the final two about a chop, likely motivated in part by the impending close of registration in the next event on the schedule at the PokerGO Cup. They eventually agreed to redistribute the remaining prize money based on ICM, with Kisacikoglu taking home $345,460 while Foxen earned $317,040. The pair agreed to flip for the title, with Foxen’s Q-J suited holding against the J-6 of Kisacikoglu. The pair then hurried over to the registration window to sign up for event no. 7, the penultimate tournament of the high-stakes festival.

This runner-up finish was the seventh-largest score of Kisacikoglu’s career. It increased his total earnings to nearly $10.7 million.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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