Player Spotlight: Alex Foxen
The world’s top-rated poker player has been a mainstay at the 2019 U.S. Poker Open at ARIA in Las Vegas. Alex Foxen’s last few months – which include a career-best $2.1 million score in the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl in late December – have deservedly given him the distinction of the Global Poker Index’s number one ranked player in the world. But the two years that preceded his current title tell his story.
His seven-figure cash in December 2018 came one year (almost to the date) after his first breakthrough score: a runner-up finish at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event in 2017 for $1.1 million. In many ways that payday was the validation of Foxen’s incredible 2017 World Series of Poker run. He cashed 14 times during the 2017 WSOP, visiting the cage to collect once every couple days throughout the month of June, and placed 7th in the final player of the year standings.
Last year was when Foxen cemented his place among poker’s elite. He notched cashes of $424,000 at the WPT in Los Angeles; $963,000 at the Asian Pacific Poker Tour in Macau; $239,000 at the DeepStack Championship Poker Series in Las Vegas; $208,000 at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in Florida; $530,000 at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona; $948,000 at the partypoker MILLIONS in Nottingham; and $400,000 in live cashes at the WPT Five Diamond in Las Vegas before his runner up $2.1 million cash.
Foxen spent 2018 traveling the world and playing poker. For 2019, that is a difficult precedent to follow. His results tell the story of a player poised to exceed whatever grand expectations he’s created for himself, seemingly moving from one career plateau to the next.
Entering the 2019 USPO, Foxen already has nearly $1 million in tournament cashes this year. He’s joined in the PokerGO Studio by two-time WSOP bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell, his girlfriend. So far Bicknell’s 5th place cash for $118,000 in Event #5 represents the couple’s only score at this year’s event but Foxen can take consolation in being GPI’s top-ranked player in the world.
“Winning the USPO Championship would definitely be one of my proudest poker accomplishments. It’s a lot of the best players in the world and those are always the fields that give me the greatest sense of accomplishment to win,” Foxen told Poker Central earlier this month.
From busting onto the scene to nearly winning 2017 WSOP Player of the Year, to scoring for six figures all across the globe in 2018 en route to being named Player of the Year, Foxen has ambitious plans for 2019.
“Being the first person to win back to back player of the year would be pretty amazing and it’s definitely something that I’m hoping to achieve,” he said told Poker Central.
| Player | Chips | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Foxen | 275,000 |
-6,500  |
