Alex Foxen Wins Record Equalling 13th PGT Title for $210,000

How It Started

Foxen came into the final day and the final five players with a whopping 96 big blinds, good for around 60% of the chips in play. Ausmus was his nearest challenger, and Qinghai Pan, Michael Berk, and Aram Zobaian all had stacks between 10 and 16 big blinds.

Berk was the first to fall, with fellow short stack Zobian the beneficiary. Berk moved all but 25,000 of his chips into the middle from under the gun with A Q . Zobian called from the cutoff with K J . Action checked to the river of the 9 2 3 10 K runout. Berk check-called off his last 25,000 and was shown the bad news, as Zobian rivered top pair.

Zobian’s newly acquired chips ended up in the stacks of three different players. Ausmus took from him, and Pan left Zobian short as his J J held against Zobians A 10 in a preflop all-in. Foxen claimed the last. He opened J 2 from the cutoff, Zobian called from the small blind, leaving 60,000 behind with K 7 . The river gave Foxen the pot across the 8 7 A 4 J runout, with the last of Zobian’s chips finding the middle on the flop.

Then There Were Three

Foxen leveraged his large stack, applying pressure to both Ausmus and Pan. The latter managed to claim some back from the runaway chip-leader, after Foxen shoved K 8 from the button. Pan called in the blinds with A 9 . He made two pair across 4 9 A 5 7 to stay in the tournament. Foxen kept up the relentless aggression, winning hand after hand without showdown.

Pan managed to double again through Foxen with A 7 against Foxen’s Q 3 . The former shoved from the small blind into Pan, who called. Ace-high proved good enough across the K 5 4 2 9 runout. It was then six-time WSOP bracelet winner Ausmus’ turn to take from Foxen. Ausmus shoved small blind versus Foxen’s big blind with 9 7 and was snapped off by Foxen, who had K K . Nothing comes easy in poker, as Ausmus rivered trips across the 9 5 A 10 9 runout to keep play three-handed.

Pan fell short of heads-up play after he called a Foxen button shove from the small blind with A Q . Foxen had 7 6 , a combination which won Marius Kudzmanas the WSOP Europe Main Event and the subject of internet memery. Foxen made two pair across the 5 5 K 6 J to end the three-time WSOP champion’s run in the tournament

Heads-Up

Heads-up lasted one hand, with Foxen holding around a 4:1 advantage over Ausmus. All the chips found the middle in a limped pot preflop, with Ausmus calling with 8 5 and Foxen checking his option with 7 3 . Foxen check-called a 100,000 bet on the 4 K 3 flop before the 4 turn was checked around. The 7 river saw Foxen lead for 300,000. Ausmus then moved all in, repping a flush with his 8 . Foxen called after a small amount of deliberation, and his two pair was good to take down the title.

Foxen was already the all-time money leader in the PGT with $19,312,013 in winnings. Now he has equalled a record for most titles won. One thing is for sure: he will be gunning for a 14th title to take the overall lead this year. Below are the payouts.

Event #7: $10k NLHE Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Alex Foxen		$210,000
2	Jeremy Ausmus		$136,500
3	Qinghai Pan		$94,500
4	Aram Zobian		$70,000
5	Michael Berk		$52,500
6	Sam Laskowitz		$38,500
7	John Andress		$28,000

What’s Next?

A field of six players will return to the felt at the PokerGo studio in Event #8 : $15,000 NLH. Brazilian Joao Simao leads the way, and the high-stakes pro will be looking to deny Zach Bruch, Aram Zobian, Dylan Linde, Justin Zaki, and Shannon Shorr the title.

That’s all for now, folks. Until next time.