By Sean Chaffin
First or second, that’s all Alex Foxen needed. Of course, even runner-up in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic is no easy task. The tournament brought in a record field of 1,035 entries – a stacked field of some of the game’s best. But if he could get there, Foxen would jump from 10th to first in the Global Poker Index Player of the Year, an honor he also earned in 2018.
Up against a tough final table that included Champions Club members Jonathan Jaffe and Seth Davies, Foxen was heads-up for the title around 9 p.m. The GPI top spot was his and a WPT title was also within his grasp. With a massive chip stack – almost a 3-1 chip advantage – Foxen went and won the title too.
Not only is Foxen now a member of the WPT Champions Club, but he also adds a title in an event that eluded him in the past. In Season XVI he finished runner-up for $1.1 million. With his win today, Foxen takes home $1.6 million, 1,400 points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race, and a free entry into the season-ending $15,000 WPT Tournament of Champions.
“It’s surreal – it’s kind of hard to put into words,” he said. “It feels amazing. The last time I got to this spot I was a little bit disappointed in how I played heads-up. It’s just incredible to get the opportunity again and be fortunate enough to pull out the win.”
The Five Diamond becomes yet another bullet point in a career that includes wins and big finishes all over the world. Foxen told WPT earlier in the week how special it would be to win the GPI honor a second straight year. With only a week of tournament poker left, there’s a good chance he’ll remain in the top spot.
“It’s hard to rank it but it definitely feels really good,” he said of the GPI honor. “I felt like I came out of nowhere to win it last year and this year I was a bit more on the radar. To be able to get it two years in a row is a dream come true.
“Winning the WPT trophy in this event particularly is definitely the biggest thing to me. It’s the most significant tournament win to me so far. It’s awesome. WPT is probably the most prestigious tour besides the WSOP, and it just feels amazing to win this one because it’s just one of the biggest, toughest ones.”
Those POY points also vault him into the lead in the standings. Will he be looking to add that honor to his poker resumé as well?
“Yeah, I definitely think those are legacy building-type things,” he said. “That definitely means something to me for sure. I think I’ve only played maybe one other WPT event this year. I’ve been at a lot of other stops when they’ve been going on so I haven’t gotten the opportunity to play them, so I may have to try and fit more in to give myself a shot at that.”
Foxen added he was also excited about the opportunity to play in the WPT Tournament of Champions. This win added to a huge December at Bellagio for the new champion. He already had five final table appearances in Five Diamond preliminary events for $390,277, bringing his total for the entire series to $2.1 million for the entire series.
For his part, runner-up Toby Joyce takes home a bit over $1.2 million and secures the biggest cash of his career. He had been battling to become the first Irish WPT champion and played solid throughout the week.
“Toby’s an awesome player,” Foxen said. “I hadn’t played that much with him prior to this tournament, but he plays really well. I was impressed by him. Everybody at the final table played great all the way down the stretch. It was a tough road to this one. Toby in particular really impressed me. He’s destined for a lot more of these I’d imagine.”
Foxen entered the field second in chips to Danny Park. The two clashed in a big hand early when Foxen caught a pair of Queens and Park hit bottom two pair. However, Foxen caught runner-runner cards on the turn and river to make a flush and become the chip leader. It’s a position he would hold for the rest of the way.
“That’s one of the examples where it shows how luck is involved in tournament outcome,” he said. “There are so many other rivers where he stays ahead and bets and I call very frequently. To hit the flush and him have a hand that he bet-calls with, it just goes to show how much luck is involved in it.”
He said the hand played itself and couldn’t have been played any differently for either player. Along with stellar play, Foxen noted he ran well throughout the tournament. He hit a big two-outer for a nice pot on Day 5 and went all-in twice at risk and won both times.
With yet another big win under his belt, Foxen notes that he doesn’t look at individual accomplishments but looks more holistically at his career. The WPT Five Diamond is now a massive part of that body of work.
“I try to look at poker as an individual tournament or an individual result doesn’t really mean anything,” he said. “It’s more of your body of work and the time you put into your play and the way that you play more than the actual results themselves. I’m constantly trying to improve my game and I plan on continuing down that path of working on my game and trying to play at as high of a level as I can.”
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.