Kristen Foxen continues to show why she’s one of the world’s toughest poker tournament players with her third win on the PokerGO Tour this year. She won her fourth title in the $5,100 opener at the U.S. Poker Tour series that began April 8.
Foxen won $158,025 for winding up with all 129 of the entrant’s chips. It was the third-largest field for a PGT $5,100 event and came only two entries short of last year’s first event field at the U.S. Poker Open. The top 19 took home a piece of the $665,000 prize pool and those who cashed include Eric Blair (17th for $9,675), Erik Seidel (14th for $12,900), and David Baker (11th for $17,737).
Foxen started the year with a runner-up finish in Event #5 at the PGT Last Chance series the first week of January. She booked her first PGT win of the year two weeks later in the fifth event of the Kickoff series for $197,625, and then did it again a month later in Event #7 of the PokerGO Cup, winning another $348,300.
She won her first PGT title at the Kickoff series in 2024.
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1st | Kristen Foxen | Canada | 158 | $158,025 |
| 2nd | Ping Liu | United States | 97 | $96,750 |
| 3rd | Francis Anderson | United States | 71 | $70,950 |
| 4th | Anthony Hu | United States | 52 | $51,600 |
| 5th | Michael Arellano | United States | 39 | $38,700 |
| 6th | David Peters | United States | 32 | $32,250 |
| 7th | Justin Saliba | United States | 26 | $25,800 |
| 8th | Masato Yokosawa | Japan | 26 | $25,800 |
| 9th | Yifu He | United States | 19 | $19,350 |
| 10th | Patrick Leonard | United Kingdom | 18 | $17,738 |
Puts her on top
Foxen’s victory gave her 158 PGT points, which made her the first player this season to earn more than 1,000 points. She moved past Chino Rheem to claim the top spot on the PGT season leaderboard. Whoever finishes with the most points is named PGT Player of the Year and receives a $50,000 PGT Passport, which can be used for any PGT event.
Those who finish in the top 40 earn an entry into the season-ending PGT $ 1 million Championship freeroll. The higher a player finishes on the leaderboard, the more chips they start with. Jeremy Ausmus won last year’s Player of the Year by earning 2,966 points in 27 cashes, and he celebrated it by also winning the $1 million freeroll for $500,000.
Like always, the race will most likely come down to the wire. Here’s how it looks as of April 10:
| Rank | Player | Points | Wins | Podiums | Final Tables | Cashes | Winnings |
| 1 | Kristen Foxen | 1,015 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | $777,600 |
| 2 | Chino Rheem | 928 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | $908,175 |
| 3 | Joey Weissman | 907 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6 | $1,005,300 |
| 4 | Nick Schulman | 848 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 13 | $805,245 |
| 5 | Eric Blair | 803 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | $798,520 |
| 6 | Daniel Negreanu | 789 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 9 | $1,050,400 |
| 7 | Jesse Lonis | 786 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 9 | $912,490 |
| 8 | Michael Moncek | 702 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | $1,208,750 |
| 9 | Alex Foxen | 677 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | $697,510 |
| 10 | Patrick Leonard | 628 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | $491,598 |
The U.S. Poker Open is an eight event series that takes place at the Aria from now April17, 2025. The player who finishes with the most points of the series win a special Golden Eagle trophy and a $25,000 PGT Passport. Click here for the schedule or to subscribe to PokerGO to stream the final tables.
About The Author
