Kristen Foxen earned her first poker match title of 2024 by taking down the finale of the PokerGO Tour Kickoff sequence. The four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner overcame a area of fifty entries within the $10,500 buy-in no-limit maintain’em occasion, defeating Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu heads-up to safe the trophy and the highest prize of $165,000.
Foxen elevated her profession match earnings to $7,872,216 with this victory. She stays in second place on the feminine all-time cash record, trailing solely ($10,899,027).
This was the twelfth recorded title of Foxen’s profession, and her second win in a PGT occasion. Her first got here in a $25,000 occasion on the 2019 Poker Masters pageant. That $408,000 win stays the most important rating of her profession.
In addition to the title and the cash, Foxen was additionally awarded loads of rankings factors because the champion. The 300 Card Player Player of the Year factors she earned for her second final-table end of the sequence had been sufficient to maneuver her into thirteenth place within the 2024 POY race standings introduced by Global Poker. She additionally climbed to second place within the PGT season-long rankings, with 429 whole factors and $214,275 in certified earnings.
The fifth and remaining occasion of the PGT Kickoff sequence ran from Jan. 15-16 on the PokerGO Studio inside ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The $500,000 prize pool was finally paid out amongst the highest eight finishers, with World Poker Tour champion and bracelet winner Dylan Linde (eighth) and two-time bracelet winner Eric Baldwin (seventh) cashing late on day 1.
Day 2 started with Negreanu within the chip lead among the many remaining six, whereas Foxen sat in fourth place on the leaderboard, simply forward of her husband Alex Foxen. This was not the primary time that the couple squared off towards one another at a remaining desk. Back in 2018 they ended up heads-up in a $5,000 buy-in occasion at Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series, with Alex finally popping out on prime after the couple struck a deal to redistribute the remaining prize cash.
Bracelet winner Masashi Oya was the primary to fall (sixth – $30,000). Alex Foxen quickly adopted when his pocket aces had been unable to carry towards the pocket queens of his spouse. Kristen flopped prime set and held from there to ship her husband house with $40,000 for his efforts. He now has greater than $31.8 million in lifetime earnings after this fifth-place displaying.
A traditional race spelled the tip of bracelet winner Aram Zobian’ run on this occasion. His Ok-Q was unable to outflip the pocket tens of Negreanu. Neither participant related with the board and Zobian was eradicated in fourth place ($50,000).
Sam Laskowitz recorded his fourth final-table end of the 12 months on this occasion. All 5 of his in-the-money finishes in 2024 have are available in PGT tournaments. This newest run concluded when his flush draw clashed with the flopped prime set of Foxen. Laskowitz was unable to discover a spade after the chips went in and was knocked out in third place ($70,000). He now sits in third place within the POY race with 960 factors and greater than $377,000 in certified earnings.
Heads-up play started with Foxen holding 4,265,000 to Negreanu’s 3,235,000. She was capable of prolong her benefit even additional earlier than the ultimate hand was dealt. She moved all-in from the button for 4.5 large blinds efficient with J
6 and Negreanu known as from the massive blind with Ok9
. The board ran out J
8210
9 and Foxen’s pair or jacks earned her the pot and the title.
Negreanu cashed for $105,000 because the runner-up. This was his second final-table end of the 12 months, having received a $10,500 buy-in occasion throughout the PGT Last Chance pageant only a couple days into 2024. The six-time bracelet winner and two-time WPT champion now has greater than $51 million in profession match earnings, good for seventh on poker’s all-time cash record.
Here is a have a look at the payouts and rankings factors awarded on the remaining desk:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Kristen Foxen | $165,000 | 300 | 330 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | $105,000 | 250 | 210 |
| 3 | Sam Laskowitz | $70,000 | 200 | 140 |
| 4 | Aram Zobian | $50,000 | 150 | 100 |
| 5 | Alex Foxen | $40,000 | 125 | 80 |
| 6 | Masashi Oya | $30,000 | 100 | 60 |
| 7 | Eric Baldwin | $20,000 | 75 | 40 |
| 8 | Dylan Linde | $20,000 | 50 | 40 |
Photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.
