Alex Foxen has emerged as the champion of the 2019 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic $10,400 buy-in NLH main event at Bellagio. The 28-year-old poker pro took home $1,694,995 for beating a record field of 1,035 entries, which generated a whopping $10,039,500 in prizepool.
For Foxen, this was his second title and 19th FT finish of 2019. With his latest win, he climbed into second place in the 2019 GPI POY race standings. Foxen currently sits just behind the current POY leader Stephen Chidwick, which means he is on the verge of winning back-to-back POY title.
“It’s surreal – it’s kind of hard to put into words.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,” Foxen told WPT reporters after coming out on top.
“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,” Foxen further added.
Foxen started the final day as second in chips behind Danny Park with just six players remaining. He was able to win a big hand against Park early on and then further his advantage by scoring the first elimination of the day with his pocket nines beating Kc Qs of Jonathan Jaffe (6th). The next elimination came in the start-of-the day chip leader Danny Park who lost a pre-flop race with pocket threes against AK of Toby Joyce to become the short stack. Not so long after that he shoved all-in with pocket tens against AQ of Joyce who hit a queen pair to win the pot and bust Park (5th).
The next to hit the rail was Peter Neff who started the day as a short stack. His run ended after he shoved with Kd Qc against Ac Jc of Seth Davies. The board A9768 gave Davies a pair of aces to eliminate Neff in 4th place. Exiting in 3rd place was Davies himself. He shoved all-in with Ac 5c, only to run into Ah Qh of the eventual champion Foxen who won the pot to bust Davies in 3rd place.
The heads-up took place between Toby Joyce and Alex Foxen who began with a 2.5:1 chip lead after busting Davies. Foxen was able to quickly extended his advantage and finally win the title. On the final hand, Foxen held Ac Js against Jh 9c of Joyce. The board ran Jc 5s 3d Kc 4c to give Foxen the title.
Final Table Payouts:
1 Alex Foxen – $1,694,995
2 Toby Joyce – $1,120,040
3 Seth Davies – $827,285
4 Peter Neff – $617,480
5 Danny Park – $465,780
6 Jonathan Jaffe – $355,125