After live poker scuttled along the gangplank on its way to receiving a belly full of saltwater, those who make a living at that artform moved online to paint a new picture.
Alex Foxen is one of these live poker powerhouses.
You don’t win back-to-back Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year awards and maintain a stranglehold on the GPI World Rankings with a record 37-consecutive weeks in the number one slot unless you are all over the game like lice on a toddler.
On March 27, with everyone quarantined, Foxen made a passionate plea to PokerStars via Twitter to reopen his account after they shut him down without supplying a reason. Judging by his PocketFives results, that account is still gathering dust.
Foxen may have earned the vast majority of his $6-7m in online multi-table tournament (MTT) winnings on PokerStars (playing under the pseudonym ‘bigfox86’), but you get the feeling that’s about to change.
The GPI World #1 needs online poker, now, more than ever, and if PokerStars won’t provide him with the platform, then off to GGPoker, Americas Cardroom (ACR) and partypoker he will trot. A fox will chase sheep no matter where those sheep may be.
Foxen recently proved that he’s no online poker stowaway, taking $800,000 from the Poker Masters Online Series on partypoker. Foxen finished in the money (ITM) on seven occasions, including conquering a field of 99-entrants in Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em for a career-high online score of $309,677.
There’s no time to blink in Foxen’s world.
The young American went into the final weekend of the Poker Masters Online harbouring hopes of winning his first Purple Jacket. After all, he had done it before, turning in an incredible performance at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond at the Bellagio in the Winter to defend his GPI PoY title at the death.
Foxen didn’t end up on the Poker Masters podium, but he did bank a six-figure score to ease his sorrows. Foxen topped a 256-entrant field in a $3k POWERFEST event on partypoker for $239,413. It was a final table filled with the finest cheekbones in online poker with Yuri Dzvielevski, Nick Petrangelo and Linus Loeliger all featuring.
Add the POWERFEST win to the $800,000 in Poker Masters earnings, and Foxen has almost doubled his lifetime earnings on partypoker in the past fortnight.
Who needs PokerStars?
Results
- Alex Foxen – $239,413
- Yuri Dzivielevski – $173,777
- Jordi Urlings – $123,874
- Daniil Lukin – $91,585
- Nick Petrangelo – $64,579
- Linus Loeliger – $49,315
- Benjamin Rolle – $36,399
- Bruno Volkmann – $27,005
Foxen currently ranks #75 in the PocketFives World Rankings.
In Other Online Poker News
In other online poker news, Foxen’s partner, and the GPI top-ranked female player, Kristen Bicknell, flew over the $4m in lifetime earnings mark after a blistering showing on GGPoker last week.
Between 20-27 April, Bicknell earned over a half a million dollars in gross profit playing on the former East-facing site that’s very firmly fixed on the West.
Here are Bicknell’s top four results of the week.
- 1st in a 38-entrant $5k event for $64,764.99
- 2nd in a 39-entrant $5k for $46,691.85
- 1st in a 85-entrant $2.5k for $44,304.64
- 1st in a 48-entrant $2.5k for $43,565.06
- 2nd in a 87-entrant $2.5k for $39,829.81
Bicknell currently ranks #41 in the PocketFives World Rankings.
From new school to old school, and Luke Schwartz binked a decent score on Tuesday night, beating a 116-entrant field to take down the $1,050 Super Tuesday No-Limit Hold’em event on PokerStars for $27,398.26
Schwartz, who plies his trade on the online cash game scene, has now earned more than $3m playing online MTTs with the bulk of those winnings coming on PokerStars.
It’s his biggest score since finishing 3/2255 in a $530 NLHE Progressive Knockout (PKO) event for $42,402.56 during the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on PokerStars.
Schwartz currently ranks #714 in the PocketFives World Rankings.
Pigeon.