Alex Foxen has returned to the Triton Super High Roller Series with a bang after seizing victory in Event #5: $50,000 NLH 8-Handed.
The American high-stakes crusher has been away from the premium high-stakes poker series for a long five years, but he’s now back and continuing his rise to the top of the poker elite.
When the field reconvened for the final day, Foxen was dominant from the first hand, entering the final table stage with a chip lead that would never be relinquished.
Action Recap
The day began with the bubble bursting with two players busting out on the same hand, just like yesterday.
Matthias Eibinger and Paulius Vaitiekunas both exited in 25th and 24th place, respectively.
The remaining 23-player then whittled away in quick fashion as everyone attempted to build a stack in order to have a shot at a top finish.
Foxen was already noted by the commentators for his formidable performance by this time.
When the final table was set, Foxen was favourite but there were plenty of big names still in the mix, such as Alex Theologis who cashed in every event so far.
But it wasn’t to be for the Greek star, as he failed to win a single pot and ultimately handed his chips over to Foxen when his pocket eights lost out to ten-nine suited.
Last year, Lun Loon was the rising star at Triton but luck wasn’t with him last night. A♥ 9♥ raise called for 11 big blinds against the tens of Aleks Ponakovs and could no better than a pair of nines.
Also similar to yesterday’s event, play slowed down to a snail’s pace as Foxen’s stack got too big to tangle with, causing an ICM issue for the other players.
After a long dinner break for the Mystery Bounty ceremony to take place, play resumed with Zhou Quan and Kiat Lee both leaving soon after.
Quan’s pocket queens fell foul of Mikolaitis’ kings and Lee had his A♣ J♠ called off by Marius Kudzmanas who flipped over A♥ Q♦ which survived the run out.
Foxen was now even further in front of his rivals and Xu Liang was on life support with less than four big blinds.
And looking down to see A♣ 2♣ he was right to test his fortune but Ponakovs’ A♠ K♦ prevailed and we were down to the final four players.
The remaining challengers now decided to check out if they could make a deal. Foxen had 62 big blinds with an average stack of 29 and everyone else having less than 21.
Surprisingly, all four were happy with the chop and to leave $170,000 to play for with the trophy.
Mikolaitis was the first casualty, calling off a decent size pot with second pair against the top pair top kicker of Foxen who now looked unbeatable. The $964,000 prize money was probably more than enough to soften the blow, however.
The other Lithuanian left in, Marius Kudzmanas, was next. Foxen opened K♠ J♠ and his rival jammed A♥ 8♦ which the American duly called off. A broadway straight was enough to see the heads-up battle lined up.
Foxen had more than a six-to one advantage against Ponakovs which halved right away but after that it was all downhill for the Latvian and Foxen cleaned up with impeccable technique.
Triton Monte Carlo Event #5: $50,000 NLH 8-Handed Results
Place | Name | Country | Prize (USD) |
1 | Alex Foxen | USA | $1,470,000* |
2 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $915,000* |
3 | Marius Kudzmanas | Lithuania | $922,000* |
4 | Dominykas Mikolaitis | Lithuania | $964,000* |
5 | Xu Liang | China | $507,000 |
6 | Kiat Lee | Malaysia | $393,000 |
7 | Zhou Quan | China | $291,000 |
8 | Lun Loon | Malaysia | $214,000 |
9 | Alex Theologis | Greece | $170,000 |
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