Alex Foxen Scores Triton Hat Trick in Montenegro

Alex Foxen has won his third Triton tournament after taking down Event #2 $25K NLH 8-Handed in Montenegro for a $755.000 payday.

The American secured victory by defeating Artur Martirosian in a high-quality heads-up battle which saw the Russian pull back a monstrous deficit in chips.

A total of 130 entries — 84 of them unique — built a prize pool of $3,250,000

This win takes Foxen to within only $2.75 million of breaking into the top 10 on the all time list, ahead of players such as Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey.

Incredibly, he took five years away from travelling to Triton events and then racked up his first title at the Monte Carlo Casino in November last year, followed up with a dominant victory in the Bahamas Main Event.

Speaking to Ali Nejad as he collected his winner’s trophy, Foxen said:

“I’m running good, and I definitely feel I’m playing my best. Yeah, it’s a good recipe. I’ve had a lot of things go my way. To come back and run really hot at the beginning is really nice.

“There were lots of good players as there always are in these tournaments. I definitely didn’t like seeing Artur to my left with a lot of chips. He likes to battle.”

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Action Recap

As expected, a $25K event at a Triton stop was a tough field. Foxen is always one of the favourites, though, but even he must have been thinking a final table with Artur Martirosian, Nacho Barbero, Michael Soyza, and Jesse Lonis was going to take some work.

Final Table Chip Counts

Down to four-handed play, Foxen and Martirosian were steadily accumulating all of the chips. Jesse Lonis and Nacho Barbero would fight over the final podium spot.

Lonis drew the short straw when his A♠ 10♠ ran into the A♣ K♦ of Foxen and a king on the flop left us with the final three.

Barbero was soon down to his last 15 big blinds but he was more than happy to see the other two clashing in a six-bet pot.

In the end common sense prevailed and Martirosian mucked his A♣ 9♦ as Foxen collected the pot with his A♦ K♥.

Just a few hands later, Barbero was out in third after his A♥ Q♠ ended up second best against Foxen’s pocket nines.

As the table was set-up for the heads-up match, Player of the Year leader Martirosian trailed with only 14 big blinds to Foxen’s 90. We weren’t expecting much given the form that Foxen is in, right now.

But only a couple of hours earlier, Xuan Liu in fact did overcome a similar deficit.

Right from the start the players were clashing heavily, with the Russian doubling with J♥ 10♣ through Foxen’s J♠ 9♦. Only minutes later he did the same when his pocket deuces held against the American’s king-queen.

All of a sudden, the stacks were pretty much equal and it was game on.

With that in mind, Foxen suddenly found another gear, scooping nine pots in a row before Martirosian pulled off a nice bluff to halt the charge. Foxen did have a 4-1 lead but erred on the side of caution to continue with a 2-1 advantage.

On a board of 5♥ J♠ A♣ A♥ 4♥, Martirosian jammed with 6♦ 2♠  and Foxen folded a jack, much to the delight of the viewers.

Martirosian’s luck was to be short-lived, however, because only two hands later it was all over.

The board was 8♣ 4♣ 8♠ and Foxen held 9♣ 8♦. Martirosian decided his 10♣ 4♦ was enough to stack off with and Foxen was champion again.

Triton Event 2 – $25K NLH 8-Handed Final Table Results