Alex Foxen Looks Back at His Fourth Bracelet and the 2026 WSOP

The first interview in ACR Poker’s new 14-part weekly series goes inside the three-way all-in that unlocked Foxen’s fourth bracelet, the $25K PLO near miss he still thinks about and the shared-bracelet summer he experienced with Kristen Foxen.

ACR Poker is kicking off a new 14-part weekly interview series with Alex Foxen, giving players a first-person look back at the 2026 WSOP through the people who played it. Foxen opens the series, with a new first-person WSOP story set to follow each week.

Foxen joined Team ACR Poker just before the summer and immediately put together a huge series. He recorded 14 cashes and $2,067,005 in listed payouts, won the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty for his fourth career bracelet, reached the $100,000 High Roller final table and made a deep run in the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller.

The results only tell part of it. Kristen Foxen also won a bracelet during the same series, and Alex says presenting her with No. 6 was the moment he will remember most. He also looks back at the three-way all-in that changed his bracelet run, the Pot Limit Omaha near miss that still stings and the lessons he took from a long summer of high-stakes poker.

The Three-Way All-In That Changed Everything

The bracelet win came in $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em. The event drew 466 entries and paid Foxen $594,246 for first place. But when he looks back, the trophy is not the first image that comes to mind.

ACR Poker: You won your fourth bracelet in the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty. What stands out most when you think back to that tournament?

Honestly, what stands out most is winning a three-way all-in with sixes against, I think, ace-nine and king-jack. That got me two bounties and took me from around an average stack — maybe 1.5 times average — to the chip lead with about 16 players left. It was a super pivotal moment for me.

Up until that point, I’d been on the shorter side throughout the tournament. Not really short, but I hadn’t picked up many bounties. I think I had one, maybe two, before that hand, and I ended the tournament with 14. I think I knocked out something like 10 of the last 14 players, or 12 of the last 16.

That hand put me in a spot where I could really pressure people. Especially in that type of tournament, where stacks are pretty shallow, I think having experience in shallow-stack endgame situations was a massive advantage. Once I had the bigger stack, I felt like I had a really good chance of winning the tournament.

Alex Foxen

A Super Turbo Still Has to Be Played Like Poker

The structure moves fast, but Foxen does not treat “turbo” as a reason to abandon the usual decision-making process.

ACR Poker: Super turbo events force major decisions very quickly. How does your strategy and mindset change when there is almost no time to wait for a better spot?

I think, in general, things don’t change very much. Obviously, you have to be a bit less selective than in something like the Main Event. Those are probably on opposite ends of the spectrum.

But really, the decision primarily comes down to the information you have in front of you. Who are the players? What are the stacks? What are the positions? What’s my hand? What stage of the tournament is it? How many players are left? What’s the average stack? All of those standard components.

I think a lot of people get overly caught up in, “Oh, it’s a turbo. I need to gamble.” Sure, you do, but in every poker tournament you need to gamble.

People getting overly caught up in that during Super Turbos is similar to people getting overly caught up in preserving their stack and not gambling in something like the Main Event. I think people overadjust on both sides.

In the Main Event, you still need to be willing to take risks sometimes. And in a Super Turbo, you don’t always need to take every super-thin spot.

Alex Foxen

The Near Miss That Still Stings

The result Foxen still circles is the $25,000 High Roller Pot Limit Omaha event he played immediately after winning the Super Turbo.

ACR Poker: You had several other major results during the series. Which near-miss or deep run do you still think about most, and why?

Unfortunately, it’s definitely the $25K PLO.

One of my goals for this summer was to win a PLO bracelet. That’s something I haven’t done yet and something I’ve been quite close to a few times. I mean, I have an online PLO bracelet, but I don’t really count that.

The $25K PLO is, to me, one of the coolest ones to win. It’s not a small field by any means — around 400 people — and it’s a huge buy-in. It’s a tough field, a big field, and it’s PLO, so it’s one of the biggest $25Ks of the year and definitely the biggest PLO $25K of the year.

I had a really good shot. I was one of the chip leaders pretty much throughout the entire tournament, right up until the final table. The stacks redistributed a little bit, and I think I was second of seven, or maybe third of seven — very close. I guess I must have been second of seven.

There was a recreational player with the chip lead, and Eelis Parssinen, the eventual winner, was very close to me in chips.

Eelis and I got aces versus aces. The chip leader had about 40% of the chips in play, Eelis and I each had around 20%, and everyone else was quite short. It was a spot where whoever got those chips was going to be able to really hammer the rest of the table, especially because the chip leader wasn’t applying as much pressure.

I had ace-ace-queen-deuce single-suited against ace-ace-seven-seven single-suited. We got it in preflop for about 35 big blinds each. He potted, I repotted, and we got it in. I lost the all-in and was out in seventh for around $260K, while first was $2.2 million, which he went on to win.

So it wasn’t just the bracelet sweat and the monetary element. It also would have been huge for Player of the Year and all those things. It was a big swing.

It was actually the tournament immediately after the $10K Super Turbo that I had won. I finished that tournament around one or two in the morning, went home, slept, came back, fired my first bullet in the $25K, and ran it up. I had the chip lead most of the way to the final table.

It had that storybook feel — win back-to-back tournaments and have all these Player of the Year implications.

But like anything else, it was just a test. It was a moment of difficulty that made sure the rest of the summer wasn’t too easy on me.

So unfortunately, that’s the most memorable near miss for me. I was very close, and it just makes me hungrier to get another one.

Alex Foxen

Foxen’s 2026 WSOP at a Glance

Foxen finished the series with 14 cashes and $2,067,005 in listed payouts. Four results show the range of the run:

Foxen’s 2026 WSOP at a Glance
Event	Finish	Payout
$10,000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH	1st	$594,246
$100,000 High Roller NLH	6th	$522,347
$25,000 Heads-Up NLH Championship	4th	$300,000
$25,000 High Roller PLO	7th	$267,993

Two Bracelets, One Summer

Alex and Kristen Foxen both won bracelets during the 2026 series. For Alex, the shared experience became one of the defining parts of the summer.

ACR Poker: You and Kristen both won bracelets during the same series. What was it like experiencing individual success while also supporting each other through such an intense summer?

Kristen and I both won bracelets during the series, and someone told me that’s the first time a married couple has ever done that. I guess it was the first time in open events. That’s cool — to be part of a couple legacy like that.

I’ve been asked this type of question a lot: what it’s like experiencing each other’s success. I’d say that’s probably the most special thing about going through this together. It makes poker that much more enjoyable.

I don’t want to say I feel sorry for other poker players, but one of the struggles can be that poker takes them away from their wife, their kids, and their life from a family perspective.

We’re lucky enough to experience it together and have it be a major part of our life together. We know exactly what the other is going through, support each other when things aren’t going well, and celebrate when things are going well.

I couldn’t really be any more fortunate. I also get the added benefit of having someone remind me to take a day off, remind me not to be results-oriented, or tell me maybe I should have folded the turn — whatever it might be — that other people might not get from their family.

So I’m definitely just really grateful.

Alex Foxen

The Hands He Wants Back

Even after another elite series, Foxen’s answer about improvement starts with the parts of his own game he believes can still sharpen.

ACR Poker: After another elite campaign, what part of your live tournament game do you still believe can become significantly better?

I think everything, really.

There are so many components to live poker, and poker in general, that make chasing perfection or top-level performance kind of an endless campaign. That’s what keeps me motivated.

I would say there were a couple of failures in execution. I can think of five or six hands that I would really like back from this WSOP, and they could have changed the way a handful of tournaments went.

For me, I’ve always believed the number one thing is execution. It’s definitely something I take pride in doing relatively well, I believe. But like anything else, there’s always room for improvement.

There were a few hands I’d really like back. A few hands where I didn’t trust my read on the situation or was overly caught up in the moment.

Being extra present is another thing that I find very important, but there are always momentary lapses in that presence. So I think improving presence and improving execution kind of go hand in hand.

Then there’s continuing to not be myopic. It’s easy to get focused on one concept or one element of a hand and overlook a lot of other important components.

To me, all three of those things interlock. Being present helps prevent you from being myopic, and that increases your execution. Those are probably the three components that I’m forever seeking to improve.

Alex Foxen

His Favorite Moment Was Kristen’s

When asked to choose one memory from the entire series, Foxen did not pick his own bracelet win or one of the major final tables.

ACR Poker: What is the one moment you will remember most from the 2026 WSOP?

For me, it has to be being able to present Kristen with the bracelet after the $25K.

That was a really cool moment. There were a lot of people on her rail. It was definitely surreal and really big. I think it was her biggest score yet and her sixth bracelet.

There was a part of me that was hesitant about the idea because I didn’t want to take any of the focus away from it being about her. I don’t want anything she does to have to be associated with me in some way.

But obviously, she didn’t see it that way. I don’t see it that way. That was just my one hang-up about the moment.

Really, it was surreal to be up there on the stage, almost on the other side, just celebrating her.

That was the most special moment for me.

Alex Foxen

What the 2026 WSOP Taught Him

Foxen closed the conversation with two lessons he wants to carry forward: more curiosity about mixed games and more attention to fatigue.

ACR Poker: Complete the sentence: “My 2026 WSOP taught me that…”

I’m going to say two things.

It taught me that mixed games are more fun than I thought. I played a few mixed tournaments that I haven’t played in the past, and I enjoyed them quite a bit.

It also taught me that being aware of fatigue is difficult and important.

I think some of the execution lapses I had throughout the series, which I referenced earlier, were the result of fatigue more than anything else.

In the future, I look forward to monitoring and managing my energy output and conserving it a little bit. Maybe that means playing a few fewer of the smaller events, registering late sometimes when it’s possible, or getting to bed as early as possible.

I mean, I usually do that. My days are basically comprised of poker, sleep, and working out.

So, manage energy, manage rest, and have some fun playing mixed limit games.

Alex Foxen