Formidable Fox Jumps Ahead in WSOP Player of the Year Race

Until last week, the name Elio Fox had faded into relative obscurity, not having recorded a six-figure live tournament result since winning the World Series of Poker Euope Main Event in October 2011.

Back then, Fox put his name on the map taking home $1.8 million and becoming the first winner of the event hosted in France after four editions in London. Better known as smokrokflock, Fox denied Chris Moorman his first bracelet, at a final table that included Shawn Buchanan, Jake Cody, Max Silver and Patrik Antonius.

After winning one of that year’s biggest events, it could’ve been assumed that Fox would become a feature in big events around the world. But Fox failed to follow up this result with another big win until the 2018 WSOP where he took down the brand new $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty event for $393,693.

The New Yorker, who’s as cool, calm and collective as they come, told WSOP.com, “I’m really happy about this one because I haven’t won a live poker tournament in a really, really long time, so it feels good.”

Relive the entire final table of the $100,000 High Roller WSOP Event right now.

After ending his dry-spell, Fox had the means and confidence to enter the $100,000 High Roller and found himself squaring off against all the big names the battle at these stakes throughout the calendar year.

Fix finished second in this event for $1,798,658, just shy of his biggest win in Cannes, Fox told us, “I definitely had tables where I felt like there were a lot of players better than I am. I just tried to do my best and figure it out.”

Fox definitely figured things out, maneuvering his way through the Final 16 that included Steffen Sontheimer, Jason Mercier, Christoph Vogelsang, Fedor Holz, Adrian Mateos and Jason Koon. On the final day, Fox left Stephen Chidwick, Bryn Kenney, Andreas Eiler, and Aymon Hata behind him, only to see Nick Petrangelo best him heads up. Petrangelo recorded the biggest score of his career worth $2,910,227.

“I’m more happy about these results than my win in Cannes. I’ve gone so long without doing well, and this feels like getting a chip off my shoulder. It feels so good.”

Fox had support on the rail from the likes of Kevin MacPhee and Stephen Chidwick, but one very special had a chance to see her son play under the bright lights for the very first time.

“Everybody’s been really supportive, but my mom’s especially, she’s right there,” Fox said as he pointed towards the rail where we could see a smile from ear to ear on his mother’s face.

“This was the first time she came to watch me at a final table, and that definitely feels good.”

The back-to-back results have put Fox at the top of the 2018 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race, but he made it clear that it’s not something he has his eyes set on.

“I’d be happy if I won it, but I’m not going to chase after it and play a crazy schedule.”

The current Player of the Year Standings is as follows.

Watch the 2018 World Series of Poker live on PokerGO and Twitch. Tomorrow you can watch the final table of the $10,000 Omaha Eight-or-Better Split Championship Event followed by the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on Thursday and the $10,000 Heads Up Championship on Friday. New to PokerGO? Subscribe right now and enjoy more than 100 days of live poker action every single year, as well as an extensive on-demand library of content.