Isaac Haxton Continues Red-Hot Start To 2023

Isaac Haxton is on quite the heater to start 2023. In the first 34 days of 2023, Haxton has already scored $3,744,740 in live tournament earnings.

Haxton began his 2023 poker campaign with a $598,000 victory in the final event of the PokerGO Cup. He then hopped on a jet to head to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas. There, Haxton entered the $100,000 Super High Roller and won it for $1,082,230. He then cashed in the PCA Main Event for $17,600 before chopping the $25,000 NL Hold’em High Roller 8-Handed event for $491,550.

Haxton wasn't done there. He made one final run in the PCA $100,000 NL Hold'em 7-Handed event and won it for his biggest score of the year to date, $1,555,360.

Isaac Haxton’s Early 2023 Results

If you recall following the 2023 PokerGO Cup, then you’ll know that Haxton’s only cash at the series was in the final event, Event #8: $50,000 NL Hold’em. He showed up late to the series but made it count. Haxton took the chip lead into the final day of the final event and rode that chip lead to a $598,000 victory. The win gave Haxton 359 points for the PGT leaderboard. At time of writing, Haxton was fourth on the 2023 PGT leaderboard.

In the PCA $100,000 Super High Roller, Haxton was among the 40 entries to generate a $4,753,980 prize pool. Haxton came into the final day of this tournament in fifth place with six players remaining. He maneuvered his way to three-handed play alongside Seth Davies and Adrian Mateos before the three players worked out a deal. After the deal, Haxton eliminated Mateos in third place and Davies in second place to win the title.

In the PCA $10,300 Main Event, Haxton eanred a min-cash for $17,600. He finished in 124th place among the 889 entries.

It was nearly another half million dollars in the bank for Haxton when he took third in the PCA $25,000 NL Hold’em High Roller 8-Handed. Once again, Haxton made his way to three-handed play before a deal was struck. Haxton then busted in third place and was awarded $491,550.

In the PCA $100,000 NL Hold'em 7-Handed, Haxton was among the 46 entries to generate a $4,508,460 prize pool. Haxton made his way to the final table and later found himself heads up with Fedor Holz after he busted Aleksejs Ponakovs in third place. Haxton took the leads into heads-up play and went on to win from there.

Haxton’s Best Start To a Year Ever?

The question now is, is this the best start to a year in Haxton’s career?

Although Haxton has had a few excellent starts in previous years, he’s never won this much money so early in the year. Checking the TheHendonMob.com results for Haxton, the previous best January that he has had was in 2007. That’s when Haxton famously finished second to Ryan Daut in the PCA Main Event for $861,789 when the final table was played outside. His next result that year was for $45,560, but it didn't come until near the end of February.

In 2014, Haxton cashed for $9,900 in January and then finished second in the Aussie Millions $250,000 Challenge for $2,525,841, but that second score came about a week later than what he's done in 2023.

In 2016, Haxton cashed for $817,440 in January, and it coincidentally came due to some big PCA results. He finished sixth in the $100,000 Super High Roller for $360,060, fourth in the $50,000 High Roller for $380,200, and then won the $2,200 6-Handed NL Hold’em for $77,180.

Having won $3,744,740 through fewer than 35 days in 2023, it’s safe to say this is the best start to a year in Haxton’s career.

What To Expect From Haxton On the PGT

If we draw from what we saw from Haxton at the PokerGO Cup, we likely won’t see Haxton in too many of the sub-$25,000 PGT events during the 2023 season. That said, there are plenty of $25,000 and higher buy-in events on the PGT schedule.

Coming up in the more immediate future is the PGT PLO Series $25,000 PLO Championship on March 18. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see Haxton in this event as he has played a bit of pot-limit Omaha throughout his career.

A little further down the road, the 2023 U.S. Poker Open comes at the end of March and into April. The back end of the schedule has two $25,000 events and the $50,000 finale. Then we should expect Haxton for the next edition of Super High Roller Bowl, which he won in 2018 for a career-best live tournament score of $3,672,000.

Playing a schedule of lower volume will make it more difficult on Haxton to finish in the top 40 of the PGT leaderboard and qualify for the season-ending PGT Championship $1,000,000 freeroll, but there are plenty of high buy-in PGT-qualifying events throughout the year that Haxton could gather enough points from a select schedule.

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