Kristen Foxen Repeats as PGT Kickoff Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em Champion

Kristen Foxen relinquished the chip lead for one hand of heads-up play, but other than that, went wire-to-wire at the top of the counts to walk away with the 484 PGT points and the trophy in Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em plus $197,625 after a deal with Joao Simao heads-up. 

At one point during three-handed play, Foxen had both Simao and Stephen Song down to just five or so big blinds, but after Simao found a double with ace-jack against Foxen's king-five, he then picked up pocket fives to eliminate Song and his ace-king in third place for $111,600 plus 223 PGT to pull dead even with Foxen in chips to start the heads-up match. 

Both players sat with roughly seven million chips, good for about 35 big blinds, prompting the two to agree to an even chop of the remaining prize pool, but after Foxen took down the first hand of the match to take the chip lead right back, she closed out the tournament in heroic fashion. 

Foxen limped the button, and Simao raised to 700,000 from the big blind. Foxen called to see a seven-high, two-heart flop as Simao slowed down with a check. Foxen bet 550,000, Simao check-raised to 1,700,000, and Foxen called. 

The turn fell an eight, and the action checked through as the river eight of hearts completed the board. Simao moved all in for just over four million, and after a time extension, Foxen called with nine-seven off for two pair. Simao could only show ace-ten with the ten of hearts for ace-high, and he headed to the payout desk in second place for $197,625 plus 307 PGT points. 

Foxen, who started the day as the overwhelming chip leader, eliminated Jeremy Ausmsu in fourth place for $83,700 plus 167 PGT points in a unique fashion over the course of two hands to further cement herself at the top of the counts heading into three-handed play. During the first hand, Ausmus three-bet from the big blind to what she thought was an all-in amount only to realize he left one 25,000 chip behind from the two million he put into the pot.

The board ran out queen-high, and while the remaining chip never went into the middle for Ausmus, he was forced all in from the small blind the next hand, and Foxen in the big blind turned a pair of queens to send the 2024 PGT Player of the Year home. 

While Foxen never had much of a sweat getting to heads-up play, Simao was almost out the door in fourth place after he found himself in a three-way all-in holding ace-nine against Foxen's pocket threes and Andrew Moreno's ace-king. The board double paired on the turn, leaving Foxen's threes counterfeit, and while Moreno and Simao seemed destined for a chop, a nine on the river gave Simao the full double and sent Moreno home in fifth place for $65,100 plus 130 PGT points. 

Nick Seward came into the day as the short stack but scored a ladder when Simao's king-ten out turned Neil Warren's ace-eight to send the Event #3 runner-up home in seventh place for $37,200 plus 74 PGT points. 

Seward scored a double through Simao and looked like he could be making a run, but it was not to be, as his newly found chips quickly made their way to Foxen's stack when his ace-jack ran square into her ace-king. The board ran out eight high, Seward failed to find a jack and headed out the door in sixth place for $46,500 plus 93 PGT points. 

Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Payouts 

Foxen Defends 2024 PGT Kickoff Event #5 Title to Jump to Top of the Leaderboard

Just over one year ago, 50 entrants made their way into the PokerGO studio for Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em to close out the PGT Kickoff series. Despite the field size nearly doubling this year with 93 entrants, Foxen once again emerged victorious but, unlike last year, now sits atop the PGT Leaderboard through the first series of the season. 

Foxen trailed David Coleman by over 100 points as the first series of 2024 came to a close after only scoring a pair of cashes, this year she amassed three cashes to go along with the win to end the series with 525 points and is almost 200 points clear of second place Patrick Leonard who also found three cashes and a win during the Kickoff. 

Event #5 sixth-place finisher Seward also picked up his third cash of the series and sits in seventh place with 256 points, while runner-up Simao found his second cash to move into third on the leaderboard. Warren and Song also picked up their second cashes of the series and sit in 8th and 9th place, respectively, with Warren three points behind Seward for seventh and Song one point behind Warren. Michael Vainer rounds out the top ten and sits one point behind Song. 

Event #5 created a prize pool of $930,000, with the top fourteen players making the money, and despite not cashing in the event, previous 2025 PGT kickoff winners Spencer Champlin, Masato Yokosawa, and Andrew Lichtenberger round out the top six on the leaderboard. 

Rounding out the payouts for Event #5, John Andress (8th), Bin Duan (9th), Carson Richards (10th), Sean Winter (11th), and Michael Berk (14th) all picked up their first cashes of the 2025 season, while Sam Soverel (12th) and Eric Blair (13th) added a second cash to their season totals. 

2025 PGT Leaderboard - Top Ten 

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