Kristen Foxen Wins 3rd PGT Title of 2025

Kristen Foxen survived a whirlwind that was three-handed play as short stacks doubled nine consecutive times before she flopped trips to collect seventy-three percent of the chips in play and closed out Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em shortly thereafter for $158,025 plus 158 PGT points to kick off the 2025 U.S. Poker Open.

Foxen started three-handed play as the short stack with a little over three million before she picked up a pair of pots, one from Francis Anderson and the other from Ping Liu, to move into the chip lead before a boat over boat clash with Liu left her steadily in second place. 

Once the players returned from the first break of three-handed play, it was all Liu for the first fifteen minutes. He took down pot after pot to cross the ten million chip mark, and it appeared he was poised to run away with the tournament before he handed Anderson and Foxen doubles on consecutive hands to reset the entire match. 

Anderson was left the short stack, but he quickly doubled through Foxen with king-high against her suited connectors, and the double propelled him into the chip lead as he went from the short stack to the ten million chip mark in a matter of minutes after scoring a third double when his pocket eights held against Liu's nine-seven suited. 

Liu doubled right back through Anderson to move to second in chips but was left crippled when his queen-six off could not run down Foxen's ace-ten in a blind vs. blind battle to leave him with just 1,000,000 chips or just four big blind. Liu would then score back-to-back doubles, the first of which was easy, as his ace-seven dominated Anderson's ace-five, but the second one took a little more effort. 

With just under two million in his stack, he moved all-in from the small blind with king-five suited and ran square into Foxen's king-nine off. The flop and turn were safe for Foxen, but when the river landed the five of clubs, Liu found a three outer to double once more. 

Liu was still the short stack after the double, but that didn't stop Foxen, who moved all in for 5,700,000 from the small blind with ace-deuce off, only to run square into Anderson's waiting arms with pocket tens in the big blind. The flop fell five-deuce-deuce, and Foxen went from a massive underdog to the overwhelming favorite. 

Anderson failed to find a ten on the turn or river and was left with just two big blinds and bowed out moments later when his jack-nine off could not run down Foxen's queen-three, leaving the start-of-day chip leader to collect his $70,950 third-place prize plus 71 PGT points after two and a half hours of three handed play. 

Foxen took a nearly four-to-one chip lead into the heads-up match, and despite Liu drawing first blood with a turned full house to dent her stack slightly, all the chips would end up in the middle with Liu holding king-jack against the ace-seven of hearts from Foxen. Two hearts on the flop and a heart on the turn gave Foxen the nuts and sent Liu to the rail in second place for $96,750 plus 97 PGT points after a quick twenty minutes of play. 

Nearly three hours earlier, Anderson sent Anthony Hu to the rail in fourth place for $51,600 plus 52 PGT points when his queen-jack outflopped Hu's pocket fours, but the knockout before had the poker world talking. 

U.S. Poker Open satellite winner Michael Arellano parlayed a $500 satellite win into a final table appearance in the opening event of the series and looked to be in great shape to find a double when he got his last 800,000 into the middle with ace-queen against the queen-deuce of Foxen blind vs blind. The turn and river were safe for Arellano, but a duck on the river gave Foxen a pair, and Arellano hit the rail in fifth place for $38,700 plus 39 PGT points. 

Two-time U.S. Poker Open Champion David Peters started his quest for a third golden eagle trophy with a final table appearance as the short stack, and scored a ladder when Justin Saliba ran king-five off into Liu's ace-jack suited minutes into the stream big blind vs. button fall in in seventh place for $25,800 plus 26 PGT points. However, the ladder would be all Peters could muster as he hit the rail in sixth place for $32,250 plus 32 PGT points moments later when Liu's king-six ran down his ace-nine. 

Event #1: $5,100 No Limit Hold'em Top Ten Payouts

Foxen Becomes First Player to Cross 1,000 Points on the Season

Event #1 drew 129 entrants into the PokerGO studio, making it the third largest $5,000 buy-in No-Limit field in the history of the PGT, falling just two entries short of tying Event #1 of the 2024 Poker Masters for the second largest field of all time. 

The 129 entrants created a prize pool of $645,000, with the top nineteen players finishing in money. After walking away with her third victory of the 2025 season, Kristen Foxen becomes the first player to cross the 1,000 point threshold and moves back into the top spot with 1,015 points.  

Patrick Leonard also picked up a cash in Event #1 with a tenth-place finish, improving his season total to 628 points. However, he remains in tenth place on the 2025 series leaderboard. No one else in the top ten picked up a cash, as the rest of the top ten remained unchanged. 

For a look at the complete top 40 in the season standings, click here.

2025 PGT Season Top Ten

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