One of the most difficult feats in poker is to achieve consistency. Most players experience variance on some level, especially in tournament poker, due to the simple nature of the game. Skill plays an essential role in players’ successes, but luck is an undeniable factor.
Some players seem to defy the odds, to achieve well beyond the norm and maintain an admirable level of success over an extended period of time.
Enter Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell.
In a repeat performance for both players, Foxen and Bicknell both repeat their Player of the Year achievements. As they did in 2018, they both emerged 2019 on top of their respective Global Poker Index (GPI) leaderboards.
Player of the Year: Alex Foxen
For the second year in a row, American poker pro Alex Foxen topped the GPI rankings in 2019 and earned the Player of the Year award.
https://twitter.com/gpi/status/1212389673429086209?s=20
Foxen was in 12th place in the world before the start of the World Poker Tour’s end-of-year tournament. He trailed players like Stephen Chidwick, Adrian Mateos, Sean Winter, and Anthony Zinno. But he not only played the $10K buy-in WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event in Las Vegas last month, he won it. That seemed to put him over the top to win the GPI POY.
He started the year with some solid finishes at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas, a series that was later announced to have ended in 2019. He finished second and third in two of the $50K buy-ins events at the PCA. As the year progressed, he made final tables at series like the US Poker Open, Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, EPT Monte Carlo, Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, EPT Barcelona, and Poker Masters.
At the 2019 WSOP in Las Vegas, Foxen finished in the money in 10 events, and he added two more at the WSOP Europe, including a sixth-place finish in the Platinum High Roller tournament.
But the Five Diamond World Poker Classic series at the Bellagio in Las Vegas was his time to shine. Foxen finished at the final table of five preliminary series events, most with a $10K buy-in or higher, and then he won the WPT Main Event for $1,694,995 to cap off a stellar year.
https://twitter.com/WAFoxen/status/1209248703829217281?s=20
Foxen’s career has jumped from a place of earning $133K to earnings more than $6 million per year.
A look at Foxen’s GPI profile shows that he started with mostly mid-level buy-in tournaments in 2015, 2016, and 2017. But by February 2018, he bumped the buy-ins to $10K to $25K, though he still competed in many mid-level buy-ins that year, too. In 2019, the vast majority of his cashes came in high-roller-level tournaments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZQA8PDvtdY
To date, Foxen has earned $15,200,726 in live tournaments.
Female Player of the Year: Kristen Bicknell
For a record third year in a row, Kristen Bicknell topped the rankings for women in the game to become the Female Player of the Year in 2019. She also ended the year in 16th place for the overall 2019 Player of the Year rankings, up from 27th the year before.
https://twitter.com/gpi/status/1212389878241153024?s=20
Bicknell’s year started off with two cashes at the PCA and a final table in the Aussie Millions $100K Challenge in Australia. She then scored final tables at the US Poker Open, L.A. Poker Classic, Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, and won an event at the EPT Monte Carlo. She final tabled the Merit Poker Classic Main Event, won an Aria Summer High Roller, and final tabled the PartyPoker MILLIONS Europe Triton Super High Roller.
She finished the year with a win at the Poker Masters and final tables at WPT Montreal and PartyPoker MILLIONS World Bahamas.
Bicknell’s GPI profile shows a steady progression to the top of the rankings as well, which pairs with her transition from online poker to live tournaments.
As a PartyPoker ambassador, Bicknell has played more tournaments in the last two years but also increased her buy-in levels, though not to the extent of her partner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1-QaOd6NP0
The Canadian pro now shows $4,777,107 in live tournament earnings to date.
Other GPI Player of the Year Honors
There are many categories for which the GPI tracks players throughout the year. Now that 2019 is complete, the GPI can announce these winners as well:
--2019 Player of the Year Americas: Alex Foxen of USA--2019 Player of the Year Europe: Stephen Chidwick of UK--2019 Player of the Year Asia: Daniel Tang of Hong Kong--2019 Player of the Year LATAM (Latin America): Farid Jattin of Colombia
There was also a National Player of the Year awarded for every country tracked by GPI, and some of the players are well-known on the global tournament scene:
--Argentina: Jose Nacho Barbero--Austria: Matthias Eibinger--Australia: Kahle Burns--Bosnia & Herzegovina: Ali Imsirovic--Brazil: Joao Simao--Canada: Sam Greenwood--Finland: Juha Helppi--France: Julien Martini--Germany: Rainer Kempe--Italy: Dario Sammartino--Mexico: Angel Guillen--Netherlands: Tobias Peters--Poland: Dzmitry Urbanovich--Portugal: Joao Vieira--Russia: Anatoly Filatov--Slovenia: Casey Kastle--South Africa: Ronit Chamani--South Korea: Sean Yu--Spain: Adrian Mateos--Sweden: Michael Tureniec
The Global Poker Index tracks players’ live tournament in-the-money finishes in events around the world. The venues and operators submit the results to the GPI for players to be included in the Hendon Mob Database and on the GPI rankings.
Rankings are calculated weekly based on in-the-money cash positions in qualifying tournaments over a 36-month period. Tournaments can only be used in rankings if they have 32 or more players and a buy-in of $1 or more. They must also be open events, not limited by gender, age, employment, etc.
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