The latest round of PGT U.S. Poker Open events saw PokerStake seller Kristen Foxen and her husband Alex both among the winners. Brock Wilson won his second event of the seven so far to take the overall lead in the race for the Golden Eagle, while another big PokerStake player reached back-to-back final tables.

Kristen Foxen Wins Event #4 for $198,000

The fourth event of the U.S. Poker Open was the perfect one for Canadian PokerStake seller Kristen Foxen, who won the top prize of $198,000 after beating the 2025 PGT Championship winner Jeremy Ausmus in the final heads-up battle. With her fellow PokerStake sellers Brandon Wilson and Brock Wilson also making the final stages, it was a dramatic victory in the toughest of company.

With a massive prize pool of $666,000 up for grabs, just 10 players from the 66 entries and re-entries would reach the money places.  The ‘Bubble Boy’ was none other than the World Poker Tour legend Darren Elias, who has four WPT titles to his name, more than any other player on the planet. The sometime PokerStake seller was all-in with ace-king but couldn’t beat Kristen Foxen’s pocket nines, despite a king coming on the turn. A nine on the river was the two-outer required to send the former PGT champion to the rail.

Kristen’s fellow PokerStake seller Vladas Tamasauskas won $19,800 when his queen-jack fell couldn’t beat her ace-nine and the Event #3 winner Cherish Andrews suffered the same fate with pocket deuces against Sam Soverel’s pocket queens albeit for a larger cash of $26,400.

Jeremy Ausmus led the final table but after Brock Wilson fell just short of winning his second USPO event in four, cashing for $66,000 in fourth, Kristen Foxen doubled through Ausmus with the nut straight giving the Canadian a lead she never relinquished. While Kristen led with 4.56 million to Ausmus’ 3.69m chips, a set of sixes was good enough for her to claim victory when Ausmus’ pocket nines were deemed enough to commit his stack, good for a solid score of $128,700 as runner-up.

PGT 2026 U.S. Poker Open $10,000 NLHE Event #4 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Kristen Foxen	Canada	$198,000
2nd	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	$128,700
3rd	Sam Soverel	United States	$89,100
4th	Brock Wilson	United States	$66,000
5th	Michael Rossitto	United States	$49,500
6th	Brandon Wilson	United States	$36,300
7th	Nate Silver	United States	$26,400

Alex Foxen Wins Event #7 for $210,000

“Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if I still win this tournament after losing all these all-ins?”

Never one to remain on the sidelines for long, Kristen’s husband Alex was soon back in the winner’s enclosure himself, with victory in Event #7 worth $210,000. With an increase to 70 total entries, it was the PokerGO founder Cary Katz who suffered the beat on the money bubble, his pocket sevens being unable to hold as Alex Foxen’s king-ten of diamonds was committed on the board of K-T-8-7 with Katz holding bottom set. The river card was a ten to stun the table and send Katz to the rail without any return on his buy-in this time.

Cashes for PokerStake crusher Chino Rheem (10^th for $21,000) and WSOP bracelet winner Shannon Shorr (8^th for $28,000) followed before the final table of seven was in place. When the final day of action began, Foxen had 55% of the chips in play, busting players such as PokerStake seller Aram Zobian (4^th for $70,000) and Qinghai Pan (3^rd) before taking on Jeremy Ausmus, who had reached his third heads-up of the week.

Sadly for Ausmus, he lost again, leading to some teasing on X from his USPO peers. Foxen enjoyed a 4:1 chip lead and eventually called it off for the win with two-pair when Ausmus bluffed with air on the river in a tricky spot.

When asked by reporters after victory what keeps him at the top of his game, Foxen was thoughtful.

“I have the normal routine of health and fitness stuff,” he said “A mindset towards seeking out challenges and enjoying challenging things [is] very helpful. You could look at losing a bunch of all-ins in a row as ‘poor me’ or you could think of it like ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if I still win this tournament after losing all these all-ins?’ I try to do that as much as I can with everything in life, but it translates really well to poker.”

PGT 2026 U.S. Poker Open $10,000 NLHE Event #7 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Alex Foxen	United States	$210,000
2nd	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	$136,500
3rd	Qinghai Pan	United States	$94,500
4th	Aram Zobian	United States	$70,000
5th	Michael Berk	United States	$52,500
6th	Sam Laskowitz	United States	$38,500
7th	John Andress	United States	$28,000

Brock Wilson Doubles His Advantage

In Event #6, Brock Wilson became the first player of the series to win two of the events on the 10-tournament schedule, banking $224,000 after seeing off the talents of Nick Schulman heads-up. There were 80 entries in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event, with Kent Stephens the unfortunate player to miss out on profit when his pocket nines didn’t hold in a coinflip against the ace-king of Brock Wilson, the PokerStake seller hitting a king on the turn to eliminate the at-risk player.

Players to cash outside of the final table this time included Cary Katz, who min-cashed for $20,000 in 12^th place. WSOP bracelet winners Nick Seward (9^th for $24,000) and Joao Simao (8^th for $32,000) both won money but fell short of the final seven, who were led to the final table by Wilson. Darren Elias won money this time, cashing for $32,000 in seventh place before Michael Berk exited for $40,000 in sixth place.

Justin Vaysman was unlucky to bust in fifth for $56,000 when his pocket kings were cracked by Nick Schulman’s ace-eight of spades as a flop of Q-6-2 with two spades saw the money go in, a turn of a nine of spades ending the hand in the seven-time WSOP bracelet winner’s favor. Clemen Deng busted in fourth for $76,000 to Schulman too, but not before Jeremy Becker cracked his pocket aces with pocket eights.

Becker was fortunate on that occasion, but his luck ran out in spectacular fashion. ‘JBex’ saw his gutsy king-four shove – nothing but a high card – called superbly by Nick Schulman. Not only did Schulman make the call with just third pair only holding seven-six but he called Becker’s exact hand of king-four during his deliberations.

If that call was worthy of winning an event, the cards didn’t care, as Wilson went on to win his second title in six events. Both men held the lead during a swingy heads-up battle but Wilson ended with all the chips when Schulman tank-called with a pair of jacks on the board of Q-Q-T-J-6 only to be shown Wilson’s far superior king-queen for flopped trips.

PGT 2026 U.S. Poker Open $10,000 NLHE Event #6 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Brock Wilson	United States	$224,000
2nd	Nick Schulman	United States	$144,000
3rd	Jeremy Becker	United States	$104,000
4th	Clemen Deng	United States	$76,000
5th	Justin Vaysman	United States	$56,000
6th	Michael Berk	United States	$40,000
7th	Darren Elias	United States	$32,000