Champion Alex Foxen

The final $1 million cheque of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series trip to Jeju tonight found the familiar hands of American pro Alex Foxen, who won a fourth title on this prestigious series.

And while there's enormous complexity to high level poker, particularly in Pot Limit Omaha, the variant played in this event, Foxen barely had to break a sweat as he swept aside this $75,000 buy-in, 60-entry field, after an extraordinary quick-fire final table.

Foxen was chip leader at the start of the seven-handed final and won a pivotal pot from Philip Sternheimer soon after the finalists had convened. After that, he went on a sensational tear through the remaining field, scattering to the wind some of the very best poker players in the world.

Foxen made up for what had been a challenging series to that point, banking $1,260,000.

Another trophy for the American pro

"This was a nice change of pace from the way that the end game has been going, the last handful of events," Foxen said, reflecting on his late upturn in fortunes following a punishing couple of weeks. "Things were really easy. It's amazing, the tournament was basically dealt to me. I can only take so much credit. It was a very fortunate run of cards. I had the right hands at the right time."

He admitted that the pot against Sternheimer, where Foxen flopped a straight and Sternheimer bluffed big into him, put him into a position to quickly close it out.

"That was a cool hand," Foxen said. "That was definitely the hand of the tournament for me. And then I just tried to grind it out."

Already established as one of the modern greats, Foxen's modest return from a full slate of events here in Jeju underlined just how much variance plays a part in tournament poker. He had cashed only twice from 14 previous tournaments, and was feeling it.

Foxen said: "These stops can be really gruelling, especially if things aren't going your way, it can be tough emotionally. Also just tough physically, to stay rested throughout the long series. So I was definitely disappointed with the way everything was going, and it's been a bit of a tough series for me. But it feels really good to end it on a good note...It's definitely extremely sweet."

He added that his focus on the mental game kept him going, and finally made his effort pay in the end. "When things aren't going your way, you have to keep your head down and make every decision as well as you can in each spot," he said. "That's all I tried to do, just tried to show up as positive as I can and make decisions as well as I can. That emphasis on the mental game is extremely helpful in the tough moments."

Eelis Parssinen was the last player in with a chance of stopping Foxen

Each of Foxen's final table opponents — Eelis Parssinen, Isaac Haxton, Laszlo Bujtas, Sean Rafael, Sternheimer and Paul Phua — are superb poker players, with a full toolkit of skills. But this one had Foxen's name on it from a long way out, and there was nothing anybody can do to stop him.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Registration remained open into the second day on the final regular-format PLO tournament of the trip. And although there was always the concluding turbo to come, players treated this one as though it was a final chance, racing to re-enter at the last moment. In all, there were 60 entries, including 30 re-entries, and 10 places would be paid.

At one point, with the money closing in, four British players occupied the top four spots: Stephen Chidwick, Richard Gryko, Philip Sternheimer and Gruff Jones. But Gryko, yesterday's runner-up, tumbled out in 13th, followed by two American bosses, Ben Tollerene and Jason Koon.

Koon burst the bubble, first losing a massive pot to Chidwick, whose Q964 flopped a pair and turned two pair, while Koon's J1095 flopped a wrap that missed. Koon's last two blinds went to Alex Foxen.

A BUBBLE FOR JASON KOON

Chidwick was top of the counts as the post-bubble period was strangely slow. In fact, it lasted so long that Chidwick slid all the way from leader to next man out. His chips went to his countryman Jones, in two stages. The first chunk was when Jones hit a jack and an ace holding AQJ3 and Chidwick only had the ace with his AK106.

That was one double for Jones, and a few hands later they saw the explosive flop of 597 when Chidwick had A553 and Jones held A994. Set over set became boat over boat when the seven paired on the turn. Chidwick perished.

STEPHEN CHIDWICK WENT FROM LEADER TO THE RAIL

Lautaro Guerra bust quickly after Chidwick, but there then ensued another greatly-protracted pre-final table period that lasted long enough for the average stack to slide below 25 blinds. Paul Phua was the short stack for much of this, but doubled a couple of times to keep things going as they were. With hand-for-hand action split across two tables, the other players frequently came over to watch what was happening elsewhere, and presumably hope that the agony would end soon.

Players peer over from another table as the final table bubble takes a while to burst

It did eventually. And for the second time, it was the former chip leader who ended up on the rail. Jones had built a mighty stack thanks in large parts to the huge pot against Chidwick. Be he subsequently slid and slid until his last 18 blinds went to Alex Foxen, whose KKJ2 found two more diamonds on the board to beat Jones's AA82.

That's Omaha.

The final table was therefore set, with Foxen now out in front. They lined up as follows:

Alex Foxen - 3,405,000 (68 BBs)

Philip Sternheimer - 2,615,000 (52 BBs)

Eelis Parssinen - 1,630,000 (33 BBs)

Sean Rafael - 1,345,000 (27 BBs)

Isaac Haxton - 1,330,000 (27 BBs)

Paul Phua - 900,000 (18 BBs)

Laszlo Bujtas - 780,000 (16 BBs)

EVENT 18 FINAL TABLE PLAYERS (CLOCKWISE FROM BACK LEFT): LASZLO BUJTAS, EELIS PARSSINEN, ALEX FOXEN, PHILIP STERNHEIMER, SEAN RAFAEL, PAUL PHUA, ISAAC HAXTON.

Tournament organisers rolled back the blinds to give a bit more play, at least at the start of the final, but it would still be an uphill battle for the two shortest stacks, Phua and Laszlo Bujtas.

However, their chances of laddering received a massive boost when the first huge pot of the final played out between the two leaders: Alex Foxen and Philip Sternheimer.

Sternheimer had moved ahead of Foxen in the counts and tried to further his dominance with a raise holding 101044. Foxen three-bet his A5Q6. Two double-suited hands, with Sternheimer holding two pairs and Foxen with some straight cards. It was as good as a flip at this stage.

Sternheimer called and the flop was one of those that Foxen will have greeted with tentative delight. It came 987, giving him the lower end of a possible straight. Both players checked.

The 5 came on the turn and Sternheimer led out. Foxen called. The 2 river changed little. Sternheimer opted to turn his hand into a bluff and moved all-in, putting all the pressure he could on Foxen. The American could only be beaten by jack-ten and gave due consideration to the possibility that that was what he was facing.

But he tossed in the call, heard Sternheimer say, "You got it" and raked in a massive pot. Foxen suddenly had 75 percent of the chips in play.

There are few sights more terrifying in poker than the sight of Alex Foxen with a huge stack. And he began to exert the pressure in delicious fashion. He four-bet Isaac Haxton off a pot pre-flop. (Haxton agonised before folding AKQ7, correctly. Foxen had kings.) And then Foxen just called with a boat holding AAK3 on a board of 855A10, allowing Phua to survive with only one blind.

Theoretically, that put everybody else in an even worst ICM position than they could possibly imagine. How could they even think of playing a hand and potentially busting when a player had only a solitary blind? Phua put them out of their misery, however. He committed his last chip on the next hand and was knocked out by Foxen.

Phua's latest final table appearance, a day after his previous one, was worth $218,000.

PAUL PHUA COULDN'T RECOVER AND WAS KNOCKED OUT IN SEVENTH

Foxen now had 117 blinds. His nearest challenger was Eelis Parssinen, holding 23.

Phua's elimination meant that Sternheimer bucked the trend started by Chidwick and Jones of chip-leaders crashing immediately out. But He only managed to cling on for one more spot. He was eliminated in sixth place when he got his last 11 blinds in pre-flop holding KK54.

The full runout of 463102 gave Sternheimer a flush, but Laszlo Bujtas, his sole opponent, had AKJ10 and that was a flush as well, one pip bigger. Sternheimer has enjoyed an excellent trip to Jeju, but finishes with a $280,000 payout from this one.

All the Brits were now out, while Foxen continued to lead by a clear margin.

PHILIP STERNHEIMER'S EXCEPTIONAL TRIP ENDED IN ANOTHER FINAL TABLE

All the previous slowdowns, plus Foxen's absolute dominance, had resulted in tiny stacks everywhere else around the table. And the lethargy suddenly gave way to the most rapid spate of final table eliminations the tour has perhaps ever seen.

The tournament flew to its heads-up stage in the blink of an eye. In the space of about 10 hands, the tournament went from five to its winner.

Next up, American PLO expert Sean Rafael. He got involved in a pre-flop raising battle holding JJ99. But it lost to Foxen's AAJ7.

Sean Rafael's elimination began a rush to the exit

Then the very next hand, another PLO whiz Bujtas went out in fourth. Bujtas lost with Q1086 to Foxen's AK43.

Laszlo Bujtas saw only one more hand

On the next hand after that, Haxton was gone. He had K5Q4 and Foxen had QQ67. Most of the betting in all of these hands was pre-flop, and they were always all-in by the turn.

Rafael's fifth place earned him $360,000. Bujtas took $457,000 for fourth. And Haxton's third place was worth $600,000.

Isaac Haxton's trip finished with a third place

There's not much more to add. Foxen was unbeatable.

Foxen therefore began heads-up with a lead of 108 blinds to Parssinen's 13, and the short stack couldn't lay a glove on the leader. All five heads-up pots went to Foxen, including the final hand in which Foxen's A986 beat Parssinen's J1022.

No joy for Eelis Parssinen

It's rare that a final table is quite so one sided as this one. But it's not rare to see Alex Foxen with his hands on another Triton Poker Series title.