Kristen Foxen Wins U.S. Poker Open Title to Go Above $15m in Poker Winnings

A bumper prize pool of $666,000 was on offer in the latest U.S. Poker Open event in Las Vegas, with the 2025 GPI Female Player of the Year, poker legend Kristen Foxen, winning her latest major title for $198,000 in Las Vegas last night. Along the way, the beating Canadian outlasted Event #1 winner Brock Wilson, PokerGO favorite Sam Soverel and her fellow high roller Jeremy Ausmus heads-up.

WPT Legend Bubbles USPO Event #4

There were 66 entries in Event #4 of the U.S. Poker Open (USPO), with the buy-increased from $5,000 to $10,000. This meant a top prize of $198,000 was on offer, and only 10 players reached the money. The unfortunate player to bubble the money was a World Poker Tour legend in Darren Elias. No-one has won more WPT titles than the New Jersey pro, but he couldn’t win a coinflip with his ace-king unable to beat Kristen Foxen’s pocket nines. A flop of T-8-5 was followed by a two-outer king, but a nine on the river flipped the script with one last cruel twist to send Elias home in 11^th place.

Vladas Tamasauskas cashed for $19,800 when his queen-jack fell to Foxen’s ace-nine and Jesse Lonis won the same amount when his ace-ten lost to Jeremy Ausmus’ pocket jacks, all the chips going in on a ten-high flop. When the Event #3 winner Cherish Andrews moved all-in with pocket deuces, she was called by Soverel with queens and a queen-high flop and no help thereafter meant Andrews was on her feet to collect $26,400 before the river card was flipped onto the felt.

The final table of seven was set and Ausmus had a sizeable lead with a stack of 3.4 million chips, with Soverel the nearest challenger on a lowly 1.41 million. Nate Silver was one of the shortest stack on just 355,000 chips and paid the price for it, busting in seventh place for $26,400 too. All-in with deuces too, Silver was unable to hold against the ace-eight of Ausmus when an ace in the window came to ultimately send him home.

Wilson and Wilson Both Miss Out

Six players remained but Ausmus was starting to pull away. Sam Soverel was the closest to joining him and dominated Brandon Wilson to defeat. Wilson shoved for just under ten big blinds with ace-jack but was snapped off by Soverel with ace-queen and the superior hand held to reduce the field to five, with Wilson cashing for $36,300 in sixth place.

Out in fifth was Michael Rossitto, who laddered from seventh to fifth as the short stack but eventually bowed out. Winning $49,500 just outside the final four, Rossitto was unfortunate to lose out with ace-nine, with Soverel’s king-ten flopping a Broadway straight.

Brock Wilson finished three places short of winning his second event in four in the 2026 U.S. Poker Open tournaments, cashing for $66,000 in fourth place. All-in with king-ten, Wilson was behind Soverel with ace-four, and an ace-high board send Wilson to the rail, with Soverel threatening the chip lead.

Foxen Proves Tops

Jeremy Ausmus lost the lead soon after, but not to his fellow American. Kristen Foxen doubled through him to snatch the chip advantage, turning the nut straight to beat Ausmus’ top pair, top kicker. That gave the Canadian the lead and she never looked back from that point in the contest.

Soverel lost almost all of his stack to Ausmus when the latter made two pair, and busted soon after for $89,100. All-in with only a few chips holding king-five, Soverel couldn’t overtake Ausmus’ ace-nine and he left the heads-up intriguingly poised, with Foxen on 4.56 million and Ausmus a little back on 3.69m.

The heads-up battle was a lengthier one than often in the USPO events, with 70 big blinds splashing around instead of 25-30 at multiple stages. With the stacks almost back to even, a board of 7-6-2-T-3 landed, with Ausmus going all-in with a pair of nines. Foxen snap-called with pocket sixes for a flopped set and that was good enough to seal a victory worth $198,000, with Ausmus claiming $128,700 as runner-up.

Putting herself top of the USPO leaderboard with her win in Event #4, Kristen Foxen is in pole position to take home the $25,000 PGT Passport and Golden Eagle trophy on offer to the USPO series winner. Now over $15 million in tournament earnings, Foxen can celebrate a sixth PGT title with this win… then register for the next 2026 U.S. Poker Open event.