The Global Poker Index confirm Alex Foxen and his partner Kristen Bicknell as the two leading lights of the male and female Player of the Year race, and Jake Schindler wins the Card Platyr of the Year award.
It’s official; poker has a king and queen.
The noted poker ranking authority, The Global Poker Index (GPI), has crowned Alex Foxen as the 2018 GPI Player of the Year (PoY) and bestowed the GPI Female PoY title to his partner, Kristen Bicknell.
The mountain lion like Foxen booked the victory after finishing runner-up to Isaac Haxton in the season-ending Super High Roller Bowl V (SHRB). Any less, and Stephen Chidwick would have pinched it at the death thanks to his third-place finish in the same event.
Foxen became the chief landlord of poker’s gaff after making 18 final tables, winning five titles, and amassing $6,632,556 in live tournament earnings, dwarfing his previous best annual haul of $1,716,078, the year before.
Here are his wins:
Feb 27-28 – Foxen beats 50-entrants to win the $424,625 first prize in a $25,000 ARIA High Roller.
Mar 17-19 – Foxen batters 68-folks to take home the $963,880 first prize in the HKD 400,000 (USD 51,000) buy-in Super High Roller at the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) in Macau.
Jun 15-17 – Controversy reigns as Foxen tops a 178-entrant field to win the $239,000 top prize in a $5,000 buy-in event at The Venetian, beating his partner Bicknell, heads-up, with some quarters of the poker community alleging soft play between the pair.
Aug 12-14 – Foxen conquers a field of 422-entrants in a $2,650 buy-in event at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open earning $208,452.
Dec 9-10 – Foxen is the last man seated in a 159-entrant $5,000 at the Bellagio during the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic banking $246,768.
Foxen’s richest haul of the year came in the SHRB V, collecting $2,160,000 for his runner-up finish.
The 2018 GPI Player of the Year Rankings
1. Alex Foxen – 4,095.52
2. Stephen Chidwick – 3,787.26
3. David Peters – 3,776.97
4. Justin Bonomo – 3,763.02
5. Jake Schindler – 3,716.07
6. Steve O’Dwyer – 3,596.30
7. Pavel Plesuv – 3,503.07
8. Adrian Mateos – 3,412.43
9. Michael Soyza – 3,389.65
10. Joe McKeehen – 3,381.56
Kristen Bicknell Wins the Female 2018 GPI Player of the Year
1. Kristen Bicknell – 3,071.41
2. Maria Lampropulos – 2,418.28
3. Loni Harwood – 2,252.47
4. Maria Ho – 2,033.77
5. Maria Konnikova – 1,959.33
6. Gao Wenling – 1,957.20
7. Anna Antimony – 1,934.25
8. Wendy Freeman – 1,705.33
9. Kitty Kuo – 1,688.69
10. Nadya Magnus – 1,649.91
For the second year running, Kristen Bicknell won the GPI Female PoY award in a one-sided affair. The partypoker ambassador earned a career-high $1,095,611 in 2018, including seven final tables and a lone victory when the Canadian beat 117-entrants to capture the $279,549 first prize in the HKD 80,000 (USD 10,000) buy-in APPT National High Roller in Macau.
It’s worth noting that only one male and one female sitting in the Top 10 are sponsored by an online poker room (Adrian Mateos – Winamax, Kristen Bicknell – partypoker).
The Best of the GPI Rest
Foxen also won the North American PoY award. Chidwick triumphed in the European PoY rankings. Michael Soyza was the top player in Asia, and partypoker rounded off a cracking year with Joao Simao winning the Latin American PoY award.
Jake Schindler Wins the 2018 Card Player Player of the Year Award
Foxen didn’t hog all the poker newspaper headlines.
Jake Schindler got a little black and white on his hands.
The American won the 2018 Card Player PoY award, beating Chidwick to the title by a landslide.
Schindler, who finished fifth in the GPI Rankings, pulled in a series of results that make you want to puke with envy. The high rolling maestro made 31 final tables, winning eight titles, and earning a career-high $9,118,893.
Schindler racked up most of his victories at the ARIA where he finished fourth in the Poker Central High Roller of the Year rankings. He won two seven-figure scores banking $2,151,754 for winning the 48-entrant €100,000 Super High Roller at the partypoker MILLIONS Grand Final in Barcelona and topping a 37-entrant $100,000 High Roller at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at The Bellagio for $1,332,000.
2018 Card Player of the Year Rankings
1. Jake Schindler – 9,407
2. Stephen Chidwick – 8,845
3. Alex Foxen – 8.259
4. David Peters – 8,059
5. Justin Bonomo – 7,752
6. Adrian Mateos – 6,477
7. Rainer Kempe – 5,924
8. Jason Koon – 5,827
9. Steve O’Dwyer – 5,688
10. Pavel Plesuv – 5,626
