Editor
The tournament poker action worldwide continues to heat up as everyone prepares for the quickly approaching 2025 WSOP. A few individuals will be very happy over the most recent set of results, with six-figure scores as a prize for their peerless tournament poker strategy.
Triton Montenegro
The $25,000 buy-in event in Triton Montenegro had a notable winner in Alex Foxen, who won his third career Triton title for $755,000. In a year with multiple wins, Foxen has amassed over $3.8 million in total earnings, and we are not even halfway through 2025 yet. This year’s largest score came in his last Triton title in Jeju, for $1.076 million.
This win required the 34-year-old to beat 130 entries and many of the world’s best players. After entering the final table as the chip leader, Foxen was able to sail his way to the title, beating Russian player Artur Martirosian heads-up.
Foxen told Ali Nejad in a post-win interview about how he was wary of Martirosian’s ability:
“There were lots of good players as there always are in these tournaments. I definitely didn’t like seeing Artur to my left with a lot of chips. He likes to battle.”
The Lord Poker Tour Jeju
The Lord Poker Tour in Jeju, South Korea held its $15,000 buy-in Main Event which attracted 191 entries. The winner was none other than Stephen Song who won the grand prize of $750,000. Song is regarded as one of the top tournament players in the world, especially in the last 12 months.
This score makes for the second largest of his career, trailing only his $1.4 million win in EPT Barcelona, in September 2024. The 29-year-old from Connecticut has now accumulated close to $10 million in career earnings before the age of 30.
WSOP Tournament of Champions
The 2025 version of the WSOP Tournament of Champions took place at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, the second year in a row it has been held at that location. This is always one of the most unique tournaments of the year as it’s a $1,000,000 freeroll bracelet event, eligible to those who have won a piece of WSOP hardware since the end of last year’s TOC.
This year’s version drew 485 entries, a significant decrease from the 562 entries in 2024. This is likely due to the overall lack of popularity of hosting the event in Los Angeles, which is an inconvenient location at an inconvenient time in the poker schedule for many players.
The WSOP bracelet ended up going to Kevin Li of Canada, along with the $200,000 grand prize. Li qualified for the tournament of champions through a circuit ring that he won when the WSOP Circuit came to Calgary.
