GG MILLION$ LIVE Showdown Sees Pichierri Beat Foxen to the WSOP Gold

Italian professional Alessandro Pichierri beat all-American poker hero Alex Foxen to the latest WSOP Europe title last night as he took down the GG MILLION€ Live Event #8 of the 2024 WSOP Europe festival. In doing so, Pichierri banked an incredible $371,400 and took home the second bracelet of his career after also winning at the 2021 version of this tournament series.

Big Names Bounce as Foxen Felts the Wife… Twice!

The action was re-hot from the first card in the Czech-German border town of Rozvadov. There were 38 total entries, creating a prizepool of €1 million ($1,105,750). Only six players would receive prizes inside the money places, and with early eliminations for stars of the felt such as Shaun Deeb, Stephen Chidwick, Martin Kabrhel and the WSOP final table player from 2023, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, competition was fierce.

One particular big name to bust had more reason than most to complain to their life partner… as it was her husband who busted her! Kristen Foxen is one of the best-known players in the world and reached the final two tables of this year’s WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas. That counted for nothing when Alex Foxen busted his wife not once but twice as she exited outside the money. Foxen would use those chips to run very deep, but there were nine left and three more needed to bust.

Orpen Kisacikoglu left in ninth when the Britain-based Turkish player shoved with pocket fives to lose to Swiss player Salih Atac’s ace-queen which rivered an ace. Viktor Blom was eliminated in eighth place when his pocket queens were crushed by Pichierri’s aces and the money bubble burst when the German player Samuel Ju lost out with ace-king to Atac’s pair of aces, as a jack-high board took out the at-risk player and put the remaining six players into the money.

The King of King’s is Dethroned

As the six-handed final table, the American Alex Foxen led on 6,425,000 chips, with Atac close behind on 4.3 million. The shorter stacks were at high risk of elimination and one of them did just that quickly. German player Sirzat Hissou busted for $71,875 in sixth place when he moved all-in for around ten big blinds with seven-six of hearts.

The chips went in on a flop of A-J-5 with two hearts but Hissou needed to hit against the ace-five of Leon Tsoukernik. The Czech Republic remained ahead through the eight of spades on the turn. A heart was needed on the river but not the five of that suit as it came to fulfil the flush but hand Tsoukernik a full house.

The Norwegian player Tom-Aksel Bedell busted in fifth place, as he moved all-in with ace-six but ran into the pocket aces belonging to Leon Tsoukernik. Across a ten-high board with no help, Bedell busted for $83,490 in fifth place. Tsoukernik won a couple of very handy pots but eventually missed out on the top three places when his pocket queens lost to pocket kings to send the owner of King’s home in fourth place for $108,585.

“Heads-up Was Easy”

“Heads-up was easy, but Foxen was a very hard opponent.”

With three players left, Alex Foxen sat on 11.1 million chips, which was more than his two opponents combined, with Salih Atac (4m) and Pichierri (3.9m) trailing by a long way. Atac was second in chips but busted in third place for $156,460 when pocket kings lost to Foxen’s ace-ten after the latter hit a pair of aces on the flop.

Heads-up Foxen led with around 75% of the chips in play but a pivotal coinflip went the Italian Pichierri’s way. From there, he took a slight lead before a flop of T-6-3 landed. Foxen shoved with queen-ten but he had been caught in a trap by Pichierri’s pocket queens and after a seven came on the turn and river, Pichierri was a two-time WSOP bracelet winner.

“I feel very grateful to see a good result from my hard work,” the Italian said after winning the crucial heads-up. “When you play every day and things go bad, you can think that you’re doing something wrong but when you win a tournament like this, you can feel a bit of peace. I’ve had many up moments and some down moments in my career, and this is for sure an up moment”.

Pichierri, who won The Closer event in the 2021 WSOP Europe for $163,560, confessed that he found the final stages of his victory difficult.

“The whole final table was hard… and painful at times.” He confessed. “He (Foxen) is a very difficult opponent – very aggressive – and he was on my left as a massive chip leader. The whole final table I just waited and let him do everything. Once heads-up play began I got lucky two times. I won a flip and then a semi-cooler. So heads-up was easy, but Foxen was a very hard opponent.”

Photographs courtesy of Danny Maxwell for PokerNews, the home of live reporting at the 2024 WSOP Europe.