Kristen Foxen Defeats Ausmus to Win U.S. Poker Open Event #4 for $198,000

By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · April 16, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen

Kristen Foxen defeated Jeremy Ausmus heads-up on Wednesday to win Event #4 of the 2026 U.S. Poker Open, collecting $198,000 and her fifth career PokerGO Tour title. The Canadian, who entered the final table as the third-largest stack, overcame a commanding chip deficit to claim her second USPO victory in as many years, cementing what is becoming the most sustained period of elite-level performance by a Canadian poker player in the modern era.

The final hand was emphatic. Holding pocket sixes, Foxen flopped a set against Ausmus's pocket nines, an overpair that looked strong until the board gave Foxen the disguised monster she needed to get every chip in the middle. When the river failed to produce a nine, the 66-entry, $660,000 prize pool event belonged to the woman from Fredericton, New Brunswick.

How Foxen Won the Final Table

Five players returned on Wednesday with Ausmus holding a formidable lead of 4,060,000 chips, more than three times Foxen's 1,315,000. The turning point came when Foxen turned a nut straight against Ausmus's top pair, a hand that shifted roughly half the chips in play to the Canadian and fundamentally altered the dynamics of the table.

Michael Rossitto was the first to fall. His ace-nine suited ran into Sam Soverel's king-ten, and Soverel flopped Broadway to send Rossitto home in fifth for $49,500. Brock Wilson, who had won Event #1 earlier in the series, followed in fourth ($66,000) after his king-ten could not improve against Soverel's ace-four on an ace-high board.

Soverel's exit in third ($89,100) came in two stages. After running a bluff with a busted straight draw into Ausmus's overpair, he was left with less than a small blind, doubled once, then committed the rest holding king-five against Ausmus's ace-nine. Both players paired, but Soverel could not improve further. His departure set up the heads-up match that had been building all tournament.

Heads-Up: Foxen Overcomes Ausmus

Foxen entered heads-up play holding 4.5 million to Ausmus's 3.7 million, a narrow lead she extended to roughly three-to-one after winning a sizable pot with ace-high when Ausmus's straight draw failed to connect. Ausmus, a three-time WSOP bracelet winner who had dominated Day 1, clawed his way back to even after rivering a four-flush in a subsequent pot.

The seesaw nature of the match made the final hand all the more decisive. Foxen's flopped set of sixes against Ausmus's pocket nines was precisely the kind of cooler that defines high-stakes heads-up play, and Foxen showed no hesitation in building the pot to ensure maximum value. Ausmus, to his credit, found a reasonable spot to commit his chips with an overpair on a relatively dry board. The cards simply fell Foxen's way.

A Season Without Precedent

To place the magnitude of Foxen's current run in proper context, consider the past six weeks alone. In late March, she finished fourth at the Triton Super High Roller Series $100,000 Main Event in Jeju, South Korea, for $1,449,000, the largest single payday of her career. That result included a now-famous preflop fold of pocket kings, an ICM-driven decision that was later confirmed as mathematically correct by solver analysis, and was voted Triton's play of the day by the viewing audience.

Before the USPO, she had already accumulated five PGT titles, including Event #1 of the 2025 U.S. Poker Open ($158,025) and PokerGO Cup Event #7 in February 2025 ($348,300). Wednesday's victory was her 45th career PGT cash and 18th final table, bringing her PokerGO Tour earnings alone to $4,141,279. Her all-time live tournament earnings, according to The Hendon Mob, now exceed $15.1 million, placing her sixth on Canada's all-time money list.

The Leaderboard Race

Foxen's win moves her to fourth on the 2026 USPO leaderboard with 219 points, trailing Ausmus (262), Brock Wilson (247), and Cherish Andrews (242). The leaderboard champion earns the Golden Eagle trophy and a $25,000 PGT Passport, and with six events remaining, including three at the $10,000 level and one each at $15,000 and $25,000, the race remains wide open.

What makes Foxen's position particularly interesting is the trajectory. She already holds the most prize money among the top five despite sitting fourth in points, a reflection of her ability to convert deep runs into maximum payouts. A win or two in the remaining events could vault her to the top of the standings. Her husband, Alex Foxen, was eliminated from Event #4 by Ausmus during Day 1, but both Foxens are expected to compete across the remainder of the series.

What It Means for Canadian Poker

Foxen's victory arrives at a moment of particular significance for poker in Canada. Ontario's regulated market, which turned four on April 4, continues to expand, with GGPoker and PokerStars Ontario offering satellite pathways to major live events. Players physically located in Ontario can qualify for the upcoming WSOP Circuit at Playground (May 10-25) through GGPoker satellite qualifiers starting from C$1, and WSOP 2026 Las Vegas (May 26 through July 15) satellites are running daily.

Foxen's run also adds momentum to Canadian visibility on the international circuit at a time when the country's top players are making headlines across multiple venues. Daniel Dvoress, Sam Greenwood, and Timothy Adams have all posted significant results in 2026, but none has matched Foxen's combination of volume, consistency, and headline finishes over the past two months. Her status as the all-time leading female tournament earner, a distinction she has held since overtaking Vanessa Selbst's record in 2024, makes every deep run an event worth covering.

The U.S. Poker Open continues through April 25, with six events remaining. Event #5, a $10,100 NLH, had its final table play out on Wednesday's PokerGO livestream, with further results to follow.

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