Alex Foxen Says Main Event Shot Clocks Were Overdue
He also wants WSOP PoY scoring to punish repeat entries instead of forcing a profitable summer.
Alex Foxen said the WSOP Main Event’s shot clock was long overdue, and he also argued that the better fix for Player of the Year scoring would be to penalize repeated entries rather than require a profitable summer.
In a PokerStrategy Q&A, Foxen said the PoY race was not something he had set out to chase before the series. He went into the WSOP planning to play the schedule he wanted, keep room for days off, and let the summer unfold.
As the title picture became more realistic, he said it nudged him into a couple of tournaments he otherwise might have skipped. He said those days off matter, and that playing every day is not automatically the best way to reach a PoY finish.
Foxen also said WSOP Paradise looks built for him because the schedule is heavily weighted toward high-roller and PLO/no-limit events. He named Shaun Deeb, Naoya Kihara and Josh Arieh as his closest rivals, and said their points have come mostly from mixed games rather than the formats that dominate Paradise.
On the scoring debate, he said a profit requirement is understandable in theory, but it gets messy fast. A player could miss the biggest buy-ins, still win several 10k bracelets, and finish the summer in the red, which is why he preferred a points deduction for extra entries to stop players from “buying the POY.”
He added that a player’s buy-in size does not affect his decision-making at the table. For him, it is all “chips and cards and players,” with stack depth, structure, position and opponent tendencies carrying the real weight.
Foxen also said he is a big fan of shot clocks and that the Main Event change is a long time coming. He compared the idea to the big blind ante, saying people will look back on the old pace as ridiculous once clocks are standard.
The idea itself is not new to tournament poker, with PGT and WPT using action clocks for years. Foxen said it would be absurd not to have one by day five, six or seven, though he did not think it was necessary on day one because of dealer quality and logistical issues.
The Review-Journal reported that the Main Event got its first clock on Day 7, after officials had seen repeated stalling around pay jumps. Players were given 20 seconds to act, six time-bank chips at the start of play, and four more after the second afternoon break, with each time-bank chip worth an extra 30 seconds and Rule 80 letting officials speed up the allotted time at their discretion.
PokerNews reported that the move split opinion. Shaun Deeb said it should have been done earlier, David Williams called it a bad idea, Chris Brewer described it as “completely awful” and “insanely unfair,” while Galen Hall supported it and Andrew Lichtenberger was against it. The same report said Foxen was second in chips in the $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. with 20 players left, Kihara was fifth and Deeb ninth, and Deeb is trying to defend his crown and become the first player to win WSOP PoY in consecutive seasons and the first to win it three times. The 2026 PoY title will be decided at WSOP Paradise later this year.
