Alex Foxen Leads the 8-Game Championship With 18 Left

Alex Foxen has four WSOP bracelets, 81 career final tables, and 1,310,000 chips at the front of the $10,000 8-Game Mixed Championship with 18 players remaining at the Horseshoe.

That stack is nearly triple the next-largest bag in the field. And the event he's trying to win — WSOP Event #80 — rotates through eight poker variants, punishing anyone with a blind spot in a single discipline. This isn't a hold'em sprint. It's the mixed-game decathlon, and the guy leading it has $29.4 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

Foxen's 1,310,000 chips are nearly triple the next-largest stack at the 8-Game Championship's final 18.

The Field Behind Him

Andjelko Andrejevic sits second with 450,000 chips. He's a one-bracelet winner himself with $3.94 million in career cashes and eight final-table appearances — credentials that would headline most fields but look modest parked next to Foxen's résumé.

Richard Bai (384,000) and Matthew Schreiber (383,000) are clustered close behind. Bai holds three WSOP Circuit rings and $1.74 million lifetime across 22 final tables, a profile that suggests deep mixed-game comfort. Schreiber has $1.26 million and eight final tables of his own.

Then there's Wataru Kosugi, a Japanese player sitting on just 176,000 chips with $55,209 in career earnings. If Kosugi somehow navigates this field to the bracelet, it would be the kind of story people reference for decades.

How the Day Unfolded

Day 2 started with 27 players. Nine have since been eliminated.

Among the casualties: Steve Billirakis, a two-time bracelet winner with $2.41 million lifetime, busted before the final 18 despite the kind of pedigree that typically plays deep in these formats. Clayton Mozdzen, who led the field at 420,000 when 27 remained, also failed to bag — a reminder that the 8-Game Championship eats big stacks without prejudice. Douglas Lorgeree ($719,235 lifetime, four final tables) and Huabao Chen also fell.

The format is the great equalizer. A player can dominate Stud Hi-Lo for three levels and then bleed everything back in Razz. Foxen's edge isn't just in any single game — it's that he has won bracelets across three different formats over his career, the mark of someone whose skill set doesn't crater when the dealer calls a new game.

What a Fifth Bracelet Means

Four bracelets is elite. A fifth in this particular event would be something else entirely.

The 8-Game Championship is one of the hardest titles on the schedule to win. It self-selects for players who have invested thousands of hours across Limit Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, No-Limit Hold'em, PLO, and 2-7 Triple Draw. The field is small, seasoned, and allergic to fundamental mistakes. Taylor Atchison, who bagged 620,000 chips when 27 players remained, is emblematic — a player with $52,792 in lifetime earnings who has survived deep into a $10,000 buy-in against opponents with fifty times his career volume.

Foxen's path from here runs through two tables to the final. With 1,310,000 chips and significant daylight over the field, he has the stack to absorb bad stretches in his weaker games while pressuring opponents in the ones he owns.

That's exactly how you win an 8-Game bracelet. You don't need to be the best at every rotation. You need to be good enough at each one that your stack never gets short — and devastating enough in one or two to build leads nobody can catch.

Foxen appears to be running that playbook right now.