Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell were 3-handed at the MSPT final table. Did they collude/soft play?
Awkward situation this week at the $5k MSPT Main Event.
Red-hot Alex Foxen and his girlfriend, fellow pro Kristen Bicknell, were 3-handed against Aussie pro Kahle Burns.
They attempted to get Burns to agree to a 3-way chop, most likely to avoid the bad optics the situation.
Burns refused the chop, so it was played out.
Then this hand happened:
If you don't feel like watching the video, Foxen made it 115k on the button when the blinds were 25k/50k/25k, and it was 3-handed. Foxen had JJ. Bicknell had AA in the BB and three bet to 400k, which Foxen called.
Foxen then flopped a set on an otherwise safe J54 board.
Bicknell bet 200k on the flop, Foxen called. This was already a bit suspect in a pot which was almost a million.
Then the turn brough a K, and Bicknell checked, then called a 375,000 bet by Foxen.
The river was a 3 (no flush possible), and Bicknell check-folded to Foxen's 600k bet.
Say what?!
James Obst, who was watching, was not pleased.
Here were their explanations:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Foxen
As soon as that hand was played I knew there would be an insane amount of criticism,” said Foxen. “I understand if it was someone I wasn’t entirely sure, I’m sure the same goes for Krissy, if she wasn’t entirely sure about the way I thought about this spot specifically you can’t fold the hand. But when she knows and I know exactly how the other one is thinking it’s a spot that’s weird. You put ICM on top of that and you have to fold everything but kings on that river.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kristen Bicknell
Kahle was really short. Regardless of who it was, two chip leaders don’t want to get in a big battle when there’s a short stack. On the river I have aces, maybe he has ace-king but I block that hand. I don’t think he’s bluffing queens. Preflop I think he has nines, tens or better. I don’t think he bets the turn with those hands. I thought he probably had aces, ace-king, kings or jacks. I don’t really do well on the river against those hands. I thought he had zero bluffs.
I call bullshit.
While I don't think they necessarily planned to collude, I think both wanted to stay out of each other's way, and let the third guy bust, especially because he was short. Had they been strangers, perhaps they would have taken a more aggressive line. However, two people in a relationship (who may have swapped action) are much less likely to play hard against one another and possibly allow the 3rd guy to move up one pay spot.
While I partially believe their explanation (namely, that both recognized that they each had big hands), I think once they realized this, they also both realized they should keep each other in the tournament.
Here's a good Pokernews writeup of the situation: https://www.pokernews.com/news/2018/...h-ot-31174.htm
What do you guys think?