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William Alex Foxen has established himself as one of the best poker players on the planet for over a decade now. Foxen already ranks 21st on poker’s all-time money list with $30.6 million in live poker earnings and he’s co-founded Chip Leader Coaching with fellow pro Chance Kornuth to help spread their knowledge to the next generation of sharks.
It’s almost impossible to overstate how good Alex Foxen is at poker. If you were to stop me on the street and ask me to rattle off a list of players I’d never want to find myself sitting to the left of he’d probably be at the top of that list, top 3 for sure. Foxen is known to be one of the most aggressive poker players in the game, raising, re-raising, and triple betting players to the point that they second guess everything they know about the game.
Beyond the aggression, Alex Foxen has one of the most piercing stares in the game of poker. His stare fires daggers into the hearts of many opponents and leaves them in a state of paralysis and unable to act normally. Here, Foxen explains what’s going on behind the stare that’s feared by money.
The Chip Leader Coaching video is also available on Twitter if you’d prefer to watch it there over Instagram.
What’s Behind Alex Foxen’s Poker Stare
Alex Foxen explains:
“I do think it’s something that’s extremely misunderstood. Most people assume that I’m trying to intimidate my opponents or make people uncomfortable. Which, it has that added benefit at times.”
“It makes it difficult for people to act comfortably. So when the awareness is there from both sides that everything they do is being monitored and watched it gives them a harder time focusing on the technical aspects of their game and making the right decision.”
“The real reason behind it came from the inclination to want to absorb as much subconscious information as I possibly can. So I want to see my opponents… The way they move their hands… The way their face sits as they’re acting, as they’re betting, and see this over the course of the day and look for changes in it.”
“Of course, in an intense moment like poker you naturally have a serious face on. That’s where it made people think that I’m trying to be intimidating.”
If you are looking for evidence that Alex Foxen’s stare causes poker players to act unnaturally, you’re in luck. He pulled off the ‘Bluff of the Year‘ back in January via PokerGo:
Foxen is a 2-time Global Poker Index Player of the Year. He’s currently ranked 7th in the US and 10th in the world in the GPI standings. He is also 13th in the GPI Player of the Year standings for 2023.