The ACR Poker Pro tops the 2026 GPI standings and is within striking distance of Brandon Wilson in the Card Player Player of the Year race.
Alex Foxen has spent most of 2026 piling up the kind of results that matter in a Player of the Year race. Now, with the calendar moving into the final stretch, the ACR Poker Pro is sitting first in one major ranking and only 18 points away from the lead in another.
As of Aug. 21, Foxen leads the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings with 4,480.04 points. Tony “Ren” Lin is second at 4,321.52, giving Foxen a 158.52-point cushion. Over in the Card Player Player of the Year race, Brandon Wilson holds the top spot with 7,127 points, while Foxen is right behind him at 7,109. Jesse Lonis sits third with 6,481.
Those two totals can’t be compared directly because GPI and Card Player use different scoring systems. What they do show is the same thing: Foxen has put together one of the strongest year-long tournament campaigns of 2026.
Foxen Has Been Here Before In The GPI Race
A GPI Player of the Year run isn’t new territory for Foxen. He won the award in 2018 and again in 2019, becoming the first player to take the GPI honor in consecutive years. If he can finish 2026 on top, it would be his third GPI Player of the Year title.
The GPI system counts a player’s top 13 qualifying results in open events during the calendar year. Scores are based on factors that include finishing position, tournament field size and buy-in. Because only those top 13 results count, a player can keep improving the total by posting bigger scores that replace weaker ones already on the board.
That makes Foxen’s 158.52-point advantage meaningful, but hardly untouchable. With major tournaments still left on the calendar, both Foxen and the players chasing him have opportunities to add stronger results.
The Card Player Margin Is Almost Nothing
The Card Player race is even more compressed at the top. Wilson’s 7,127 points put him only 18 ahead of Foxen, while Lonis remains within range in third.
The underlying numbers tell an interesting story. Wilson has three titles, 20 final tables and $6,378,046 in POY-qualified winnings. Foxen has five titles, 12 final tables and $4,229,256 in POY-qualified winnings. Lonis has one title, 14 final tables and $4,649,887 in POY-qualified winnings.
That doesn’t mean the player with the most wins or final tables automatically leads. Card Player awards points using factors that include finishing position, buy-in and field size, so one big finish can move the standings quickly.
Foxen has come close to winning this race before. He finished third in 2018, second in 2019, fourth in 2021 and 2022, and third in 2025. A 2026 win would be his first Card Player Player of the Year title.
Five Titles Have Built The 2026 Campaign
Foxen’s five Card Player-qualified wins are spread across five different stops, and they cover a pretty wide slice of tournament poker.
The first came on Jan. 10 in PGT Last Chance Event #6. Foxen beat an 83-entry field for $232,400. Although the tournament closed out the 2025 PokerGO Tour season, it was played in January 2026 and earned him 480 points toward Card Player’s 2026 calendar-year race.
Less than a month later, on Feb. 7, Foxen won MSPT Poker Bowl X. That one drew 740 entries, and he collected $165,235 for first place.
Then came the biggest first-place payout of the five. On April 1 at Triton Jeju, Foxen won the $75,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max event, beating a 60-entry field for $1.26 million.
He stayed hot later that month, winning U.S. Poker Open Event #7 on April 18. Foxen topped 70 entries there and earned $210,000. By the time he joined the ACR Poker Pro roster alongside Chance Kornuth and Chris Hunichen on May 28, four of his five qualifying titles were already locked up.
Bracelet No. 4 Added Another Major Score
Foxen’s fifth Card Player-qualified win came during the World Series of Poker on June 15. He won the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty event, defeating a 466-entry field for a listed first-place payout of $594,246 and the fourth WSOP bracelet of his career.
The bracelet was the headline result, but his summer ran much deeper than one win. Foxen also finished fourth in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship for $300,000, sixth in the $100,000 High Roller for $522,347, seventh in the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $267,993, and fifth in the $10,000 8-Game Championship for $94,730.
By the end of the 2026 WSOP, Foxen had 14 cashes and $2,067,005 in listed payouts. The bracelet also became the biggest tournament victory of his first summer representing ACR Poker.
Two Different Races, Two Clear Targets
The GPI and Card Player standings reward results differently, so Foxen’s 4,480.04 GPI points and 7,109 Card Player points aren’t two versions of the same score. The races can shift in different directions depending on which events players enter and how their results fit each system.
For Foxen, though, the immediate picture is simple. He’s trying to hold a 158.52-point GPI lead over Lin while erasing an 18-point Card Player deficit to Wilson.
If he gets there in both, Foxen would finish 2026 with his third GPI Player of the Year title and his first Card Player Player of the Year award. With plenty of tournament poker still to be played, both races remain open – but Foxen has already put himself in position to make a serious run at both.
For more information about Alex Foxen’s 2026 Player of the Year campaign, read the related article here.