While it can be easy to focus on the big poker players that manage to win a life changing amount of cash in one game of poker, this is not the case for the majority of poker players. Even the poker players that do manage to grab the adulation and praise that goes with winning a major national poker tournament will often find that as soon as the adrenaline rush dies down, life goes back to normal and there is nothing else for it but to knuckle down.
In the case of recent GUKPT Student Poker Championship winner, Ben Foxwell, this is understandable. At this stage, his studies are more important but it is not as if the prize money was overwhelming either. It was a great boost and the chance to pick up other prizes such as guaranteed entry to future GUKPT events will have been exciting too but on the whole, the buzz of the triumph has died down rather quickly for the 21 year old Foxwell.
The fact that he has recently been interviewed by his local news site, the Gloucestershire Gazette, as opposed to some glamorous lads mag or even of the more popular online poker sites indicates that this is a low level of success. However, it is a good level of success and there is no doubt that Foxwell can take a lot of pride in his achievement. From his comments to his local paper, he seems to have kept his head on the ground with respect to the win.
Poker success can become attractive
It turns out that the poker win was not the first time that Foxwell has claimed glory with poker, as he explained.
I’ve had a couple of $1,000 wins online, but nothing as big as this. I thought I may be in with a chance early evening on the second day, when I became chip leader for the first time, although shortly after lost a couple of pots.
Getting success like this at an early age can give you the impetus to make this your main focal point but it seems as though Foxwell is happy to leave poker as a hobby and is content to continue with his studies in sports science and cardiology. As for the financial impact of the win, he was happy to say;
I also work in Tesco, so it’s nice to have some extra money.
As Tesco would say, “Every Little Helps” and the money made from the Student Poker success will hopefully help Foxwell to have some fun while still focusing on his studies. Who knows, it may even have bought him the opportunity to take a shift or two off!