Bryn Kenney Becomes #1 in Tournament Winnings with $20,563,324 Score

Bryn Kenney continued his incredible 2019 with a second place finish in the Triton Million for Charity Saturday afternoon.

Despite placing second, Kenney negotiated a chop at the start of heads-up play that allowed him to take $20,563,324 compared to the $16,775,820 for eventual winner Aaron Zang. This catapulted Bryn to the the number 1 spot on the all-time poker money list.

Table of Contents:

• Who is Bryn Kenney?
• Bryn Kenney at the Triton Million for Charity
• Bryn Kenney Calling His Shot for the Number 1 Spot

Who is Bryn Kenney?

Kenney has been a regular in the super high roller circuit for several years, but began his poker career as more of an online player. The Long Island, New York native started playing sit-n-gos with his friends in high school, and first created an online account under his mom’s name when he was 17 before making his own when he turned 18.

From there, poker completely took over his life. He dropped out of college after a few weeks and began to pursue poker professionally, even though he had not proven himself to be a winning player yet. Luckily for Kenney, he found success early and was able to increase his bankroll to the point where he was playing in some of the highest stakes games out there.

His transition to live no limit hold’em play came when he was staked by a friend to play at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. In just over a month, he was able to run up $20,000 into over $1,000,000 after working his way up to the biggest games that the casino offered.

While his poker results have been pretty consistent over the years, Kenney has found himself broke several times over the years due to bad staking deals and investments. At one point in 2016, he went to sleep thinking that he had $2.5 million to his name but woke up realizing that he was in debt for $2.5 million. But after a few big scores, he was able to find himself back in the positive in under six months.

Kenney’s recent success has allowed him to take on big pieces of himself in these high roller events. While many of the super high rollers often have small pieces of themselves and sell a lot of action, Kenney says that he has never played a tournament where he had less than 20% of his action.

Bryn Kenney at the Triton Million for Charity

The Triton Million for Charity event took place as a part of the Triton Super High Roller series in London, and set the record for largest buy-in event in poker history at £1 million (about $1,216,400).

The tournament was invite only for pros, but any non-professional with a thick-wallet could buy-in. These non-professional poker players were allowed to invite one professional player to the tournament. The pros and amateurs were kept separate for the first six levels, before the fields merged and the tournament proceeded as normal.

The final table featured a stacked field of amateurs and pros alike, including Dan Smith (third place, $8,765,628), Stephen Chidwick (fourth place, $5,368,947), Vivek Rajkumar (fifth place, $3,652,345), and Bill Perkins (sixth place, $2,678,386).

For the Triton Million for Charity, Kenney claimed on Twitter to have a bigger piece of his net worth in play than anyone else in the field. He doubled down on this by cross booking himself vs. several other players, so the win will add even more to his net worth.

Cmon guys the whole poker world only wants to bet 1m combined? I expected more

— Bryn Kenney (@BrynKenney) July 31, 2019

Not bad for a few days of work.

Kenney’s score ranks as the biggest in poker history, and moved him to No. 1 on the all-time money list with $55,505,634 in career tournament earnings. For comparison, Justin Bonomo ranks second all-time with $45,014,707 in career earnings while Daniel Negreanu is third with $41,857,384.

Bryn Kenney Calling His Shot for the Number 1 Spot

Becoming the all-time money leader has been on Kenney’s mind for awhile. In a 2018 interview he made it clear that this was a goal of his for a long time.

“There’s no way I take my foot off the gas until I’m the No. 1 all-time winner,” Kenney said. “It’s guaranteed. Just watch and see it. Probably in the next two years.”

Clearly, his prediction was spot on. Kenney started the year with under 30,000,000 in career cashes, but in the last six months, has made $28,890,525 in live tournaments. That number alone would rank 11th all-time and is greater than the career earnings of Antonio Esfandiari ($27,810,801), Phil Ivey ($26,398,145), and Phil Hellmuth ($22,999,083).

His record-setting cash marks his fifth score of the year worth more than $900,000 and his seventh final table. Kenney began 2019 with a victory in the Aussie Millions $10,000+$600 Main Event for $914,617.

He followed this up with dominant performances in various stops during the various Triton High Roller series stops. In Jeju, he earned $499,560 in a fourth place finish in the HK $500,000 6-max event and $3,062,513 before placing second in the HK $2,000,000 Main Event.

The strong year continued for Kenney at the Triton Super High Roller series in Montenegro, where he won two events for massive scores. He first won the HK $500,000 6-max event for $1,431,376 and followed this up with another victory in the HK $1,000,000 for $2,713,859.

Final Thoughts

It’s no surprise to see Kenney atop the all-time leader board considering his elite-level skill, volume, and taste for ultra-high stakes tournaments.

How long do you think Kenney will hold the #1 spot? Or will he never be overtaken? Comment below with your prediction.