Bryn Kenney is the new biggest live tournament winner of all time

Bryn Kenney Comes in 2nd Place in Triton Million for $20 Million

Bryn Kenney pocketed no less than £16,890,509 ($20,563,324) for his runner-up finish in the highest buy-in poker tournament in history, the £1.05 Triton Million in London.


He actually won more than the eventual winner, the Chinese recreational player Aaron Zang.

That is thanks to the deal the two made before they started the heads-up duel for the title. Since Kenney had a 5.5-1 chip lead at the time, he got the best of it.

So while the 32-year American poker pro ended up losing to Aaron Zang, he broke two poker world records with his latest cash.

Bryn Kenney Overtakes Justin Bonomo on the Hendon All Time Money List

One of the records Bryn Kenney broke was the largest prize money ever paid in a poker tournament.

The former record holder, Antonio Esfandiari had that “title” for over 7 years before the Triton Million came around last week.

In July 2012, Esfandiari got $18.347 million for winning the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop event at the World Series of Poker. That result is now surpassed by Bryn Kenney’s $20.563 million payday.

Also – and this is what most people are talking about – Kenney overtook Justin Bonomo on Hendon’s all time money list.

Bryn Kenney now has a whopping $55,505,630 in live tournament earnings – topping Bonomo’s $45,260,050.

Justin Bonomo poker

Justin Bonomo only spent a little over a year in the number 1 spot on Hendon’s list. He dethroned Daniel Negreanu last year after winning the 2019 WSOP’s Big One for One Drop for $10 million.

That is a relatively short reign. For comparison, Negreanu was holding the best tournament earner’s title for 4 years.

“Dnegs” overtook the aforementioned Esfandiari back in 2014 after another WSOP One Drop event. Just like Bryn Kenney, Negreanu also got on top with a second-place finish – his was for $8.288 million.

The Reaction

The live poker tournament database Hendon congratulated their new all time money list leader on Twitter by retweeting Jeff Gross’ celebratory message.

On their Facebook page, they shared this image with a quote from Kenney. This shows how his lofty ambitions actually came true.

bryn kenney quote hendon

However, some in the online poker community pointed out that Hendon’s list disproportionately favors the players who are willing to play the super high rollers.

While these poker pros combined cashes are certain to give a very large sum, their ROI may not be nearly as good as the players’ in the smaller buy-in events. In short, the high rollers’ winnings are huge, but so are their losses if they happen to bust a high buy-in event.

In response to these opinions, Hendon shared another list which only includes tournaments with $5,500 buy-ins or less.

This evidently caught Phil Hellmuth’s attention. The Poker Brat proudly shared on his Twitter that the player on top of that ranking is himself.

Now the poker fans are waiting to see how long will it take for a new challenger to knock Bryn Kenney off of the number 1 live tournament winner’s spot.

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