Bryn Kenney Retakes Lead On Poker's All-Time Money List

Bryn Kenney has reclaimed the top spot on poker’s all-time money list, taking down the $250,000 buy-in Luxon Invitational event at the 2023 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series London to grow his career tournament earnings to more than $65 million. He now has a $1,083,956 lead over second-ranked Justin Bonomo on that vaunted leaderboard.

The 36-year-old poker pro from Long Beach, NY earned $6,860,000 as the champion of this super-high-stakes affair, which attracted 118 entries to the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London.

“It’s so surreal,” Kenney told Triton reporters. “It’s crazy. Just I don’t know where I am really, but I’m in a good place, standing here at the end of the tournament.”

Incredibly, this was not the largest payday of Kenney’s career. Back in 2019, Kenney struck a heads-up deal in another Triton invitational event held in London. That £1,050,000 buy-in affair was ultimately won by Aaron Zang, but Kenney secured the largest payday as a part of the deal, taking home a record-setting score of $20,606,421.

“I didn’t get to hold up the trophy then, but now I can hold up the trophy. I’m so blessed and thankful for this and everything,” he said.

Kenney is now a three-time Triton champion thanks to this latest victory. He also extended his lead as the tour’s earnings leader, with his $37.6 million giving him nearly a $13.5 million advantage over second-ranked Jason Koon, who is the all-time titles leader with eight Triton victories.

While Kenney’s results on the felt are undeniable, he has been a controversial figure in the poker community in recent years. Kenney denied allegations of multi-accounting, ghosting, and other online poker cheating methods by Martin Zamani, one of his former horses. Despite the criticism, he has continued to play the occasional live tournament series, and even finished runner-up this summer in the $10,000 seven-card stud eight-or-better championship at the World Series of Poker to fall just short of securing his second bracelet.

The top 23 finishers made the money in this event, with plenty of big names claiming a piece of the massive $29,500,000 prize pool, including Koon (23rd – $342,000), Seth Davies (19th – $371,000), Cary Katz (18th – $371,000), Triton co-founder Paul Phua (17th – $410,000), Patrik Antonius (15th – $455,000), Stephen Chidwick (13th – $501,000), Steve O’Dwyer (12th – $501,000), and Christoph Vogelsang ($575,000).

The final table began with Talal Shakerchi on top and Kenney in second chip position. Kenney knocked out bracelet winner James Chen in ninth place ($680,000), picking up A-K suited against A-Q to overtake the chip lead heading into eight-handed play.

Kayhan Mokri then lost a preflop race against two-time bracelet winner Aleksejs Ponakovs to hit the rail in eighth place ($860,000), guaranteeing seven-figure payouts for the remaining seven contenders.

The next elimination was another preflop coinflip, with two-time bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo taking A-Q into battle against the pocket nines of Kenney. A set on the flop gave Kenney a big lead, and he faded some turned straight outs to send Petrangelo packing in seventh place ($1,170,000).

Robert Flink got all-in with an open-ended straight draw against the middle pair of Shakerchi. Flink was unable to improve on the turn or river and was knocked out in sixth place, earning a career-best score of $1,582,000 for his sixth-place showing.

2003 WSOP main event champion and Poker Hall of Fame member Chris Moneymaker was within one spot of topping the $2,500,000 he earned for taking down the big dance two decades ago, but ultimately fell just short of that new personal record.

Moneymaker got all-in with JJ racing against the KQ of Punnat Punsri. The board ran out K8583 and Moneymaker was eliminated in fifth place. The $2,030,000 he earned for this deep run increased his lifetime tournament earnings to just shy of $6 million.

This was the 47-year-old ACR team Pro’s second career seven-figure payday, supplanting the $300,000 he earned as the runner-up in the 2011 NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship for the second-largest score on his resume.

Not the day I wanted obv. Never got a chance to play. But laddered up to 2 million. Happy with decisions. Blame @jeffplatt

— Chris Moneymaker (@CMONEYMAKER) August 5, 2023

Ponakov’s run came to an end when his turned trip eights ran into the sixes full of Shakerchi. All of the chips went in on the end and Ponakovs was eliminated in fourth place, earning a career-best payday of $2,540,000. The Latvian now has more than $14.5 million in lifetime cashes.

Punnat Punsri got his last 26 big blinds in preflop with his AQ leading the AJ of Shakerchi. The board came down 1010J79 and Shakerchi made jacks and tens to knock out Punsri in third place. Thailand’s all-time money leader added to his advantage on that list in a major way thanks to this event, with the $3,107,000 he secured for his podium finish bringing his career total to more than $11.2 million.

Heads-up play began with virtually even stacks. Kenney jumped out to an early lead, taking multiple healthy pots without showdown to build more than a 2:1 chip advantage. He then rivered kings full of deuces against Shakerchi’s trip kings with a five kicker. Shakerchi got away from the hand on the end, folding to his opponent’s shove, but he was left with fewer than 25 big blinds after the clash.

Shakerchi turned a straight with a flush redraw and doubled through Kenney’s pocket kings to make up some of the ground he’d lost, but was still well behind by the time the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Shakerchi raised from the button with AK. Kenney three-bet shoved for just over 22 big blinds effective with 98 and Shakerchi made the call. The 865QJ runout gave Kenney a pair of eights for the win.

Shakerchi cashed for $4,650,000 as the runner-up. This was his second multi-million-dollar tournament payout of the year, having earned $3,250,000 for taking down the Triton Vietnam $100,000 main event back in March. The British hedge fund manager and poker enthusiast now has nearly $18.5 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded a the final table:

Check out the current top ten on poker’s all-time money list:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.

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