Bryn Kenney: Story of One of the Most Successful Offline Poker Players

In the history of live tournaments, Bryn is enlisted as one of the best poker players ever. He has already earned almost $56 million and is not going to stop. Among his most recent achievements – Rock & Roll Poker Open. The skill level of this American player deserves special attention.

First among the best: the way to the top

In his 33 Bryn Kenney tops the list of the most successful poker players. According to Bryn Kenney’s Hendon Mob data, he has not only earned the biggest amount in live tournaments ($55 984 909 as of December 13, 2019) but also is the owner of the biggest prize in the history of poker – over $20,5 million.

However, his career path does not consist of glorious victories only, there are hurtful losses as well.

He started playing poker back at the age of sixteen and since then was improving his level to become a professional. Meanwhile, parents did not see any bright perspective in this activity and made him go to college. However, it did not last long. Pretty soon he gave up science and dedicated his life to mastering his skills in the game. After the basics of poker had been studied, Kenney started trying his luck in online tournaments and a bit later moved to live competitions.

The list of his victories during the last three years, which significantly influenced prize formation:

Victory in the super-highroller tournament for $100,000 at PCA and the prize money – $1,687,800 (2016);
Second place at Main Event Triton Super High Roller Series and $1,401,694 in his pocket (2016);
First place at Super High Roller 8-Max for $100,000 at Poker Starts Championship and $1,946,911 (2017);
Fifth in Super High Roller Bowl China and the prize money $1,484,000 (2018).

Bryn Kenney’s net worth and new achievements in 2024

In December 2019 Bryn Kenney took part in Rock&Roll Poker Open with a buy-in of $25,000. Forty-five poker players were competing for the title of the best in the tournament for 2 days. The prize zone included seven players that divided over $1 million prize money among themselves.

The bulk of the prize was split between heads-up participants – Brock Wilson and Bryn Kenney. The latter received not only $354,000 but also the cup. In the poker player’s career, this achievement has become 29th.

In general, 2019 turned out to be successful for Kenney. In January, he won almost $1 million in the tournament Aussie Millions. Spring’s series Triton Poker in Montenegro and South Korea brought Kenney approximately $8 million. At WSOP the poker player has managed to receive prizes three times but the amounts were not very big according to his level of professionalism – $16 thousand, $17 thousand and $86 thousand.

After that, the most significant competition in Bryn Kenney’s poker career started – Triton Poker Series in London (in August), where he managed to get the second prize in Triton Million and took $20,537,187. Moreover, the distinctive feature of these competitions is the biggest buy-in – £1,050,000 or $1,399,041.

Commenting their confrontation at the final table, the winner Aaron Zanh said: “Bryn (Kenney) was playing better than me, but I kept on thinking that, perhaps, my dream would come true. I am so happy and it is a great honor for me to play with all of you”.

However, it was Triton Million that helped Kenney move up from the ninth to the first position in the ranking of the best poker players in the world due to the amount of the money he won in total.

The Economist has recently published an audio interview with Bryn related to this event.

MensHealth informed about Kenney’s bet on his own weight loss: $100,000 that he would be able to get rid of 40 pounds (a bit more than 18kg) in five months.