Life of Bryn Kenney: A Peek of his Private Life, Wealth, Biggest Wins and Losses

All About Bryn Kenney

Bryn Kenney is a professional poker player from the United States. He was born on November 1, 1986, in Long Beach, New York, and grew up there.

Bryn Kenney

Despite beginning his career on the virtual felt, he quickly rose to prominence on the live tournament circuit. Between August 2019 and December 2021, he was the biggest live tournament winner in the game’s history. He now has more than $57 million in live cash.

Kenney surpassed Justin Bonomo to top the all-time money list in August 2019 after finishing second in the largest-ever buy-in £1,050,000 Triton London event for $20.563 million. However, Bonomo reclaimed the top spot in December 2021 by winning a $100K NLHE event at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

He is a regular at the world’s most prestigious high roller events. He also has a World Series of Poker bracelet.

Professional Career History (chronological order)

• He began playing online poker in 2003.
• Zack “Monkey101” Stewart, a friend he met through online poker, staked him in 2006.
• In 2014, he won his first WSOP gold bracelet for $153,220 in the $1,500 10-Game Mix Six-Handed event.
• He won $8.505 million in cash and became the largest live tournament winner in 2017.
• Kenney finishes second for $3.063 million in a HK$2,000,000 Triton NLHE 2019 tournament in Jeju. In the same year, he coveted the £1,050,000 Triton London event for a massive career-high score of £16.891 million ($20.563 million), putting him $10 million ahead of Justin Bonomo on the Hendon all-time money list.

Bryn Kenney’s Career Beginnings to World of Poker Series Events

The Beginning

Kenney developed an early interest in card games while growing up in Long Beach, New York. His first choice was Magic: The Gathering, which he shares with another well-known poker pro, Jonathan Little. Meanwhile, he also participated in small poker Sit&Go tournaments with his friends.

He made his first deposit to an online poker room at the age of 17, using an account he set up in his mother’s name, he revealed in an interview with Cardplayer Magazine. When he reached the legal gambling age, he opened the PokerStars account BrynKenney, which he still uses today.

Kenney was a winning player from the start, but not consistently. On a trip to the Bahamas, he met Zack “Monkey101” Stewart, which changed everything. His fellow S&G grinder online decided to stake him. That’s when Kenney switched from online to live poker.

“When I was 20, I went to the Bahamas and met this guy who went by Monkey101 [Zack Stewart], who I was playing in a lot of heads-up $5,000 sit-and-gos online. We talked for a while, and after the trip, I lost all of my money on the internet. He eventually invited me to Los Angeles to play at the Commerce and offered me a stake in the game.

I made around $40,000 in the first three days. I began seriously gambling as soon as I had a little money to play with on my own. I took my cut of the profits and began playing No Limit Hold’em for $20-$40.

After three more days, I was about even, and I didn’t have a single losing day for the next 30 to 40 days. “By the end of that run, I was playing the biggest game in the casino.“

– Bryn Kenney, Cardplayer interview.

Live Competitions

Bryn Kenney is regarded as one of the greatest live tournament players of all time. His Hendon page shows a total of $57.109 million in tournament cash, ranking him second on the site’s all-time money list. Between August 2019 and December 2021, he was the undisputed leader. Kenney surpassed Justin Bonomo in 2019, but Bonomo reclaimed the top spot in 2021.

Kenney has won 184 different live events. The first was in May 2007, when he finished second in a $1,000 tournament for $34,446 in Verona, Wisconsin. Kenney’s first six-figure payday came at the 2010 World Series of Poker.

He finished third in the $100K Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January 2011. He faced off against the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Nick Schulman at the final table, eventually earning himself a $643,000 payday.

Kenney’s life took a turn for the better in 2016. That’s when he began delivering huge score after huge score from the world’s highest buy-in tournaments.

He won $1.401 million in November 2016 after finishing second in a HK$500,000 NLHE Triton Series event.

The following year, in 2017, he became the world’s largest live tournament winner. He finished the year ahead of WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein with $8.505 million in live tournament winnings.

His highlights from that year include winning a €100,000 PSC Super High Roller in Monaco for $1.947 million, winning the $50K event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $969,075 and another victory, this time in Event #3 of the inaugural Poker Masters high roller series for $960,000.

He then went on another massive heater in 2019. In March, he finished second in the HK$2,000,000 Triton NLHE Main Event in Jeju, South Korea. Timothy Adams defeated him in a head-to-head match for the title. Kenney ended up with a net worth of $3,063 million.

In May, he also won two Triton tournaments in Montenegro: a HK$1,000,000 event for $2.714 million and a HK$500,000 event for $1.431 million.

If that wasn’t enough for one year, he then competed in Triton London, winning the historic £1,050,000 buy-in event for a whopping $20.563 million. This result propelled him to the top of the all-time money list, with a more than $10 million lead over Justin Bonomo.

Live Money Games

In 2017, Kenney appeared in two episodes of Poker Night in America, a CBS Sports poker show. He participated in a $50/$100 NLHE cash game with Shaun Deeb, Jennifer Tilly, and others.

In September 2018, he participated in a $5/$10 cash game on Poker Central’s Friday Night Poker. He also appeared on PokerGO‘s reboot of the classic show Poker After Dark.

Internet Poker Games

As previously stated, Kenney began his poker career on the virtual felt. In the beginning, he mostly played Sit&Go’s. He began receiving tracked MTT scores around the same time he received live tournament scores. On PokerStars, his screen name is “BrynKenney.”

On his PocketFives page, his first recorded cash is from July 2006. His first $10,000 payday came in November of that year when he won a $100 Stars tourney for $23,953.

The largest single MTT cash in his online career is $52,360, which he earned by defeating a 278-player field in a $215 event.

According to PocketFives, the total cash on his PS account is $434,438. However, his most recent cash on that profile is from March 2008, more than a decade ago.

He participated in and won several $25K Blade high rollers on Natural8-GGNetwork between 2019 and 2020. However, those outcomes were not recorded.

On Stars, HighstakesDB has over 56,000 tracked hands played by the BrynKenney account. He’s $307,036 in the black after mostly playing the 8-Game mix. The hands’ date from March 2011 to March 2018.

His biggest pots, however, are $50/$100 No Limit Hold’em hands.

Kenney and the Natural8-GGNetwork

Kenney is an ambassador for Natural8-GGNetwork, one of the most popular online poker rooms.

Bryn Kenney in World Series of Poker

Kenney has only won one WSOP gold bracelet. He won $153,220 after defeating a field of 445 players in the $1,500 10-Game Mix Six-Handed event. 10-Game is rarely seen in public. It includes the terms limit and no limit. Limit 7-Card Stud, and 7-Card Stud Limit Limit Omaha, Hi-Lo, and PLO Hi-Lo, Razz, and Badugi

Overall, the American poker pro has 41 World Series cash for a total of $2.793 million.

His first ITM finish came at the 2008 World Series of Poker. In the $5,000 6-handed NLHE tournament, I finished 35th for $16,647.

He made a deep run in the 2010 Main Event, eventually finishing 28th out of 7,319 players for $255,242. His largest WSOP cash is $646,927, which he earned for placing fifth in the $100,000 High Roller event in 2018.