Bryn Kenney is currently at the very top of Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List. His total earnings from live poker tournaments stand at exactly $56,403,502.

I’m sure you agree that’s a hell lot of money. However, not everyone agrees Bryn Kenney is the very best poker player in the world.

Trademate’s own professional poker player, Jonas Gjelstad, thinks Bryn Kenney would probably do much worse if he decided to focus on just online poker.

Another fact that suggests Kenney is behind many other poker greats is that he has only won one WSOP bracelet.

In comparison, Phil Hellmuth, whom we discussed in a separate article, has won 15 bracelets so far.

However, Kenney has won $33 million more than Helmuth.

BUILDING UP THE 8-FIGURE BANKROLL

Born in New York in 1986, Kenney started playing poker professionally in his early 20s. Before that, he was a passionate player of collectible card games, mainly Magic: The Gathering.

His first win at a live tournament happened in 2007 when he took part in a $1,070 buy-in event. He finished second and walked out with $34,446.

Over the next couple of years, he was building up his bankroll, as well as polishing his poker skills. In 2010, he won his first six-figure prize. It happened at the 2010 WSOP when he finished in eighth place and walked out with $141,168.

Getting to a seven-figure prize was a much harder task. It took him another six years to get to that point. The year was 2016 when he won his first million dollars. Actually, he won more than a million. His first seven-figure winning was $1,687,800 at the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Kenney’s biggest prize to this date is $20,563,324, which he won in 2019 when he finished in second place at £1,050,000 Triton Million in London, UK.

Bryn Kenney has won over a million dollars on eight occasions in total, including his record-winning prize at Triton Million. Those other prizes are the following:

• $3,062,513 at HK$2,000,000 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju Main Event
• $2,713,859 at HK$1,000,000 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Main Event
• $1,946,911 at €100,000 NLHE Super High Roller Eight-Max
• $1,687,800 at $100,000 PCA Super High Roller Eight-Handed
• $1,484,024 at HK$2,000,000 Super High Roller Bowl Macau
• $1,431,376 at HK$500,000 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro NLHE 6-Handed
• $1,401,694 at HK$500,000 Triton Super High Roller Series Philippines Main Event

Thanks to these winnings, he’s now topping the All-Time Money List, with over $7M more than the second-placed Justin Bonomo.

‘HAVING A FEELING’ POKER PHILOSOPHY

Bryn Kenney loves living on the edge. His poker playing style is such that he can go from being a millionaire to bankrupt in a day.

As he said himself, he ended up broke 4-5 times. By ‘broke’, Kenney means seriously broke, with a negative balance in his account. You can listen to it here.

Luckily for him, his risky poker philosophy has helped dig himself out of the pit and become a legend. The question is whether this style of play is going to keep him at the top of the All-Time Money List for much longer?

As he admitted in an interview after winning over $20M at Triton Million in 2019, he went to the tournament with half of his net worth on the line.

That’s not a kind of bankroll management many other poker players use. In fact, most of them are against it.

So, why did Kenney put so much money on the line? Because he ‘had a feeling’.

This statement has provoked all sorts of reactions of his fellow poker players. Professional poker players tend not to rely on luck and feelings, but on their skills and tactics.

For many of them, risking half the net worth is something only an irresponsible gambler would do. Listen to it here.

It’s safe to say he felt confident for that tournament, but Shaun Deeb was very vocal on the subject. He raised the question of what Kenney would have done if he ended up losing in that tournament.

Kenney responded by saying he’s had his ups and downs, but has never owed anyone money. In addition, many of his friends decided to speak out of times when Kenney bailed them out.

One person shared an anecdote involving Kenney, in which the poker player ended up paying over $3M to help out a friend in trouble. The reason why his friend had gotten into trouble in the first place was because he was overly confident while playing high-stakes poker.

Kenney and his money-losing friend had a deal that he would bail him out for $300k. When the tab grew tenfold, Kenney did not leave stranded. Instead, he decided to pay his entire poker debt.

Still, even his biggest supporters admit that Kenney’s bank management style is not something others should follow. It’s just way too risky.

MILLIONAIRE WITH A HEART OF GOLD

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has killed tens of thousands of people in the USA. It’s also left about 30 million Americans without work.

It’s a catastrophe of biblical proportions and Bryn Kenney has decided to battle it. No, he’s not planning to find the vaccine. Nor is he trying to downplay the pandemic like his colleague Mike Matusow.

Instead of trying to answer big questions, Kenney has decided to help the little guy. How? By giving money to those in need! He shared the news on Instagram.

To get on Kenney’s radar, those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic only have to send him their Venmo/Cashapp/PayPal ID.

As of May 2020, Bryn Kenney hasn’t disclosed info about the number of people he’s helped, nor how much money he’s sent.

However, judging by the comments on his Instagram post, the number of people who received money from him is measured in hundreds.

How to go from a winning poker player to a profitable sports bettor, read here.

Check out the other articles in our 10 People Who Got Rich from Poker series on:

• Article 1: Daniel Negreanu, the most famous poker play of all time
• Article 2: Phil Ivey cheated his way to a $10 million win
• Article 3: Phil “POKER BRAT” Hellmuth, the biggest trash talker in poker
• Article 4: Fedor Holz, a multimillionaire by 23
• Article 5: Patrik Antonius, winning the biggest ever online pot & nearly becoming a tennis pro
• Article 6: Gus Hansen, the great Dane who went on a $20.7M losing streak!
• Article 7: Doug Polk, a poker pensioner at 31 who now plays warcraft full-time
• Article 8: Chris Ferguson, the Jesus of Poker who turned full antichrist
• Article 9: Justin Bonomo, the Romeo with many Juliets
• Article 10: Mike Matusow, former prisoner and Trump-worshipping poker legend
• Article 11: Viktor Blom, a.k.a. ILSIDUR1, the record holder for the biggest loss in online poker history
• Article 13: Jonas Gjelstad, leaving school early and moving to Thailand to become a professional poker player