Poker Pro Bryn Kenney Wins Record-Setting Aussie Millions for $914,617

New Yorker Bryn Kenney passed Phil Ivey on poker’s all-time earnings leaderboard thanks to a $914,671 score at the record-setting Aussie Millions over the weekend.

The long-running Aussie Millions poker tournament has been heating up over the last couple of years and this year’s edition attracted a record-setting 822 players. The record field helped create a massive $5.9-million prize pool with 88 players making it into the money.

Kenney had to outlast a couple of well-known Australian poker pros in Andrew Hinrichsen and Matthew Wakeman to claim the ultimate prize. There was actually a deal made with three players left that significantly lowered the gap between pay jumps. Runner-up finisher Mike Del Vecchio earned nearly the same amount as Bryn Kenney.

The Aussie Millions Main Event is just one part of a massive festival of poker that takes place every January at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.

Kenney Climbs to Ninth Place in All-Time Earnings

Bryn Kenney got his start in competitive card games by playing Magic: The Gathering but eventually transitioned to poker because he felt it had the potential to be more lucrative. It was a bet that paid off.

Kenney eventually established himself as one of the elite grinders on the international high roller circuit with a reputation for being fearless in some of the biggest tournaments in the world.

His high tolerance for variance has led to million-dollar upswings as well as downswings over the course of his career.

Now 32 years old, Kenney has recorded some of his biggest wins at the prestigious super high roller events in Asia such as the Triton series.

Kenney’s biggest win took place at Monte Carlo, however, where he won the 2017 PokerStars Championship €100,000 buy-in event for $1.9 million.

With his victory in the Aussie Millions, Kenney passed Phil Ivey on the all-time earnings chart with $26.6 million. Ivey, who often gets touted as the best poker player in the world, has spent a great deal of his career as the biggest all-time Sportsbook but has stalled out over the last five years.

These days it’s going to be tough for anyone to catch Justin Bonomo, who had a record-setting 2018 campaign that saw him earn $25.4 million in a single calendar year.

Longtime vets Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel are second and third respectively but there is a significant distance between Bonomo and the rest of the field.

Here’s a complete look at the updated top 10 all-time poker tournament earners according to thehendonmob.com.

Katz, Lewis, Kempe Make Huge Scores Down Under

The Aussie Millions has always been a premier destination for high rollers and this year’s festival was no exception.

There were four different events that offered buy-ins of $25,000 AUD or higher.

Poker pro/businessman Cary Katz won the biggest buy-in tournament on the schedule, the $100,000 Challenge. Katz, who founded Poker Central and subsequent poker-streaming site PokerGO, beat German pro Johannes Becker to take down $1.07 million USD for first place in the elite competition.

The final table of the $100,000 Challenge also included noted pros Rainer Kempe, Jack Salter and Kristen Bicknell.

Over the years Katz has racked up a tremendous amount of live tournament earnings and now sits 25th on the all-time earners list with $18.4 million.

Some of the other biggest Sportsbooks over the course of this year’s Aussie Millions included the aforementioned Rainer Kempe, who won the $25,000 Challenge event for $590,000, and Englishman Toby Lewis, who won the $50,000 Challenge for $587,936.

Interestingly, Crown was the first casino to offer a $250,000 buy-in poker tournament but hasn’t offered that particular tournament in recent years.

Here’s a complete look at all the biggest Sportsbooks from this year’s 2019 Aussie Millions (buy-ins $5,000 or higher):