“I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point?
“I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning.”
The quote above — from NBA legend Lebron James last week on his late-career move to Philadelphia — may not be about poker, but it’s not just about basketball either.
He’s won the game's biggest prizes, established the most impressive benchmarks, and has all the money he’ll ever need. But when you’ve spent your career above the clouds, it can be tough coming back to Earth.
I imagine.
Few have dominated the metrics of their chosen field like James. He’s set plenty of records, including the one that grabs the headlines: most points scored.
You might say he’s the Bryn Kenney of basketball.
Kenney has a lock on the only statistic many tournament poker players care about: most recorded earnings.
And he’s just added to that figure of $89M+ with Thursday's victory in the King’s Charity $100K Super High Roller at the King Poker Cup in Jeju, South Korea.
Lonis posts details of heads-up chop
How much exactly he earned is not a given. The official payouts show Kenney banking the winner’s prize of $1,954,000; his defeated heads-up opponent Jesse Lonis taking $1.3M as runner-up.
But hop online and you’ll see that, according to Lonis, by the time the final river was dealt they were merely playing for the trophy.
The deal may not end up reflected in the record books, giving more ammunition to those casting doubt on the validity of Kenney’s position at the top of the tournament poker tree.
There are some who point to the stat-skewing $20M Kenney won at the Triton Million in 2019, who bristle that around half his record-breaking tally comes from just half a dozen results, who would laugh off any comparisons between ‘LeBryn’ and Lebron.
But the fact remains, in black and white at the top of The Hendon Mob’s all-time money list. Kenney has the number one spot and yet still wants to sacrifice, still wants to work, still wants to grind, compete and win.
Tom Dwan makes final table but falls short of the podium
It’s safe to say Kenney‘s most recent victory was no lay-up.
Among the 71 entries putting up $100K apiece — building a total prizepool of $6,674,000 — were plenty of big names with big reputations looking for a major score at the LES A Casino in Jeju.
Across three days of play the field was whittled down to the 11 paying spots. Ren Lin was first out after the bubble burst, with a $200K min-cash. Lin was reduced to fumes after a bold move on the stone bubble that could have spelled ICM disaster for Lonis had he made the wrong call.
It was refreshing to see Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan back at a final table, led by Lonis, but like his compatriot David Miscikowski the American was unable to crack the top 5.
Dwan ended up heading out in 6th for $350K, Miscikowski 7th for $280K. Xuanyi Wang ($630K) and Xing ($450K) of China bagged the next payout spots, before the exit of Hong Kong high roller Elton Tsang in 3rd ($880K) set up the Kenney/Lonis finale that many had hoped for.
New Yorkers go one-on-one
Bryn Kenney has $89M+ in tournament earnings, achieved over 19 years. Lonis has over $30M on his resume, but up until 2020 had never cashed for five-figures.
Since then, the man with the gorilla spirit animal has made his presence felt on the super high roller circuit across the globe, winning big ticket events everywhere from Monte Carlo to Montenegro to the WSOP.
In the end, at least according to Lonis’ post, a more-or-less even chop was agreed to send each player home happy with $1.6M or so.
Kenney will take the beautiful KPC trophy, and the official win, extending his lead at the top of the money list — albeit with a small asterisk over the extra $350K for first that he may not ever actually collect, thanks to the apparent heads-up chop.
Lonis hovers around the mid-30s mark on that particular leaderboard, and sits a few places below his fellow New Yorker Kenney on his home state’s all-time list, separated by only Erik Seidel, Alex Foxen and Isaac Haxton.
That’s some truly stellar competition to overcome, but if anyone is capable of dethroning the king and his court, it could be Lonis. Before this week’s adventures in Jeju he had seven $1M+ scores, all from the past three years.
They say that if you shoot at the king, you’d better not miss. At this stage of the game, Lonis will surely have plenty more opportunities to make his shot.
$100K King’s Charity Super High Roller — Top 6 results
- Bryn Kenney (US), $1,954,000*
- Jesse Lonis (US), $1,300,000*
- Elton Tsang (Hong Kong), $880,000
- Xuanyi Wang (China), $630,000
- Xing (China), $450,000
- Tom Dwan (US), $350,000
*Before any deal
You can watch the full final table broadcast below.
Additional images courtesy of the King Poker Cup.
