Champion Bryn Kenney!

We’ve been here before.

Already No 1 on poker’s all-time money list, Bryn Kenney extended his lead at the top of the world by another $4.41 million tonight, taking down the latest no limit hold’em Main Event on the Triton Series, for yet another famous title.

Kenney was already a Triton champion when he won the biggest prize ever handed out on the tour, back in 2019 in London, and had three titles to his name when he sat down in the Salle des Etoiles in Monaco today. This was the final table of the $125,000 buy-in Main Event, and Kenney was one of nine left after the rest of this 159-entry field had departed.

He was, as is always his way, the unstoppable force. He’ll be the first to admit he needed a huge slice of good fortune to defeat Malaysia’s Wai Leong Chan heads-up. But Kenney puts himself in the right position so many times that these things happen. It was another spectacular performance from the scintillating New Yorker, who is now a two-time Main Event champion too.

“Crazy,” an exasperated Kenney said when asked to describe this latest triumph. “It’s a bit surreal for sure. It’s amazing to be up here. Just super blessed and grateful for what the cards life gives me.”

Wai Leong Chan congratulates the new champion Bryn Kenney

As he takes career poker earnings past $70 million, Kenney was asked what the secret is.

“Never give up, that’s the secret, for sure,” he said. “Everyone has their roller coaster, their wave that they’re on…You just got to hang on for the ride. Give it your best, don’t let things get you down and never stop fighting.”

He committed himself to more of the same in the future. “Just stay on the wave and see where it takes me,” he said.

Chan will take plenty of sympathy for how this turned out. The Malaysian, at his 12th final table, had Kenney all-in and behind during heads up play, but watched his American opponent spike a five-outer on the river to survive, double up, and build an insurmountable lead.

Chan’s consolation prize was $2,970,000 for his runner-up finish, while Punnat Punsri, also chasing a second Main Event victory of his own, banked $2,045,000 for third.

Kenney’s prize included an exclusive Jacob & Co timepiece, reserved only for winners of Triton Series Main Events. It was his first, having picked up his first Main Event win before the partnership with the master watchmaker.

As ever, Kenny was humbled and a little stunned by his success. “I’ve put my life into poker,” he said. “It’s been quite the mountain climbing. Incredibly lucky, grateful, blessed.”

Bryn Kenny: Happy, grateful, blessed

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The tournament began three days ago, and while its buy-in is only the third biggest at this Triton Series stop, the word “main” in the event title, plus the Jacob & Co timepiece on offer to its champion, ensures anticipation is dialled up a notch, and attendance is high.

In all, 99 players sat down and added 60 re-entries, to bring the prize pool close to $20 million. Day 1 was about slowly building a stack and avoiding elimination. The same things mattered on Day 2 as well, but there was also the bubble and then the pursuit of a seat at the final.

As is always the case, plenty of Triton titans couldn’t last the course. Jeju Main Event champion Roman Hrabec perished in 87th. Last year’s Monte Carlo champion Matthias Eibinger could only reach 31st this time.

By the time the tournament got to its stone bubble, three players were critically short. Samuel Mullur had only four big blinds, Curtis Knight had five and Konstantin Maslak had seven. They were the three most likely candidates for this specific misery; a two-day battle ending in nothing.

Knight gave himself some breathing space. He tripled up thanks to finding a pair of kings under the gun. Adrian Mateos, on the button, had pocket eights and committed his stack too. Then Jesse Lonis, in the small blind, covered them both and forced them to put all their chips in the middle with a raise. (It also persuaded Sam Greenwood, in the big blind, out of the pot. He had looked like joining the party for a while.)

Adrian Mateos, Jesse Lonis and Curtis Knight get it all in

Lonis had AJ so needed to spike an ace to kill of both of them. But the board was entirely blank, meaning Knight won the hand and tripled, while Mateos won the side pot with his eights. “I’m the only one who loses,” Lonis said.

Over on the other table, Mullur folded his big blind, leaving himself with two blinds behind. And he then also folded his small blind, taking himself down to just one. However, those two folds essentially made him the best part of $200,000 because of what happened back at the Lonis/Knight/Mateos table.

Here, Ole Schemion and chip-leading Wai Leong Chan got involved in a blind-on-blind battle that ended in tears. The pair had recently played a big pot, where Schemion bluffed the river with a pair of fives, looking at a board containing four spades. He did not have a spade, but Chan did, the 8 and deemed it good enough for a call.

Perhaps this dynamic played into what happened next, but it resulted in a huge free-fall out of the tournament from Schemion. He had A4 in the small blind and completed Chan’s big blind. Chan raised to four big blinds and Schemion responded with a jam for his whole 30 big blind stack.

Chan had A Q and called, setting up a pot of more than 60 big blinds on the stone bubble of a $100K Main Event in which one other player had one blind.

Ole Schemion bursts the bubble

The board brought little encouragement for Schemion, but the turn added a flush draw. However, the river bricked and the German crusher took the long walk out of the tournament room, surrendering a mid-sized stack to the new, overwhelming tournament chip leader Chan. Mullur and other short stacks around the room rejoiced.

Focus now shifted on reaching the final and, better, doing so with a stack to challenge the top six, where seven-figure prizes awaited. This passage of play is another that frequently claims the scalps of some of the very best: Chris Brewer, Ike Haxton, Alex Foxen and Fedor Holz fell in 17th through 14th, by way of example.

Mikita Badziakouski, who made the final table of the Triton Invitational only a couple of days prior, stuck around with a short stack as the field whittled to 12, 11 and then 10. And ironically it was only after he had doubled up twice to build a playable stack that he lost it: Badziakouski flopped a pair of aces with his A9 but Jonathan Jaffe completed a flush with  and sent Badziakouski to the rail.

Mikita Badziakouski’s late night elimination set the final table

That gave Jaffe the most chips to try cramming into a bag as they went to bed to prepare for the final. The stacks they would return to looked like this:

Jonathan Jaffe – 12.65m (101 BBs)

Wai Leong Chan – 6.2m (50 BBs)

Bryn Kenney – 4.075m (33 BBs)

Mario Mosbock – 3.575m (29 BBs)

Danny Tang – 3.375m (27 BBs)

Punnat Punsri – 3.35m (27 BBs)

Bob Voulgaris – 3.35m (27 BBs)

Jesse Lonis – 1.9m (15 BBs)

Thomas Muhlocker – 1.275m (10 BBs)

Triton Monte Carlo Main Event final table (clockwise from back left): Jonathan Jaffe, Punnat Punsri, Bryn Kenney, Danny Tang, Jesse Lonis, Mario Mosbock, Wai Leong Chan, Thomas Muhlocker, Bob Voulgaris

There was drama straight away as the tournament got restarted. Mario Mosbock picked up red pocket aces on the very first deal, but Jonathan Jaffe flopped a straight with his Q 10, which became an unnecessary flush by the river. Jaffe went for all of it, but a disciplined Mosbock wriggled away losing the minimum.

Mario Mosbock was put in a tough spot right from the start

Thomas Muhlocker was still the short stack, but he didn’t find any appropriate spot to risk it — at least not before Jesse Lonis had stuck his chips in the middle, looking for a crucial double. Unfortunately for Lonis, Punnat Punsri was sitting behind him waiting with a better hand to knock him out.

Lonis and Punsri had recent history together. As the Main Event got started on Saturday night, those two were heads up for the $50K 7-Handed tournament, in which Lonis got the better of Punsri for a debut Triton trophy. Both players hopped into the Main Event at its conclusion, and now here they were again at a final table together.

But Lonis’ stay was brief. He jammed with A 3 and Punsri picked him off with A. Punsri finished with a straight, while Lonis took $445,000 for ninth.

Jesse Lonis was one of the last to enter the main event, but was first out on the final day

At times last night, Muhlocker will have known that it was touch and go whether he would make the final. He had been nursing a short stack for several hours, but skilfully navigated his way into the last day regardless. All good things must come to an end eventually, however, and his tournament ended in back-to-back beats against, first, Mario Mosbock and then Bryn Kenney.

The first pot was the biggest. Muhlocker open shoved QJ and found Mosbock willing to call for all his chips with pocket sixes. A six on the flop left Muhlocker drawing thin on the flop, dead on the turn. It was a major double for Mosbock and left Muhlocker with crumbs.

He got them all in on the very next hand and had the good fortune to find pocket kings. But Kenney’s A K spiked an ace to end Muhlocker’s tournament. Had Mosbock not taken most of Muhlocker’s chips, they surely would have gone all in on this hand anyway.

Muhlocker won $538,000 for eighth.

Thomas Muhlocker parlayed his short stack into and eighth place payout

Danny Tang hadn’t had many opportunities to do very much at this final table, but eventually looked down at  and saw Mosbock open the pot ahead of him. With 15 big blinds, he decided this was his moment. The chips went in. Tang had no way of knowing that Jaffe, still the chip leader, was lurking behind with A K. Jaffe called the shove, Mosbock folded and Tang’s tournament was on the line.

Tang will always remember this trip to Monte Carlo as it’s the place he picked up the Ivan Leow Player of the Year trophy for his scintillating displays during last season. A Main Event final table shows that Tang has lost none of his hunger, but unfortunately this one ended in seventh. Jaffe’s dominant ace stayed better and Tang departed with $743,000.

No Main Event title for POY Danny Tang

They played on to the first tournament break of the day, at which point the blinds went up and the average stack reduced to 27 big blinds. Jaffe still led the way with 45 bigs, but there were three players — Wai Leong Chan, Punsri and Kenney — deadlocked in second, with 30 apiece. Bob Voulgaris and Mosbock were hovering below the average line.

The minimum payout was now more than $1 million, so whatever happened there was reason to celebrate. And certainly there was nothing approaching regret when Mosbock’s rollercoaster ride hit its final buffers at around 4pm local time.

Kenney took Mosbock’s final few blinds, but the damage was done in a major clash with Bob Voulgaris. There was not much a couple of short-stacked player are going to do when one gets pocket kings (Mosbock) and the other aces (Voulgaris) and, sure enough, stacks went in pre-flop. Mosbock had Voulgaris covered, so the Canadian landed a big double after a blank board.

Mosbock was all in the next hand and couldn’t beat Kenney. Mosbock departed $1.02m richer.

The end of the road for Mario Mosböck

That pot against Mosbock was the first significant uptick at this final table for Voulgaris, and another player who had largely stayed out of the major confrontations to this point, Wai Leon Chan, also soon broke cover. And this was an enormous pot, with the two overnight chip leaders squaring off.

Jaffe, still out front, had KQ and called an opening raise from Chan. He then went to what must have seemed like a dream flop of K . Chan, however, had  , also top pair and with a better kicked. Jaffe check-called bets on every street, including a jam on the  river from Chan, by which point Jaffe’s back-up flush draw had whiffed.

The dominant ace pre-flop, which was now two pair, landed Chan a massive double and sent Jaffe spiralling down to fifth out of five left. Although he battled on for a while, it proved to be too significant a hurdle to overcome for Jaffe. After picking up J9 he opened pre-flop and Chan laid a trap by defending his big blind with only a call, despite holding A .

The flop was A J 10 and Jaffe shoved over Chan’s donk-lead. Second pair was not good enough against Chan’s top pair, and Jaffe’s tournament was over. He won $1,330,000 for fifth.

Jonathan Jaffe: Overnight leader out in fifth

Chan now has the bit between his teeth, and he ended another North American interest not long later when Bob Voulgaris tries to win a flip. The pair got everything in pre-flop in this one, with Voulgaris’ AQ going up against Chan’s black pocket tens.

Once again, Chan was already leading, but rivered a set for good measure. Voulgaris’ entire 13-big blind stack was slid to Chan, while the Canadian collected $1,665,000 for his fourth place.

Just like that, the tournament was three handed, with Kenney and Chan neck and neck at the top — they had about 40 blinds each — and Punsri holding on with 15.

But he could only hold on for so long. As Chan attempted to turn the screw, he open-jammed his small blind to question whether Punsri fancied committing his last chips to the pot. With Q 10, Punsri decided it was worth it. He had decent equity against Chan’s K.

Punnant Punsri’s quest for a second Main Event came up short

Punsri’s hand was pretty but he still needed it to improve. Despite flopping a flush draw, he missed his numerous outs on turn and river, with the king staying best. That sent Punsri out of the tournament with another $2,045,000 for his efforts. He’s finished in third and second in consecutive events here in Monte Carlo, which must feel very good.

“You played well again,” Kenney said as he bade Punsri farewell.

They took a quick break and prepared to return for heads-up. Chan sat with 57 blinds to Kenney’s 43, plenty of ammunition for a significant heads-up battle.

These two were not here to play small-ball, however. And the cards didn’t favour that approach either. Only a few hands into heads up play, the dealer pitched pocket kings to Chan and AJto Kenney, and the pair started raising and re-raising pre-flop.

Kenney put in the last bet, a four-bet for his whole stack, and Chan made a happy call. The flop came 2 J 7 to add a couple more outs to Kenney, but the  turn changed nothing. However the  river brought gasps from all sides of the stage, and left Chan’s tournament in tatters.

So near but yet so far for Wai Leong Chan

He had only three big blinds left after the grimmest of hands, and though he doubled on the very next hand, he was all-in and under threat again very quickly after. This time, Kenney had pocket sixes to Chan’s A 9 and there was nothing on flop, turn or river to bail out Chan.

Kenney rose and took a deep breath. He’d done it. Again.

The trophy and the Jacob & Co timepiece now heading to Bryn Kenney