Bryn Kenney tops the global all-time money list with more than $67 million in winnings. His highest win is worth $20,563,324 for his second place finish in the 2019 Triton Million for Charity. He has 84 ITM finishes in tournaments with buy-ins of $25,000 or more. He has won two WSOP bracelets and also has 3 Triton Series titles.
Bryn recently appeared on a podcast interview where he stirred up the waters in the poker community. In one of his comments, he said that he doesn't think Phil Hellmuth is the best player because he doesn't do well in high roller tournaments, and according to Bryn, success in high roller tournaments is an indicator of quality. Bryn pointed out that high roller tournaments are played by the best players in the world, and if you don't win these tournaments, you can't be the best player.
Subsequently, Bryn stated that Phil may be considered the best player at the WSOP, but at the WSOP Phil is beating a mostly amateur field, not a field full of porfessionals. Kenney compared Phil's WSOP success to minor league baseball, not major league baseball.
What did Hellmuth have to say about that?
Phil Hellmuth is up to 17 WSOP gold bracelets, which is obviously a record number. He's second only to Phil Ivey, who has 11 bracelets. Hellmuth also holds the record for most WSOP final tables. His total tournament winnings are worth more than $30 million and he has achieved 20 ITM finishes in tournaments with buy-ins of $25,000 or more.
Of course, these comments have made their way to Phil Hellmuth himself, who had this to say on the X Network:"To me, the WSOP is the 'big leagues'. Always has been, always will be. I find it outrageous when people lie about me and my legacy. For the record, I've won over $1.5 million in "High Rollers" tournaments (it's easy to check on HendonMobe). Did you say I wasn't going to play heads-up with you? Where were you when I challenged the whole world to a $1.6 million heads-up in a game of "High Stakes Duel?"
Subsequently, there was a response to this statement from Bryn Kenney as well, who stated, "I told PokerGO that I was ready to play from the start. We know you can choose who you play with. Let me know when there's an offer to play with me for at least $1 million, and I'll be there. And if you want to prove how good you're not, I'm ready to trade 100 percent with you in any Triton series."
I've told pokergo I'm ready to play from the beginning, we know you get to cherry pick who you were playing. Let me know when the offer is there to play me for 1m, I'll be there.
- Bryn Kenney (@BrynKenney) October 5, 2024
Also if you wanna showcase how good you arent, I'm happy to crossbook 100% in any triton series
An avalanche of negative comments about Kenney were launched under this response. People there mostly reminded him of his accusations of cheating, using RTAs or multiaccounting, which he was accused of by members of his poker stable in 2022.
Bryn Kenney thus started a debate about who is a poker G.O.A.T. and in what ways it should be evaluated with his comments in the podcast. Whether the amount of total winnings, the number of bracelets won, or who wins most often in high roller tournaments should be taken into account. In addition, his comments may have also started a new heads-up duel that I'm sure many poker fans are looking forward to.
Hullmuth's scores in past heads-up duels
If we were really going to see a new High Stakes Duel on PokerGO, we would have to remember Hellmuth's history on the show. Hellmuth has defeated names like Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Tom Dwan, Nick Wright and Scott Seiver here. Only Jason Koon has been able to beat him here. In 2005, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship was held with 64 players and Hellmuth was the champion here as well. In 2013, Phil finished second in this show where only Mike Matusow was able to beat him in the end.
Source - wikipedia, cardplayer.com, pokernews.com, hendonmob.com, X (twitter), pgt.com, tritonpoker.plus
