Bryn Kenney Wins King Poker Cup Title in Jeju
Official payouts gave him $1.95 million after a heads-up finish against Jesse Lonis in the $100,000 charity super high roller.
Bryn Kenney won the King Poker Cup $100,000 King’s Charity Super High Roller in Jeju, South Korea, and the official result gave him $1,954,000 plus the trophy.
The event drew 71 entries and built a $6,674,000 prize pool. It ran over three days at LES A Casino in the Jeju Shinhwa World Resort, and the top 11 finishers made the money.
Poker.org reported that Kenney beat Jesse Lonis heads-up after the two had discussed a deal. Lonis said they were “merely playing for the trophy” by the time the final river was dealt, but the official payouts still listed Kenney as the winner and Lonis as runner-up for $1.3 million.
The rest of the final table was also heavy on big names. Elton Tsang finished third for $880,000, Xuanyi Wang took fourth for $630,000, Xing was fifth for $450,000, Tom Dwan finished sixth for $350,000, David Miscikowski was seventh for $280,000, and Ren Lin was the first player paid after the bubble burst with a $200,000 min-cash.
SoMuchPoker’s live updates said Lonis began heads-up play with 18 million chips to Kenney’s 17 million. Kenney then pulled ahead to 27 million against Lonis’s 8 million before the final hand, when Lonis moved in with king-deuce, Kenney called with jack-ten suited, and a ten on the flop sealed it.
The win pushed Kenney farther ahead on poker’s all-time money list. Poker.org put his recorded tournament earnings at more than $89 million over 19 years, and also noted skepticism about that top ranking because of a handful of huge scores, including his $20 million Triton Million win in 2019. SoMuchPoker said the Jeju victory took him past the $90 million mark.
Lonis also arrived with a much shorter but very hot recent run. Before Jeju, he had seven $1 million-plus scores, all in the past three years, after not recording a five-figure cash until 2020.
The Jeju stop was being framed as part of South Korea’s growing poker scene. Poker.org said Jeju Island has become ground zero for the surge, with the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series already helping make the super high roller circuit there feel established.
