High-stakes tournament pro Bryn Kenney has shot back up to the number one spot on the all-time money list, ahead of Justin Bonomo, after taking down the $250K Triton London Invitational event for over $6.8 million. Kenney has a habit of doing well in the biggest Triton events, having already won the HK$ 1,000,000 No Limit Hold'em event in Montenegro for over $2.7 million USD, as well as his second place in the £1,050,000 Triton charity event for over $20.5 million USD.
Bryn was up against a tough final table, including Natural8’s own Punnat Punsri, so let’s take a look at how the final table action unfolded.
Final Table Action
Bryn started the day second in chips behind the UK’s Talal Shakerchi, but as one of the best tournament players left in the field, he was considered by many to be the favourite to take down the event. In fact, Kenney was heavily involved from the off, getting into a preflop battle with James Chen who started 8th in chips. The two got it in preflop, and Kenney’s AKs beat the AQo of Chen to seal our first elimination of the day.
Despite the millions of dollars on the line, the chips were flying around the table, and it wasn’t long before we had another elimination. Having started the day with just 8bb, Mokri would have been thrilled to ladder up a spot, but he was soon joining Chen on the rail after Ponakovs’ KJs made a straight against his 88.
Next to hit the rail was Nick Petrangelo, one of the better players left in the field. He started the day 7th in chips and ended up taking a stand with AQo against the 4bet shove from Kenney with 99. Unfortunately for Petrangelo, Kenney flopped a set and Nick couldn’t improve to a straight on the river, seeing him eliminated in 7th place for $1.17 million.
You would have thought that after three quick-fire eliminations, the action would have slowed down - but it did quite the opposite! We soon saw another player eliminated, as Talal Shakerchi started putting his big stack to work. Talal opened with QJo from the button, and Flink called from the big blind with QTo. The flop came KJ7, giving Shakerchi middle pair and Flink a straight draw.
After a c-bet from Talal, Flink shoved all-in with his straight draw, and Talal made the call, putting Flink at risk. Both the turn and river were bricks, leaving Flink with just queen-high and eliminating him from the event.
Both Chris Moneymaker and Punnat Punsri were having a quiet final table, taking in the action that was unfolding before them, but after Flink’s elimination, the two were soon in a huge hand together. Chris raised with JJ from UTG, before Punnat shoved for around 17BBs with KQo. Chris made the call, and the two would race for an over 4 million chip pot.
A king on the flop would give Punnat a huge lead in the hand, and Chris was unable to improve on the turn or river. Chris’ 5th place finish was good for just over $2 million - his biggest score since his Main Event win back in 2003.
The next player to bite the dust was Aleksejs Ponakovs, as he found himself up against the juggernaut of Talal Shakerchi. Ponakovs raised with 98s from the CO, Talal flatted 66 from the BTN, and the two blinds folded. A flop of J86 would spell trouble for Ponakovs, but a check/call on the flop kept the pot small.
However, the 8 on the turn all but ensured that Ponakovs would be eliminated this hand - unless he could find some magic on the river. The turn action checked through, as Talal tried to trap Ponakovs with his full house. On the river, it was Ponakovs’ turn to be deceptive, as he checked on the T, inducing Talal to bet. However, he didn’t know how bad of a shape he was in, but after the shove and the snap call, he got the bad news and had to console himself with his $2.54 million prize for fourth place.
Just like that, we were down to three-handed play in less than two hours! You would think after such a fast and furious final table, we’d have to wait a while to see the next elimination, but it only took a short while to find our 3rd place finisher.
Natural8’s Team Hot pro Punnat Punsri shoved with AQo for 25BBs against Talal, who made the call with AJ. However, a flop of TTJ gave Talal the lead, and unfortunately for Punnat, neither the 7 on the turn nor the 9 on the river helped his cause, and he took home a career-best $3,107,000 for his 3rd place finish.
That left us with the two chip leaders from the start of the day - Bryn Kenney and Talal Shakerchi. The two were relatively even going into heads-up play, but like the rest of this final table, it wasn’t long before the chips were flying.
It looked as though Kenney had the run of the cards, as he quickly amassed a decent-sized chip lead over Talal. Try as he might, Shakerchi just couldn’t get anything going, even after making a huge hero fold with trip kings against the full house of Kenney.
Eventually, Kenney managed to finish off his opponent but had to get lucky to do so. After Talal opened AKs, Kenney shoved 98o for around 20BBs, and Talal snapped him off. However, the 865 flop gave Kenney a huge lead in the hand, and Talal would need to hit an ace or a king to survive. Neither the Q nor the J could improve Sharkerchi’s hand, and Kenney sealed his biggest tournament victory, taking home over $6.8 million for his accomplishment.
Triton London $250k NLH Luxon Invitational Final Table Stacks
| Place | Name | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bryn Kenney | USA | $6,860,000 |
| 2 | Talal Shakerchi | UK | $4,650,000 |
| 3 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | $3,107,000 |
| 4 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $2,540,000 |
| 5 | Chris Moneymaker | USA | $2,030,000 |
| 6 | Robert Flink | Sweden | $1,582,000 |
| 7 | Nick Petrangelo | USA | $1,170,000 |
| 8 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | $860,000 |
| 9 | James Chen | Taiwan | $680,000 |
Where does this rank in Bryn Kenney’s poker achievements? Do you think we’ll see a quicker final table in a big buy-in event this series? Let us know on social media and stay tuned for all the latest poker news and events.
Image Source: Triton Poker
