Bryn Kenney Attacks Phil Hellmuth’s Poker Record

Bryn Kenney has fired shots at Phil Hellmuth’s poker record, attacking his record at the highest stakes against the best players.

Making an appearance on the Digital Social Hour Podcast hosted by Sean Kelly, Kenney was asked :

“A lot of people label Hellmuth as the ‘Tournament G.O.A.T.,’ but I’d love to hear your opinion. because he doesn’t really play in the higher stakes tournaments like you do.”

Hellmuth’s record at the World Series of Poker is phenomenal with a record 17 gold bracelets and 73 final tables.

To put that into perspective, Phil Ivey has the second most bracelets with a total of 11. And for final table appearances, the late, great Doyle Brunson is in second place with 50, followed by Phil Ivey who has racked up 43.

Kenney accepts this, but then goes on to talk about the Poker Brat’s record in the high roller scene. He makes a fair point that if you’re not testing yourself against the recognised best in the business, how can you ever be considered for an accolade such as G.O.A.T..

“He’s played some high rollers and hasn’t really fared very well in them, and you know, when I think about who are the best players in poker, if you’re not competing at the highest level, you can’t really be in contention for it.”

The New Yorker continues with what Hellmuth will certainly see as an insult.

“If you’re playing against mostly amateur players at the World Series, you’re great at beating the amateur players. It’s like you could be the King of Triple A.” 

For those unfamiliar with Triple A, it refers to the Minor League of baseball which is only the second tier of the sport.

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Phil Hellmuth Responds to Bryn Kenney

Predictably, it didn’t take long for Phil Hellmuth to hear what had been said and his response was posted on X.

To me the @WSOP (World Series of Poker) is the “big leagues.” Always has been, always will be. It’s aggravating to me when people lie about me and my legacy. For the record, I am winning over $1.5M in “High Rollers.” (Easy to confirm this on HendonMob)

You said I wouldn’t play… https://t.co/ISfqZD5J3y

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) October 5, 2024

The World Series of Poker might be the most prestigious live poker series in the world today, but the number of amateur players making the trip to Las Vegas every year is very high.

Unless we are talking about the $10,000+ events, the fields are not considered to be particularly tough.

In fact, one of Phil Hellmuth’s recognised strengths is how he is able to dodge the many landmines and banana skins players face when surviving a field with many recreational players.

So, is the WSOP really the big league? Probably not, if we’re being honest. Now, the Triton Super High Roller Series, on the other hand, has insanely tough fields with many of the world’s best tournament players turning up for every series.

Hellmuth also accuses Bryn Kenney of swerving the opportunity to play him in the High Stakes Duel for $1.6 million.

Kenney denies this and says he told PokerGO he was ready to play at any time but that Hellmuth was able to “cherry pick” who he was playing.

He followed up by reiterating his willingness to play for a sum of at least $1 million and also offered a crossbook if he ever plays in a 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.

Also if you wanna showcase how good you arent, I’m happy to crossbook 100% in any triton series

— Bryn Kenney (@BrynKenney) October 5, 2024

In the interview, Kenney also said he’s up for a huge wager on a WSOP performance over the full series.:

“I mean, he says that he is online, but he doesn’t want to play me heads up. You know, if he’s, if he’s looking to ever make like a huge bet in the World Series, like, I’ll consider playing a whole WSOP series and show him that he’s not even the best of those either.”

Check out the full interview below: