Bryn Kenney Wins $100,000 PCA Super High Roller ($1,687,800)
After finishing third in the same tournament in both 2011 and 2015, Bryn Kenney won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller for a $1,687,800 after beating a stacked field of 58 entries including World Series of Poker Main Event champion Joe McKeehen heads up. The win put Kenney on $8.3 million live tournament earnings, and up to 54th on the all-time money list.
"It feels great, I didn't have a Super High Roller win, and no tournament win that you can be proud of, it was always third, second, in these big tournaments and to get a win is just the best," Kenney said after lifting the trophy.
The final table started with six hopefuls looking to capture the first big title of 2016, and it took quite some time before the field got whittled down to five. It was Isaac Haxton who busted out in sixth place, but not before seeing some huge swings put him near the top of the counts. On a big hand versus David Peters, Haxton climbed up the standings as his two pair beat Peters', but that was no sign of what was to come.
While the action was still six-handed it was Ankush Mandavia who grabbed the lead after hitting broadway against Peters' top two pair, and the latter managed to save a lot of chips by folding to a big bet on the river with a four-card straight on board. On the 51st hand of play it was Mustapha Kanit who ended up all in with ace-five against Haxton's sevens, and an ace on the turn gave the Italian the double up. On the very next hand Haxton hit the rail when he shoved with ten-nine suited into McKeehen's ace-king, and the board brought no help. Haxton collected $360,060 for his sixth-place finish.
No less than 10 hands later, two hands played out back-to-back involving Mandavia and a ton of chips in the middle. On the first one it was Kanit who was at risk for 1.2 million holding ace-nine against Mandavia's ace-six. The board brought mere blanks and Kanit doubled up, after which Mandavia was all in himself right away. Mandavia held ace-three against Kenney's king-queen suited and the former's ace-high held up to keep him in the game.
On hand 83, Kanit doubled up again, this time through Peters who was left with just a few big blinds. Kanit shoved with ten-nine suited and doubled through Peters' ace-king after hitting a straight on the turn in a preflop all in. Three hands later Peters found himself all in and at risk with ace-nine against Kenney's ace-ten, and the board brought blanks to get the tournament down to four players. Peters collected $461,340 for his big run, and he now has more than $10 million in live tournament earnings.
Kanit was next to go in fourth after he ended up all in with pocket sevens in a blind battle against Mandavia's ace-jack offsuit. Mandavia hit a straight on the river to send Kanit to the rail, who collected $596,360 for his efforts.
With three players remaining Mandavia maintained his lead for a while, but ultimately he was the next player to get knocked out. Mandavia dropped some chips to Kenney before getting knocked out holding king-four against Kenney's king-nine suited in a blind battle. Mandavia took home $787,640, more than doubling the biggest live tournament result of his poker career.
Kenney started the heads-up battle with 7,945,000 versus McKeehen's 6,550,000, but things were far from over. Kenney extended his lead to over 10 million, but things swung all the way back around in McKeehen's favor. After a short break, during which Kenney only had 10 big blinds left, a double-up spree started for the WSOP bracelet winner who took down the tournament a few hands later. Kenney won the biggest tournament of his poker career, while McKeehen added another seven-figure score to his poker resume, and now more than $10 million in career earnings.