Bryn Kenney wants Phil Hellmuth to stop talking and start proving he’s the best in the world by competing against the top poker pros. The “Poker Brat” continually claims he is still the best in the game, but many question if he’s done much to prove that in recent years.
Hellmuth recently defeated Daniel Negreanu in a heads-up match on PokerGO’s “High Stakes Duel II” show. But the sit n go one-off format doesn’t really prove much. Variance was a contributing factor in his victory, and he needed numerous lucky hands to rally from a 19-1 chip disadvantage at one point.
He’ll have another opportunity soon to defeat Negreanu in Round 2, worth $200,000. Kenney is one of many high stakes pros who is apparently fed up with Hellmuth’s chirping. He wants the WSOP bracelet record-holder to put his money where his mouth is.
https://twitter.com/BrynKenney/status/1378396288446652416?s=20
“What’s all this white magic and apexpredator s**t I’m hearing @Phil_hellmuth. We know who is king of the hill, but if you want your shot at the top let’s put up a million each and give the people what they want,” Bryn Kenney tweeted.
Phil Hellmuth vs. Bryn Kenney?
The chances of a Hellmuth vs. Kenney heads-up battle, unless it’s another sit n go style match, are slim. Hellmuth’s never taken on any sort of lengthy online heads-up challenge, similar to what Negreanu faced against Doug Polk.
Bryn Kenney is poker’s all-time winningest live tournament player at $56.4 million. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the best player. Part of that record is inflated by a $20.5 million cash for second place in the $1 million Big One for One Drop in Europe in 2019. With that said, he’s won an additional $36 million outside of that one-off, and is consistently among the top performers in high rollers all around the world.
“I’ve been crushing the highest stakes of MTTs for 15+ years, the toughest games have been online and then live high rollers. Phil hasn’t been a real competitor since I’ve been around at high stakes. Also I’m happy to cross book 500-1000% in smaller mtts,” Kenney wrote.
Instead of trashing Kenney’s game, or just trash-talking in general, Hellmuth showered him with praise in a response to the callout tweet.
“Bryn – I have massive respect for you, I actually think you have a shot at becoming the poker GOAT (because you play all the games so well). Matusow thinks your the best! When you say I’m getting crushed at High Rollers, and it’s NOT true, seems like an attack on my legacy,” Hellmuth responded.
Hellmuth claims to have profited over $1 million lifetime in high rollers. There is no way to verify that as we only have access to cashes and not losses. But he does have over $24 million in live tournaments since 1987, ranking him 21st all-time.
The “Poker Brat” recently agreed to a $400,000 prop bet with Negreanu that he could turn a profit over 50 high rollers at Aria in Las Vegas. But it’s unlikely that bet will end any time in the near future, if ever.
