New York Poker Pro Kenney Starts 2017 On A Heater, Proving Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last

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Last year was the New York resident’s best as a professional US poker player as he collected in excess of $5.2 million in live tournament earnings and dominated some of the biggest buy-in tournaments on the planet.
2016 was Kenney’s best
There were a lot of good results a year ago for the pro from Long Beach, NY:
- He kicked off 2016 by winning the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $1,687,800.
- That summer, he finished sixth in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl at Aria in Las Vegas for $800,000.
- Then, he rolled into the holiday season finishing runner-up in the HK$500,000 Triton Super High Roller in Manila, Philippines, for $1,401,694.
Kenney had been a regular in the nosebleed buy-in tournaments from the day they started. Suddenly, 2016 looked like the year it was finally paying off for him. And things only got better.
2017 means more winnings
In just the first four months of 2017, Kenney has already bettered the massive 2016 he recorded. Now, with $5,251,955 in 2017 tournament earnings headed into the month of May, he’s guaranteed this will be his best year as a pro.
What might make the numbers even more impressive is that while Kenney started the year dominating the high roller events at PokerStars Championship Bahamas and booked one small cash at PokerStars Championship Panama, he skipped PokerStars Championship Macau. It was another golden opportunity to earn even more but Kenney stayed home in protest of PokerStars cutting costs and failing to honor payout agreements in high-roller events.
Regardless, if things keep going at the pace he’s on, Kenney will end up with some pretty legendary numbers by the end of 2017.
A little perspective
To put it in some kind of perspective, Kenney has collected more than $10 million in tournament earnings over the past 16 months. Over this same period, he’s leapfrogged over the $17 million mark in career tournament earnings. That vaulted him into 15th place on poker’s all-time leading money winner’s list.
If he hasn’t yet proved he’s one of the best poker players in the world, he’s certainly proving to be one of the game’s best earners. Plus, the truth is, it really could not be happening to a nicer guy.
The affable Kenney has steadily become one of the biggest winners in the regular Aria Super High Roller series in Las Vegas. Plus, just last week he booked the biggest score of his career.
[i15-table tableid=20717][i15-table tableid=19346]The biggest score of Kenney’s career
It was rather fitting that the $1,946,911 win came at the PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino €100,000 Super High Roller. Monaco proved the perfect place to crown Kenney king of the Super High Rollers. Especially since it’s the same locale where he proved to be one of poker’s nicest guys just a few years earlier.
It’s the kind of story PokerStars doesn’t want too heavily publicized, but it most certainly did happen.
Nice guys don’t always finish last
A few years ago, the world’s largest online poker site threw a party in Monaco at the end of the European Poker Tour Grand Final. The party was at held inside the faux-posh basement nightclub not far from the tournament area. It’s the kind of place featuring overpriced drinks and very little in the way of atmosphere.
Most of the event’s dealers were done working and headed over to take advantage of the open bar. However, organizers quickly nixed that idea, telling the dealers it was a players-only affair.
Depending on who is telling this story, PokerStars may have ultimately relented and allowed staff to enter. However, it was likely too little too late. Most of the dealers ended up down the street. You see, once Kenney got word of it all, he invited the entire event staff over to the much more fun Irish pub a few blocks over and picked up the entire tab.
This kind of generosity has earned Kenney a ton of fans around the globe. They’re all cheering pretty loudly right now as he goes about the business of proving nice guys don’t always finish last.