Bryn Kenney Crushes His Opponents and Wins U.S. Poker Open Event #7

Event #7 of the 2019 U.S. Poker Open was won by Bryn Kenney who made quick work of his final table opponents, finishing the tournament in a little over an hour and taking home $450,000. Kenney jumps into fourth place on the U.S. Poker Open Championship standings with 240 points, which is lead by Stephen Chidwick with 540 points.

Kenney capped his tremendous final table run off by busting Jake Schindler heads up. In Schindler’s defense, there wasn’t much he could do as Kenney entered the heads up match with an almost ten-to-one chip lead. Schindler earned $300,000 for second place despite winning just one hand at the entire final table.

“This feels good. Last year was the only losing year I’ve ever had in my poker career and I felt as though I needed to follow it up with a home run year like I did in 2017,” Kenney said, now having won both the Aussie Millions Main Event and this U.S. Poker Open to start off the year strong.

“It’s fun, the best thing is to win nice trophies in poker and this one looks great. It would make for a nice mantlepiece,” Kenney said about his chances in the overall U.S. Poker Open Championship race.

“The series if perfect but I’ve learned to know and understand myself. Playing 11 days straight is not good for me, I get burnt out easily. I skipped both PLO events and bought in late for the last $25k event because when I play for long days in a row I do a lot of thinking and get burnt out easily,” Kenney said, motivated about the final events of this series.

The action started quickly as Kenney eliminated Nick Petrangelo in sixth place ($90,000). Petrangelo shoved the small blind with jack-high and Kenney called with king-high. Kenney held on to win and send Petrangelo to the rail.

Then Nick Schulman fell in fifth place for $120,000. Keith Tilston did the honors holding ace-high against the queen-high of Schulman and eliminating him in fifth. Tilston left quickly after when Kenney shoved pocket threes and Tilston called with two overs. Tilston couldn’t find a pair and Kenney won another hand, sending Tilston to the rail with $150,000.

Kenney catapulted to a huge lead thanks to a blind versus blind hand against the start of day chip leader, and eventual third-place finisher Ben Yu ($210,000). Kenney flopped two pair against Yu’s top pair and the later couldn’t find a fold when he was put almost all in on the river. Yu used three of his time extensions and then called only to be left with very little chips.

With seven events in the books, Stephen Chidwick still holds the top spot in the overall USPO standings. Sean Winter is in second place and Cary Katz sits in third. These three players have done almost nothing but make final tables, and so far it looks like it might be a three-horse race.

However, the points will increase for the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, with the winner getting 350 points. There is a chance that if Kenney has another strong finish, he may contend.

The U.S. Poker Open Championship standings are as follows.

Stay tuned to the live updates here on PokerCentral.com. You can follow all the action in Event #8 -$25,000 Mixed Game here.

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