Ebony Kenney is new to the high roller tournament scene, but she has certainly made the most of it recently. Her latest result was both a fantastic feat and a “what could have been,” as she finished fifth this week in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Cyprus $200,000 No-Limit Hold’em Coin Rivet Invitational for $1.7 million.
It was so close to being so much more. After Karl Chappe-Gatien – who was in control for much of the final table – raised pre-flop, Kenney moved all-in with pocket Jacks for 3.6 million chips. Chappe-Gatien deliberated, needing a time extension before he finally decided to make the call. He suspected she might have his pocket Nines beaten, and he was, of course, correct.
But the turn gave him a set and Kenney couldn’t catch up on the river to go out in fifth place. If she avoided that two-outer, she would have been in prime position to at the very least earn some more money. Fourth place was $2.1 million (Fedor Holz) and Chappe-Gatien eventually bowed out in third for $2.6 million.
The significance of Kenney’s ouster in fifth and how close she was to achieving more, even though she was likely very happy with such a tremendous payday, was that she nearly achieved the largest-ever live tournament cash by a woman.
That title still belongs to a name we haven’t heard in a while: Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, who became the youngest World Series of Poker bracelet winner of all time when she won the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event the day before her 19th birthday. Obrestad, who was an online poker phenom as a teenager, won just over $2 million in that tournament.
So, had Ebony Kenney won that hand, she stood a good chance to move up the money ladder. One more spot would have allowed her to overtake Obrestad. As it stands, Kenney now has the fifth-highest female cash. Annie Duke is second on the list, having earned $2 million for winning the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions. Vanessa Selbst is third at about $1.823 million (2010 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event), and Kathy Lehne is in fourth at $1.785 million (2019 partypoker LIVE Millions Super High Roller, third place).
In the end, it was Sam Grafton that came out on top in the Coin Rivet Invitational, defeating Linus Loeliger heads-up. Grafton won an impressive $5.5 million for the win, the largest cash of his career. He now has over $12.2 million in live tournament earnings. Loeliger won $3.9 million for second place, taking his career earnings to nearly $6.7 million.
