After making the final table of this same event twice previously (in 2011 and last year), Bryn Kenney finally found “third time lucky” as he maintained his lead he brought in to the final table to the end of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure’s $100,000 Super High Roller event.
Kenney had a minimal lead, his 3.82 million stack over Ankush Mandavia’s 3.36 million in play, but many eyes were on the player who held the third place slot. Defending World Champion Joe McKeehen continued to show the same skills that had brought him World Series of Poker gold in bagging up 2.805 million in chips, while David Peters attempted to keep pace with him with his 2.085 million. Isaac Haxton, fresh off of his split with Team PokerStars Pro Online (1.395 million) and Mustapha Kanit (1.03 million) both were looking to get something going as the cards hit the air.
For the first 50 hands or so, the players were content to shift the chips around the table. This also would lead to a change atop the leaderboard as Mandavia took over following a clash with Peters. The first knockout would come rather quickly and, once it occurred, opened the floodgates for the tournament to come to a close.
After running his pocket sevens into Kanit’s A-5 – and seeing the Italian pro hit an Ace on the flop – Haxton was the first to go. Left short-stacked after that clash with Kanit, his 10-9 was no match for McKeehen’s Big Slick to eliminate Haxton in sixth place for $360,060. That may sound like a nice payday, but Haxton was in for at least two buy-ins (of $100,000 each, remind you) that reduced his overall ROI to only about $160K or so. If he only had pieces of himself, then his actual overall profit probably didn’t crack six figures.
Kanit seemed to continue to find the right moments to get his chips to the center. Against Mandavia, Kanit’s A-9 was able to walk through Mandavia’s A-6 for another double up and, about 20 hands later, Kanit would pull off the trick for the third time against Peters. Pushing pre-flop with a 10-9 in an effort to get Peters off his hand, Kanit would instead see Peters call with Big Slick. The board gave Kanit an unbeatable straight on the turn and another key addition of chips while Peters would depart at the hands of Kenney in fifth place soon afterwards.
Kanit’s fortunes had to run out at some point, however, and they would in fourth place. He actually had a hand when the chips hit the center this time, pocket sevens, and they looked pretty racy against Mandavia’s A-J. By the time the five cards constituting the board were displayed, though, Mandavia sat on a straight to send Kanit out of the tournament and Mandavia into the lead.
Now down to three players, the trio decided to shuffle around chips for a bit before deciding a champion. After Kenney cut some chips off him, Mandavia would try to garner some revenge on Kenney but came out on the losing end. His K-4 didn’t have enough power to eclipse Kenney’s K-9 with both players in the blinds and, after trying to make a steal, Mandavia instead found himself without chips and out in third place.
Kenney was a slight leader (7.945 million) over McKeehen (6.55 million) at the start of heads up play and the duo would entertain the rail with the heads up action. Kenney jumped up to 10 million quickly but the World Champion fought back to take a lead of his own. In fact, McKeehen actually had Kenney knocked down to only 10 big blinds at one point before Kenney started a rally that would lead him to the championship.
On the final hand of the tournament, McKeehen raised his button and Kenney moved all in. McKeehen was just as quick with his call as Kenney had been with his all-in move and with good reason: his pocket fives were in good shape against the K-7 that Kenney put on display. The flop couldn’t have come any worse for McKeehen, with a Boeing (7-4-7) landing the flop. Now looking for one of two fives to save him, McKeehen could only see a trey and a Jack come on the turn and river, ensuring the victory and the million-dollar payday for Bryn Kenney.
1. Bryn Kenney, $1,687,800
2. Joe McKeehen, $1,220,480
3. Ankush Mandavia, $787,640
4. Mustapha Kanit, $596,360
5. David Peters, $461,340
6. Isaac Haxton, $360,060
7. Daniel Dvoress, $286,920*
8. Kathy Lehne, $225,040*
(* – eliminated Thursday, official final table finish)
