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Phil Hellmuth Snaps Back After Bryn Kenney’s “Not in the Majors” Swipe

Bryn Kenney recently stirred controversy by claiming Hellmuth is “great at beating amateur players” but doesn’t belong in his league.

Speaking on the Digital Social Hour Podcast, the leader of the all-time money list in poker conceded that Hellmuth is the “number one WSOP player”, given his record-breaking 17 bracelets. On the flip side, Kenney went on to say how he doesn’t rate Hellmuth’s high roller. Simply put, Kenney believes that, to be labeled the best, you have to beat the best.

“He’s played some high rollers and hasn’t really fared very well in them. You know, when you think about who are the best players in poker, if you’re not competing at the highest level, you can’t really be in contention for it,” said Kenney.

“If you’re playing against mostly amateur players at the World Series, you’re great at beating the amateur players. It’s like you could be the King of Triple A or something – but he’s not really in the Majors.”

He also claimed Hellmuth doesn’t want to play him heads-up, and even laid down a WSOP challenge to see who would cash the most over a series “and show him that he’s not even the best at those”.

Disrespect or Fair Game?

It’s easy to see why Hellmuth rubs some people up the wrong way. He’s called the Poker Brat for a reason. You’ll constantly see him bemoaning his bad luck and complaining about his opponents calling with perfectly reasonable hands. Unfortunately, that includes when he’s playing amateurs.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Hellmuth is the all-time record holder for WSOP bracelets and a player who’s shown an ability to stay relevant and successful in the sport decades after his debut.

Does he deserve more respect? He certainly thinks so, and was quick to defend himself in a post on social media platform X.

Hellmuth’s right about his Hendon Mob page, which remains in good shape. He hasn’t exactly caught fire this year, but cashed for over $1.4 million last year and over $2 million in both 2022 and 2021.

The 1989 WSOP Main Event champion and 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event champion currently ranks 26th on poker’s all-time money list. If you exclude buy-ins of over $50,000, he jumps up to 10th. If you focus purely on super high rollers, he drops to 58th. There’s merit to Kenney’s critique.

However, Hellmuth has enjoyed notable success in some recent high roller events. In 2023 he won the $10,000 WSOP Super Turbo Bounty, where he eliminated Phil Ivey – another who can be considered the greatest poker player of all-time – on the final table, to pick up over $800,000 and his latest bracelet.

And then there were the famous heads-up matches over on PokerGo.

The Heads-Up Master

High Stakes Duel began as a heads-up series on PokerGo which debuted in 2020, starting with a $50,000 one-on-one match between two top poker pros. The loser then had the option to play for double or nothing, or walk away. After three attempts, they’d be out.

The first season saw Phil Hellmuth take on Antonio Esfandiari. Esfandiari, who famously won the first Big One for One Drop with a $1 million buy in for $18,346,673, is a bit familiar with super high-stakes poker.

Hellmuth ended up winning three straight matches and made “The Magician” disappear.

Next up was Daniel Negreanu, a man who was pronounced the best poker player of the previous decade by Global Poker Index in 2014. The GGPoker ambassador is very well-known for needling his good friend Hellmuth on television, but not this time. Hellmuth won 3-0 again.

Phil Hellmuth playing poker
Source: Instagram/philhellmuthpositivity

In season three, Hellmuth defeated sports television host Nick Wright in the first round, who then refused the chance to return. Tom Dwan stepped in to hand Hellmuth his first defeat before losing his rematch and then stepping away.

Scott Seiver was next, and Hellmuth defeated him to make it nine wins in 10. He then lost to Jason Koon and, with the stakes now up to $1.6 million and nobody willing to enter the ring, Koon’s single win was enough to make him champ. The format has changed since then, but Hellmuth definitely impressed during his time on the show.

What Next?

It remains to be seen whether the spat ends here or if a genuine challenge takes place. Poker is a sport which is packed with both big egos and gamblers, so it’s not uncommon for things to escalate. Just take a look at Negreanu vs Doug Polk in their 36-day challenge which cost Kid Poker over $1.2 million. Or Dwan vs Dan Cates and the infamous “Durrrr Challenge”, which has never been resolved.

On the other hand, Hellmuth has weathered some brutal insults before and kept a cool head. In 2014, Dan Colman called him “spineless” and “a cancer to this world” in a TwoPlusTwo post. Hellmuth, who now promotes and has written a book on what he calls the #Positivity Movement, shook it off without much further drama. Colman later admitted he’d gone a bit too far with his comments.

Which way will Hellmuth vs Kenney go? Keep an eye on PokerScout news for any updates.

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