Success in poker involves many things, but one key skill is being able to use your experience to adapt to your situation. That goes for anyone, from a novice all the way up to Bryn Kenney — the #1 ranked tournament player in the world and the subject of this month’s edition of The Interview.
Your solver, your friends, a book or a strategy article might tell you to take a certain line against a smart, well-studied opponent, but what if your experience has shown you there are no such players in your regular game?
For Bryn Kenney, the principle holds true, even if that particular example may not apply.
With more than $75M in tournament earnings and a steady diet of high roller wins, the majority of opponents he faces are studied and smart. Yet personal experience remains a guiding light.
Watch the full episode of The Interview right now, above, or read on for an excerpt. You can also find links to the audio podcast below.
‘Any dream that I've had has come into reality’
"My whole experience of life is there is no dream that's been too big, because any dream that I've had has come into reality,” Kenney tells PokerOrg’s Craig Tapscott in our exclusive, in-depth interview. “It's been a crazy road and life has still never shown me that that wasn't the case."
“When you do these extreme things like I do, with a willingness to risk everything for something bigger that you believe in… Everyone else is going to see you as this person who's willing to take crazy risks and maybe is a bit too much, and maybe dreams too big… Maybe these things that you have dreamed have been huge dreams, but then how have they always come to reality if life isn't the way that you see it, or the way that you believe that it is?
“So then, when asking myself, ‘am I the crazy person?’ you get to like, yes, definitely different, eccentric, it depends how you want to define ‘crazy,’ but based on your experience of dreaming big and them coming into fruition… until life shows you that that's not the case, I would say I'd be almost a crazy person to believe that it's not true.”
An extended and personal talk with poker’s biggest winner
Watch the full video above to join Kenney and Craig Tapscott for an in-depth, unfiltered conversation touching on some of the most fascinating moments in a career unlike any other.
Topics include:
- The various controversies over his career, from staking deals to business ventures and personal relationships gone bad
- The evolution of his online poker site, 4Poker, his intentions when setting it up and his hopes for the site’s future
- His approach to the mental side of poker, and of life
- The importance of self-reflection, and the challenges that come with it
- His experience of becoming the world’s number one ranked player, and memories of the exact moment that dream became reality
- Thoughts on his legacy in poker, as well as his remaining aspirations for the future
Scroll down for more episodes from PokerOrg’s The Interview, including recent in-depth conversations with Chris Moneymaker and Phil Galfond.
Listen Now! You can now experience The Interview on your Apple and Spotify podcast channels.
Additional images courtesy of Neil Stoddart.
