At the start of 2019, Kahle Burns had around $3.4 million in career poker tournament earnings, making him a rising star in the poker world. Since that point, the Aussie High Roller has more than doubled his career earnings with a career-year that’s saw him earn approximately $4.32 million.
Burns has been white-hot since the 2019 WSOP Europe in October where he won his first two WSOP bracelets. Since that time he has won nearly $1 million in tournaments to close out the year.
From Bartender to Poker Player
Kahle Burns began his journey in poker while in high school. According to an interview he did with CardPlayer earlier this year, he had a friend playing $50 NL Hold’em online and decided to start playing himself. Like many people that play at Australian online casinos, Burns started playing in play money games and after running up a few million in play chips, he decided to play live.
Burns moved on to play in pub league games and then onto playing in live cash games at Crown Casino. At this point, Burns was in college and working on a degree in civil engineering. He was working as a bartender at the time, but soon he was winning enough at poker that he was able to quit his job and play poker to fund his lifestyle.
Cash Game Player that Transitioned to High Stakes Tournaments
While Burns is nowadays known as a high stakes tournament player, he hasn’t always been one. He initially started by playing cash games and steadily moved up in stakes as his skill improved. Burns admitted that he didn’t do a lot of studying at first but soon started reviewing the hands of high stakes poker players to improve his game.
Burns’ first major score in live tournaments came in 2013 when he finished fifth int he WSOP Asia-Pacific Main Event. That would be a precursor of great things to come. After focusing primarily on cash games from 2013 to mid-2016, Burns won events at the 2016 Sydney Championships and the Western Classic Poker Championship. He later that year finished third in the ACOP Macau Main Event.
Congrats to Kahle Burns – winner of the 2016 Sydney Champs Main Event @StarPokerSydney https://t.co/0n7Hu9jOqI pic.twitter.com/qjDC4PwZ1N
— PokerMedia Australia (@PokerMediaAus) August 8, 2016
Burns admitted that he was losing his passion for playing poker prior to 2016 but his passion was reignited with poker tournaments. With a new passion for the game, he proceeded to have a career year in 2017, winning $1.82 million in live events. His third-place finish in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Macau Main Event netted him $1.3 million. That remains his best finish to date.
From that point, Burns has been a regular fixture of high stakes games. However, it wasn’t until 2019 that he began to catch fire and establish himself as a high stakes superstar.
Pair of Bracelet Wins Cap Kahle Burns’ $4 Million Year
Burns did not have his first results in 2019 until May when he won a High Roller Shot Clock event at the Crown Poker Championship. However, that kick-started what proved to be an epic 2019. During the 2019 WSOP in Las Vegas, Burns cashed four times, including a runner-up finish in the $10k Six-Max Championship.
After leaving the WSOP, he made a pair of final tables at the Triton Poker Series London, earning over $750k. He then made two more final tables at EPT Barcelona, including a fourth-place finish in the Super High Roller Event, earning over $712,000.
Then came the 2019 WSOP Europe. Burns only cashed four times, but two of those were epic. He managed to win back-to-back events, taking down the €25,500 Platinum High Roller and the €2,500 NL Short Deck Events. These wins gave him his first two WSOP bracelets and put him in contention for WSOP Player of the Year for a time.
At the World Series of Poker Europe this week, Kahle Burns outlasted a stacked final table in the €25,500 Platinum High Roller to take home the €596K first-place prize and his first career gold bracelet.https://t.co/NKlGlovFKJ
— PocketFives (@PocketFives) October 27, 2019
After the WSOP Europe, Burns went to the United States to play in the Poker Masters in Las Vegas. He made two final tables, including a win in Event #9, a $25k NL Hold’em Event. A trip to the Bahamas saw him make two more final tables at the partypoker MILLION World Bahamas. Finally, Burns finished runner-up in an EPT Prague preliminary event to bring his totals for 2019 to $4.32 million.
In a single year, Burns has not only doubled his career earnings in live poker, but he has also established himself as a force in high roller poker tournaments. He has already ascended to second on the Australian All-Time Money List and it is just a matter of time before Burns takes over the top spot from fellow countryman Joe Hachem.