Ben Rendall Wins 2017 NZ Poker Championships

The 2017 NZ Poker Championships was held at the Christchurch Casino, with 147 players paying its $1,650 buy-in fee, which together with a further 78 re-entries, resulted in a prize pool worth $337,500. Two days and 25 hours of play later, and it was Ben Rendall who managed to defeat his opponents, including Steve Ahn heads-up, to claim the title, and a top prize of $75,000.
Back in 2015, Rendall also won a tournament held in Auckland for $38,000, although the 26-year old doctor says that his busy working schedule means that he usually spends his available free time playing cash games online. Following his latest impressive performance in Christchurch, Rendall commented:
“The key to succeeding in tournaments is the same thing that makes a good poker player. You need a good mix of understanding people and understanding the game. The point where those two come together is where you make your money. When you understand what people are doing and how they’re feeling you’re playing the game with a lot more ammunition than they are.”
Ben Rendall started Day 2 on a reasonably big stack, but admitted to making a few moves that were most likely “too ambitious” resulting in a subsequent downsizing. Near the bubble, Rendall then found himself all-in holding J-10 on a jack high flop, only to be called by one of his competitors with K-J. Fortunately for him, he caught a 10 on the river, setting himself up nicely to take advantage of the bubble situation, and as he explains:
“I was able to put a lot of pressure on people because it was quite a big min-cash ($3,500). I went from about 300k to 600k in about an hour on the bubble which got me in good position at the final table. I knocked out five or six of the final 10 and was tied for the chip lead when we got to three-handed play.”
Rendall’s final two victims were Kwang Son in 3rd ($39,000) and Steve Ahn in 2nd ($55,000), with the latter falling after Ahn bluffed all-in holding 3-5 on a Q-7-Q-T board, only to be called by Rendall holding J-7. Elaborating further on the deciding hand, Rendall said:
“Those are the kind of spots you live for as a poker player. They’re the spots you spend all the time studying for and thinking about so when you’re in that situation you can make the right call. It wasn’t a hard call in the end because of what Ahn had been doing, but I needed to take the time to make sure I got it right.”
Final Table Results:
1: Ben Rendall $75,000
2: Steve Ahn $55,000
3: Kwang Son $39,000
4: Devon Kyle $32,000
5: Matt Stark $26,000
6: Matt Carlson $21,000
7: Ferg Spary $17,000
8: Jamie Mulligan $13,000
9: Neranga Jayaweera $10,000
10: Shurane Vijayaram $7000