Ben Rendall Wins NZ Poker Championships For $75,000

(Photo: NZPT)

It’s always good to see poker hitting the sports pages of lesser-known playing nations, and Ben Randall’s scoop of the NZ Poker Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand for $75,000 was given a prominent spot by the New Zealand Herald.

The 26-year old doctor from Palmerston North - in the south of North Island, an hour and a half’s flight from Christchurch which is somewhat northern in the South Island! – managed to fight off 146 other hopefuls in the $650 buy-in event which saw 78 re-entries and a weighty prize pool of $337,500.

The winner was full of praise for the event, stating:

"I think Christchurch casino do a really good job of organizing and promoting the tournament. They listen to the players and provide a tournament which is great for the players. People like coming here, they feel it's an event and they catch up with friends in the poker community."

Not that the primarily online cash game player was just there for fun, his opposition including some serious names from the Asian poker circuit, with Kwang Son and Steve Ahn, as well as Aussie Millions winner Shurane Vijayaram in the field.

After surviving one early all-in scare where he spiked a ten on the river, exploiting the bubble was one of the keys to Randall’s success, the Kiwi explaining:

"I was able to put a lot of pressure on people because it was quite a big min-cash ($3500). I went from about 300k to 600k in about an hour on the bubble which got me in good position at the final table.”

Randall then went on a heater, knocking out “five or six of the final 10”, and entering 3-handed play tied for the chip lead. The final hand saw him calling off Ahn’s big bluff-shove according to the Nzherald report, showing down J7 on a Q7QT board while ‘Ahn showed 3 5 and was drawing dead.’

"Those are the kind of spots you live for as a poker player,” he stated afterwards. “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.”

In typical poker-player fashion, when asked what he intended to do with his winnings, the answer was:

"I'm thinking of jumping into the Pot-Limit Omaha cash game… but I'll be sure to buy the missus something nice!"

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