On September 14, PocketFiver MendaLerenda(pictured) came away with the win in the PokerStars.fr Big €100 for $6,100. And while it wasn’t the heftiest sum of money ever, it marked the first leg of his very first PocketFives Triple Crown. In the span of a week, MendaLerenda went on to win the Full Tilt Tyrannosaurus Rex and PokerStars $109 NLHE Turbo 2X Chance to complete the bid.

“It was a hard task,” MendaLerenda said about his first Triple Crown. “I almost got it two or three time before, but sometimes the prize pool was only $9,800 or one tournament only had 99 people, but I finally got it.” He joked that he had to play 25,000 MTTs in order to win three in a week that had a $10,000 prize pool and at least 100 players.

He calls Bristol, England home and said he looks up to another Brit who has terrorized MTTs to the tune of 23 Triple Crowns, Chris moorman1Moorman. “Moorman just get the 23rd of his career,” MendaLerenda told us. “I’m trying to follow in his steps, putting in sick volume multi-tabling, multi-lobbing, etc.”

He had wins in the PokerStars Super Tuesday in 2011 and 2012 for almost $160,000 total. The victory in 2011 was, predictably, “incredible for my bankroll because in 24 hours I won three MTTs and quadrupled what I had.” MendaLerenda was playing mid-stakes sit and gos at the time, but with his newfound winnings, he dove head-first into MTTs.

MendaLerenda narrated, “Six months later, I busted 70% to 80% of my bankroll due to variance in MTTs and bad bankroll management. I was playing EPTs, WSOPs, and other tournaments. When I won the Super Tuesday the second time, I was staked by friends.” He finished fifth in the same tournament in March of this year for $33,000.

When he got started in poker, MendaLerenda was working in Barcelona. It was about eight years ago and he grew bored with his regular office job. He found a Spanish poker website and read about a player who, after two years of playing poker, quit his job and headed to Las Vegas. “It was amazing reading all of this stuff,” he said. “I also love science and math, so I really saw I had an edge.”

He jumped into the poker pond and began playing $1 sit and gos after work. Two years later, his bankroll passed the $10,000 mark. He explained, “One day, I was quite tired of the office and decided to try to change my life with poker. In 2009, I become a professional player and poker was my only income.”

MendaLerenda is originally from Spain, where “the love of my life” still lives. However, laws surrounding internet gambling in Spain have caused him to relocate to the UK, a country that has imposed taxes on non-domestic sites. As he put it, “I’m living in Bristol, trying to travel each month back to Spain. It’s not fair. I hope in the not-too-distant future that these things can change.”

He stands at $2.3 million in lifetime online tournament winnings, the majority of which has come on PokerStars. He is the eighth-ranked player in the UK and one of 23 PocketFivers with PLB scores in Bristol. His first and only Triple Crown was worth 617 PLB Points.

Congrats to MendaLerenda on his Triple Crown! See our Triple Crown Wall of Champions to learn how to get your own.

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