Andrew Moreno Wins Venetian $2,500 Buy-In Event For $242,293

Andrew Moreno has been in the poker world for roughly two decades, with the vast majority of that time spent focusing on cash games. The 38-year-old had accumulated around $850,000 in tournament scores along the way, but MTTs were always a secondary focus. Just shy of a year ago he publicly committed to playing more tournaments and has quickly found impressive success on the circuit.

Since making a Twitter post about ‘getting back on the tourney grind’ in March of 2021, Moreno has cashed for more than $1.9 million dollars. The highlight of his incredible run was when he took down the massive 2021 Wynn Millions $10,000 buy-in main event, defeating a field of 1,328 entries to earn $1,460,106.

Moreno secured the second-largest score of his career on Monday, Feb. 21 when he outlasted a 542-entry field to emerge victorious in the 2022 Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza I $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘UltimateStack’ $1 million guaranteed event. He took home $242,293 for the win, increasing his lifetime tournament earnings to just shy of $2.8 million.

In addition to the title and the money, Moreno also scored 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his second POY-qualified score of the year, having finished eighth in a $575 Run Good Poker Series event at Jamul Casino just a few weeks earlier for $6,520 and 70 points. With these two deep runs, Moreno now sits in sixth place in the overall POY race standings, which are presented by Global Poker. He made his first top 20-finish in the year-end POy standings last year and is now well-positioned to try to top that showing in 2022.

Moreno is not the only member of his family to find a big score at Venetian Hotel and Casino in recent weeks. Ten days earlier his brother, poker vlogger ‘Johnnie Vibes’ Moreno, finished as the runner-up in the Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian Poker Bowl VI $1,100 buy-in event for a career-best $124,675 payday. Andrew’s wife, Kristy Arnett Moreno, is no stranger to live tournament success either, having made the final table of the 2018 World Series of Poker Circuit Bicycle Casino main event. The former Card Player writer and video host finished fifth in that event for $55,150.

Plenty of accomplished players made deep runs in this tournament, including WSOP bracelet winner Barry Hutter (7th – $35,142), 2021 MSPT Riverside main event winner Daniel Sepiol (12th – $16,646), World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder main event winner David Larson (14th – $14,180), Peter Neff (16th – $12,331), Timothy Reilly (17th – $12,331), 2019 WPT Venetian main event winner Ben Palmer (19th – $10,481), 2021 POY-race runner-up and WPT Venetian champion Qing Liu (22nd – $9,248), bracelet winner Ryan Laplante (27th – $8,015), two-time bracelet winner Eric Baldwin (31st – $6,782), 2013 WSOP main event champ Ryan Riess (33rd – $6,782), Alex Foxen (35th – $6,782), and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver (37th – $6,165).

Brent Hart earned $166,462 as the runner-up finisher, increasing his career earnings to $710,415. The L.A. resident now sits in a tie for 15th place in the 2022 POY race.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table of this event: