Andrew Moreno Wins Venetian Ultimate Stack Event for $242,000

Andrew Moreno captured yet another title as the former cash game pro turned tournament crusher won The Venetian’s Ultimate Stack Main Event for almost a quarter of a million dollars.

The popular pro, who won the Wynn Millions in 2021, added another title to his burgeoning reputation as one of the most in-form players on the planet, beating a stacked final table to take the top prize of $242,293.

Hutter Falls Short Early in Final

Moreno came into play as easily the man to watch, with over $1.9m in live tournament winnings since his infamous post declaring that he wanted to ‘get serious’ about tournaments just 11 months ago. He wasn’t the only big name at the final table, however, with Barry Hutter among those to reach the final table without ending up winning.

Noam Muallem was the first player to lose his seat at the final table, busting for $21,578 in ninth place before Leonardo Valenzuela crashed out in eighth for $27,127. The aforementioned Hutter was eliminated in seventh place for $35,142, as he failed to add a six-figure score to his lifetime live winnings of over $7.1 million.

Moreno’s dominance was being felt around the table. When some players get that mystique about them, they can blow it by playing over confident, but Moreno’s grounded nature and long-term relationship with wife Kristy Arnett-Moreno in the poker industry gives him what looks like an irrepressible dedication to the game and positive spirit in which to play it. That makes for a dangerous player at the felt.

Gollins is Last Lady Standing

The field at the Venetian Ultimate Stacks Main Event had been a well-known one, with players such as  two-time WSOP bracelet winner Eric Baldwin (31^st for $6,782), 2013 WSOP Main Event winner Ryan Riess (33^rd for $6,782), Alex Foxen (35^th for $6,782), and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver (37^th for $6,165) all making the latter stages while missing the final two dozen.

Stars such as the 2021 MSPT Riverside Main Event champion Daniel Sepiol (12^th for $16,646), WPT Rolling Thunder winner David Larson (14^th for $14,180), Timothy Reilly (17^th for $12,331), and the 2019 WPT Venetian Main Event winner Ben Palmer (19^th for $10,481) as well as WPT Venetian champion Qing Liu (22^nd for $9,248) and WSOP bracelet winner and Twitch streamer Ryan Laplante (27^th for $8,015) all coming close to the final table without making it deeper than that.

As the final half-dozen fought it out, it was Timothy Pai who busted in sixth place for $47,472, while Guillermo Sanchez Otero (5^th for $63,502) and Christina Gollins (4^th for $83,847) both came short of the podium, Gollins the longest-lasting female player and the last player who won a five-figure prize.

Moreno Shows Hart the Way Heads Up

Heads-ups hold no fear for the 38-year-old Moreno.

With three players remaining, Bret Wigal busted in third place for a career-high score – and first ranking tournament result since 2017 – of $117,140 Brent Hart would prove a trickier proposition to outlast for Moreno, with the talented Hart already having won over $500,000 in his poker career.

Heads-ups hold no fear for the 38-year-old Moreno, however. The brother of popular YouTuber Johnnie ‘Vibes’ Moreno, the professional has played the game for a living for well clear of a decade and got the job done, relegating Hart to a runner-up score of $166,462.

Andrew Moreno win, for a top prize of $242,293, may not have been as big a payday as the 2021 Wynn Millions $10,000-entry Main Event title he won for $1,460,106, but it proved once again that in a big field, his name is always one to watch. Outlasting 1,328 players in the Wynn Millions, Moreno topped the field of $542 entries here that arguably was tougher in quality and highly motivated to beat him. Once again, Andrew Moreno showed just how strong a tournament player he is to defeat them all and take the crown.