Andrew Moreno, the husband of former PokerNews hostess Kristy Moreno (former Kirsty Arnett), has been playing poker since the early 2000s. Originally from the Midwest where he worked at a factory running a steel-cutting machine, Moreno met his future wife after overhearing her talk about poker.
In 2006, the duo moved to Las Vegas where he started grinding $1-$2 no-limit hold’em cash games, working his way up to $25-$50 over the next decade. In 2021, Moreno turned his attention to tournaments with two goals – to surpass $1 million in lifetime earnings (he was $100K short at the time) and to notch his first seven-figure score.
It didn’t take him long to accomplish both.
First, in June 2021, he won the Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series Event #58: $1,100 NLH for $127,740 to meet his first goal. Just over a week later, he accomplished the other when he topped a 1,328-entry field to win the inaugural $10,000 buy-in Wynn Millions for $1,460,106, a win that vaulted Moreno into the next level of poker superstar.
Since then he also won another Venetian tournament in February 2022 for $242,293 (a tournament he famously refused to chop), and in the summer of 2022 nearly won another Wynn major, ultimately finishing runner-up in the Wynn Summer Classic $3,500 Championship for $460,529.
“What I’ve learned over the years is that poker and life are mirrors for one another,” said Moreno, who welcomed his first child shortly after his career scores in 2021. “Both are skill games with elements of luck. Whatever holds you back in poker, holds you back in life, whether it’s an unhealthy attachment to money, inability to take calculated risks, inflated ego, or self doubt. Improve your game, improve your life, and vice versa.”
As of September 2022, Moreno has just shy of $3.5 million in lifetime tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob.
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