This hand occurred on September 8 during a tournament at the Lodge Card Club in Austin, TX. The event was a $1,000 buy-in Super September tournament that drew 117 entries. The total prize pool was $103,545, with $30,544 going to the eventual winner.
This hand pitted PokerOrg Advisory Board member Andrew Moreno against Colin Rountree. Moreno was on the button in this heads-up battle for the title, sitting on a 2,200,000 chip stack, and Rountree was in the big blind with a slightly covering stack of 2,400,000.
Keys to being a great hand reader
“One of the biggest things you can do to be a better hand reader is to be willing not to have the correct answer presented to you when you make the read,” shared Moreno. “That means that sometimes when you fold, you're just not going to know if you made the right decision or not.
"I think a lot of times, especially with beginner players, they need to see the results to know if they got out drawn or bluffed. My poker friends and I always joke and say, ‘I like to sleep at night,’ and then make the call. The truth is I think a lot of people are just afraid to make mistakes and also afraid to be wrong.”
A leap in deep finishes and wins over the last few years
Moreno broke through to a massive seven-figure cash of $1,461,000 at the $10K buy-in 2021 Wynn Summer Classic. The following year, he would take home $460,529 in the $3,500 buy-in event at the same tournament series at the Wynn.
Moreno credits hard work, poker friends, and a superstar coach for much of the growth of his game.
“I believe my growth over the last few years has been due to consistent daily work on my game. I study for about one to two hours every day and sometimes talk hands with my coaches or friends. This kind of routine and schedule keeps me immersed in the game, whereas I was a lot more in and out in the past.
"The other noticeable thing that helped me was hiring Chris Brewer as my coach. He opened up my eyes to many things in poker that I simply wasn't aware of or didn't know how to figure out on my own.”
Focused on family first, poker second
Moreno has been blessed with a newborn baby girl and a three-year-old son, along with poker player and journalist/writer Kristy Arnett. Family comes first and each minute of the day is much more precious now in every way, which means when Andrew chooses to focus on poker, it needs to be with a laser-like mindset.
“When I have a couple of hours a day carved out to work on my game, I'm very focused. It's very intentional because I know that that's when I'm spending time away from my family. I don't have the leisure to screw around as I may have in the past.
"I've framed things, not just with poker, but with my health, fitness, etc., to be optimized and targeted. Because if I take time away from my family, I will put my attention and effort on full blast to ensure that I'm getting every bit of value out of that time.”
Check out the recap of the event at The Lodge Card Club here. Follow Andrew Moreno on X and IG: @Amo4sho. If you are interested in private lessons and or would like more information about Andrew, please visit www.amo4sho.com.
