ACR Poker Pros and Stormers Pick the Moments That Defined the OSS XL

The OSS XL can be summed up with some very big numbers. The series ran from September 6-29, packed 336 events into the schedule and put more than $50 million in guarantees on the line. But after nearly a month of poker, the numbers only tell part of the story.

What sticks around are the moments: the tournament that finally went right after days of frustration, the mystery bounty that suddenly changed a session, the final-table run that became a stream highlight, or the heads-up battle between two familiar names that had people watching until the end.

For ACR Poker’s Pros and Stormers, there was plenty of all of the above. Some came out of the OSS XL with titles. Others had near misses, final-table bubbles or stretches where nothing seemed to work. And for some, one result near the end completely changed how they looked back on the series.

That was certainly true for Chris Moneymaker. His OSS XL started as a grind in the least glamorous sense of the word. For much of the first two weeks, Moneymaker said he struggled to gain any traction, repeatedly rebuying and busting without finding the deep run he was looking for.

Chris Moorman had a very different kind of series. By the finish, the longtime ACR Pro had collected four OSS XL victories, giving the series a recurring storyline every time Moorman1 appeared near the top of another result screen.

Away from the Pros, ACR Stormers and members of the wider community had their own moments to save, share and brag about. Those scores ranged from tournament wins to deep runs and one particularly memorable $7,500 bounty. Put together, they offer a better picture of the OSS XL than any single leaderboard ever could.

Moneymaker Saves His Series at the Finish

Moneymaker was candid about how difficult the series felt before everything changed.

“The big OSS series is a very fun but grueling series. It’s a very long day every single day, and it starts usually around 11 in the morning. If you make deep runs, it can take you all the way into the evening.”

“In my OSS, the first two weeks I was not performing very well. I found that I just kept rebuying and kept busting tournaments, and it was very frustrating. I didn’t catch any traction.”

Then came the final stretch.

On September 27, Moneymaker reached the final table of the $25,500 NLH 8-Max during Second Mortgage Week. The tournament drew 51 entries for a $1,275,000 prize pool, and Moneymaker finished sixth for $78,285.

A day later, he went considerably further.

The closing Second Mortgage Week schedule included a $15,400 NLH 8-Max, and Moneymaker won it for $214,987.50. Fellow ACR Pro Alex Foxen, playing as OutFoxenYou, finished runner-up for $157,216.50. The tournament attracted 49 entries and built a $735,000 prize pool, with the two Pros collecting $372,204 between them.

For Moneymaker, two late results had completely changed the story of his OSS XL.

“It wasn’t until the final two days that I actually found my rhythm, cashed the $25K and won the $15K, kind of saving my OSS and making me pretty highly profitable. But it was tough.”

Four Wins Put Moorman All Over the OSS XL Results

While one late surge defined Moneymaker’s series, Chris Moorman kept finding his way back to first place.

Moorman opened his run of titles in OSS XL #37H, a $630 buy-in event with $60,000 guaranteed, collecting $14,100 for the win. He later took down OSS XL #148H Mystery Bounty, a $109 tournament with $30,000 guaranteed, for $9,665.70.

The wins kept coming. Moorman also finished first in OSS XL #276M Mystery Bounty Turbo, a $33 event with $10,000 guaranteed, for $1,707.19, before adding another first-place result in OSS XL #347, one of the $88 Loncar Daily Double tournaments carrying a $40,000 guarantee, for $8,870.83.

Four wins, four separate result screens and one of the clearest examples of what a long series can look like when a player keeps putting himself in position to finish it.

From Aruba to a Six-Figure OSS XL Finish

Rob Kuhn’s OSS XL moment came at the end of a whirlwind few days. On Sunday, September 27, the ACR Pro won the Moneymaker Tour Main Event in Aruba, beating a 465-entry field in the $1,700 buy-in tournament and collecting $155,670.

Two days later, Kuhn was back at a final table – this time online in the $2,650 OSS XL Main Event. He ultimately finished sixth for $107,322.25. The tournament drew 1,069 entries and built a $2,672,500 prize pool, exceeding its $2.5 million guarantee.

A live Main Event trophy followed almost immediately by a six-figure OSS XL Main Event finish gave Kuhn one of the series’ cleanest examples of how quickly one poker highlight can roll into the next.

Stormers and Community Scores Made Their Own Highlight Reel

The Stormer side of the OSS XL produced plenty worth clipping too. Blasnair turned one of his runs into a first-place finish worth $4,514.82 in OSS XL #314, while UBPOKER finished sixth for $1,023.91 in the $20,000 GTD OSS XL #318H PKO.

The wider ACR community supplied more reasons to keep the screenshots. Fduchun recorded a third-place finish worth $2,272.13 in an OSS XL #282 Mystery Bounty and another seventh-place cash for $380 in OSS XL #278. Lenazu took first in OSS XL #294L, a $2.50 event with $1,000 guaranteed.

Then there was TowTruckTTV, whose defining moment did not require winning the tournament at all. A $7,500 Mystery Bounty in OSS XL #7 supplied the kind of instant sweat that makes these events so easy to turn into a clip, screenshot or reaction post. OSS XL #7 carried a $75,000 guarantee and returned for Day 2 on September 27.

Chance Kornuth Is Ready to Run It Back

Not every defining OSS XL comment was about looking backward.

For ACR Pro Chance Kornuth, the next Venom was already difficult to separate from what had come immediately before. Kornuth entered the OSS XL fresh off a remarkable run in ACR Poker’s August/September Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms, where he reached both final tables, finishing sixth in PLO and seventh in NLH.

That gave him a fairly high bar when asked what he wanted from the next one.

“I think it would be pretty delusional to try and improve on the last Venom results, but what I will say is Venom is way too good to miss. I’ll be in there battling and trying to do my best.”

Katie Lindsay Wants One More Step – and Drew Gonzalez Wants Another Shot

Katie Lindsay is also looking ahead with a specific result in mind.

The ACR Pro previously finished seventh in the $10 million guaranteed NLH Venom in 2025, a final-table appearance she would now like to improve upon.

“We are so lucky in America to have ACR providing us with so much great poker. Huge prize pools, ranges of buy-ins and amazing series like the OSS and the Venom – ACR has something for everyone. I’m hoping in the upcoming Venom to best my previous seventh-place finish and finally take one down!”

For Drew Gonzalez, better known online as BetOnDrew, the retrospective is less about celebrating an OSS XL title. The ACR Pro described this particular series as a frustrating one competitively.

“OSS XL was a bit sad for me competitively. I only had a few cashes and two final-table bubbles.”

“That said, I am still very excited that the Venom is back so soon. Another chance at a huge score is around the corner, and with Venom comes Venom Specials – so even more shots at glory!”

There is something appropriately OSS XL about putting those two perspectives next to each other. One player is trying to improve on a Venom final table. Another is coming off a series that never quite broke his way. Both are already thinking about the next tournament.

From the OSS XL to the Next Set of Moments

The OSS XL finished on September 29, but there is not much downtime between major series. The Dual Venom PKOs run October 4-21, with $5 million guaranteed in NLH and $1.5 million guaranteed in PLO. Both carry $2,650 buy-ins and five Day 1 flights.

Moneymaker is already looking toward that challenge too.

“I am now looking forward to stepping up the pressure at the tables as we go into Venom.”

For some of the players above, the OSS XL produced the win. For others, it produced the bubble, the bounty, the clip or the result that salvaged weeks of grinding. That is what makes a series like this difficult to capture with one hero graphic or one final leaderboard.

The better record is the collection of moments people actually experienced – the ones they streamed, posted, celebrated, complained about and remembered after the tables closed.