Andre Butler Wins Event #8 of 2022 Stairway To Millions

With the stakes continuing to rise at the 2022 Stairway To Millions, the fields have become filled with pros, but that didn't faze Andre Butler as he topped the Event #8: $5,350 No-Limit Hold'em field.

Butler won the $600 mega satellite at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas the night before Event #8 began, and he parlayed that $600 investment into a 100x return by capturing his second biggest career score of $60,945 in prize money. According to The Hendon Mob, Butler now eclipses $530,000 in lifetime tournament earnings with his victory in Event #8 being the 18th of his poker career. Butler also earns a seat into Event #10: $15,800 No-Limit Hold'em, where he will face off once again with more tough competition.

Event #8: $5,350 No-Limit Hold'em of the 2022 Stairway To Millions attracted a field of 42 entrants to create a prize pool of $210,000. After play ended once the final five were in the money, it would be Michael Wang holding the chip lead and in search of his fourth Stairway To Millions title. Also at the table with Wang and Butler was Event #1 champion Francis Anderson, Adam Hendrix who sits in second on the GPI leaderboard, and Stephen Song who is on top of the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year leaderboard. 

On the first hand of play, Francis Anderson would shove with pocket tens and run into the pocket aces of Stephen Song. No help fell for Anderson, and he exited in fifth place; his fourth cash of the series. Hendrix would be the next to fall at the hands of Song when he shoved the flop with his pocket kings and Song had flopped two pair from the big blind. Hendrix was unable to improve and he exited in fourth and earned an Event #9: $10,400 No-Limit Hold'em seat.

The three-handed battle began with Wang and Song trading blows while Butler slowly crept up the leaderboard. In one of the deciding pots of three-handed play, Butler limped the small blind with ace-king and flopped a flush and straight draw, along with two overs. Butler improved to the ace-high flush on the river and climbed to holding roughly 60% of the chips in play. Wang's pursuit to win his fourth Stairway To Millions title would end at the hands of Butler when Wang's ace-four was out flopped by Butler's king-three after all the money went in preflop.

Butler took a three-to-one advantage into heads-up play with Song, and the two traded pots back-and-forth before the final hand. Song limped the button with ace-king and Butler raised the big blind with king-queen suited. Song jammed and Butler called as the flop landed queen-high. The turn gave Song a straight draw but Butler a flush draw, and when the river blanked out, Song was eliminated in second place as Butler was crowned the Event #8 champion.

Stairway To Millions Event #8 Final Table Results

2022 Stairway To Millions Schedule

Currently underway from The Venetian Resort Poker Room is Event #9 of the Stairway To Millions with the weekend seeing the stakes raise to $15,800 on Saturday and $26,000 on Sunday. Monday will host the $52,000 finale that features a $600,000 prize pool guarantee. Follow along with all the live updates from the entire Stairway To Millions which will be provided by the PGT.com Live Reporting Team.

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