The King of the Kastle, Colorado Greg, and Amateur Adam

Most poker players who are regulars in World Poker Tour events know Casey Kastle – and for good reason. Casey holds the record for the most in-the-money finishes in WPT championship events during the first two years of the Tour. Considering that he doesn't play all of the championship events, as some of the touring pros do, Casey's seven in-the-money finishes in WPT events is quite a remarkable feat. At one point, he cashed in five tournaments that he entered in a row, and was the only player to earn a payout in both the $10,000 Bellagio WPT tournament and the $25,000 WPT Championship in 2003. With all of these in-the-money finishes, including a couple at final tables, why isn't he better known to the general public? Because he hasn't made the final six players and received the television coverage that goes along with it.

Casey also has been a regular at the World Series of Poker the last several years, and cashed in the championship event in both 2003 and 2004. A few years ago, he accomplished a feat at the WSOP that I doubt will ever be repeated. He won three consecutive supersatellites in a 25-hour period – without rebuying in any of them.

With all of these payouts and supersatellite victories, what do you think Casey considers his main poker accomplishment? Smoke-free poker tournaments! He was one of the first crusaders for nonsmoking poker tournaments. With a lot of support from other poker players, including me, Sam's Town Casino in Las Vegas agreed to host the first smoke-free tournament in Nevada history in 1999. Under the leadership of Cardroom Manager Dick Gatewood there, I acted as the host for the Sam Boyd Classic, and lobbied strongly for the no-smoking policy. Fittingly, Kastle won the championship title. When the smoke cleared (no pun intended, of course), I awarded him the trophy and a bunch of cash.

At that time, lots of people doubted that a nonsmoking tournament would be successful in Nevada. The pioneering Sam's Town event proved the skeptics wrong. Soon thereafter, more and more tournaments in Nevada, as well as other parts of the country, did away with smoking in the tournament arena. The WSOP, which many people thought would be the last holdout, began by prohibiting spectators from smoking in the tournament area in 2002, and followed that by banning players from smoking at the table in its tournament events in 2003. In 2004, the WSOP extended its nonsmoking policy to side games, as well. Even smokers admitted that they enjoyed breathing cleaner air.

Although Kastle has many poker accomplishments under his belt, he also has experienced several disappointments. At a recent WPT event at Commerce Casino, he had battled his way to the final table with a decent-sized stack of chips. He raised the pot with pocket kings from early position and two players moved all in behind him. Casey agonized over what he should do. Although he was convinced that neither of his opponents had pocket aces, he knew that if he folded, he would still have more than $300,000 in chips and a shot at the crown. He decided to muck his hand. Alas, both all-in players turned over pocket queens! If he had called, he would have busted one player and crippled the other one at the final table, won a $1.1 million pot, and been the chip leader. Ten hands later, he was eliminated when he went all in with (Gasp!) pocket kings against pocket eights and lost.

As painful as this poker loss was, it was nothing compared to experiencing the loss of his brother, sister, and a cousin in the last three years, all tragically. "Life delivers great beauty and also great pain,"; he remarked. "I've learned to keep poker losses, even million-dollar mistakes, in perspective."; Casey went on to say that his three main goals in life are to stay as mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy as possible; maintain quality relationships; and wear sandals at least 200 days a year. I certainly agree with the first two, but I've never been a sandal person myself. To each his own.

Now, here's a tip of the Stetson to two of my poker students who cashed in WSOP events this year. "Colorado"; Greg Carelli from Boulder, Colorado, placed in the money in one of the $1,500 no-limit hold'em tournaments, and also cashed in the Bay 101 championship event earlier this year. Greg owns a fine Italian restaurant in Boulder, where he also serves as a gourmet chef. Adam Garfinkle took only one day of lessons from me before the $10,000 championship event at the World Series. Seated at the featured table with Doyle Brunson and other poker celebrities on the second day of the tournament, Adam not only survived with a decent amount of chips, but lasted until late in the third day and cashed in the event.

Provided we all continue improving our poker skills, I hope to meet Casey, Greg, Adam, and you, in the winner's circle one day soon.