Tournament Trail Q and A -- Casey Kastle

Casey Kastle has been a staple of the international tournament circuit for more than 10 years. Taking down fourth in the recent Asian Poker Tour main event in Macau, and second in event No. 43 of this year’s World Series of Poker, this is one committed player who seems determined to set all sorts of new records. Before taking to the felt for day 2 of the first ever EPT Budapest, he spoke to Card Player about his extraordinary five-year plan and the latest challenge he has given himself.

Rebecca McAdam: How did you get on during day 1B?

Casey Kastle: It was a boring first half of the day, very very slow. I didn’t really lose any chips, I slowly gained them. In the middle of the day, I started playing a little more aggressively. I won a lot of pots, but they were all small pots. I played fairly well, fairly conservatively, but aggressively. I built up a lot of chips by the last hour, 75,000, and then I played my first giant pot of the day; that was the first time I was all in, and he didn’t have that much, he only had 30,000. He had A-10, I had A-K, he made the third raise all in, and he won the hand, so the pot was 60,000. I finished with 45,000, which was fine, at the beginning of the day I would be happy to take it, but that pot would have put me in the position I’d like to be in to play day 2, with 105,000. It happened two hands before the last hand, and it was such a great situation — you can’t ask to get your money in any better than that. Right now I’m very irritated, the rest of the day was really smooth.

RM: What’s the difference between playing in an European tournament and, for example, an APT?

CK: I’m kind of new at both. That was my first APT, and my first time in Asia. I just started playing these EPTs a bit last year; I think I played two or three. This year I’m going to play five or six, if I can.

RM: Do you mainly play in the States?

CK: I play most of my poker in the States, but actually I started playing tournament poker in ’98, and I came to Europe after having a lot of success early. In the first month, I think I made $3,000. I played at the Rio, including a championship event, and so I came here to Europe, I played in Vienna at the World Series of Poker trial in March of ’98, and ended up third. Probably out of most Americans, I don’t think there are too many, if any, who have played as much in the last 10 years in Europe or abroad as I have. I think I might be the one who has played the most internationally, although I don’t play many tournaments. Even in the last couple years, I play like one big event a month, usually, and not all the small stuff. Out of Americans, I don’t think there are too many of them who come over and deal with the language, the culture, and the currency change.

RM: Why do you think that is?

CK: It’s difficult. Eighty percent of Americans never get a passport, so they never leave their own borders. In Europe, it’s different, because going from Switzerland to Italy to Germany is like going from Wisconsin to Indiana to Illinois. Here, you had to learn three languages, and until recently you had to get familiar with several different currencies. This is hard for Americans who don’t speak another language; there’s a culture shock all the time, and then poker is a difficult thing here. When you don’t understand some of the language stuff, some of the traditions, some of the customs, some of the rules are different, and then you’re dealing with different currencies. It gets kind of confusing. Also, they are travelling eight or 10 hours, and so there is a jet-lag situation; they’re not in fantastic shape. So, I think for Americans in general, their results overall haven’t been great. Although, if you look at the last couple of Monte Carlo main events, I think it’s young Americans who have been winning them. The same thing happened with the kid who beat me in Macau, a 20-year-old American, Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

In general, I think it’s challenging, and you have to go for like a week or two or three, and that’s a commitment. If you’re involved in a business, if you have a family or a girlfriend, it’s kind of tough, and for me, I don’t really have much of that. I’m free. I consider myself a citizen of the world, not of the United States, I’m also a citizen of Europe, and probably people don’t realize that. I’ve been coming here for 20-something years, and this year I decided that it’s time for me to start visiting the countries I’ve never been to. And, as it turns out with poker kind of moving from the States a bit, these very places are seeing poker develop and having tournaments and things too. So, I can see all of these places and still play a few big events, and it’s kind of fitting into my plan.

RM: What is this plan?

CK: I have a five-year plan. For five years, I’m going to spend Winters — January and February — in New Zealand and Australia. I’m going to spend a couple of months a year in the Asian countries, play some APT and APPT events. I’m going to play four, five, or six European events. Someone challenged me to do something. They said, “I bet you’re the only one who has a chance in their lifetime of making the final table on all seven major poker tours.” And I started thinking about it, and as it turns out mathematically probably I’m the only one who has a chance, and I’ve got four down so far, and there are only three of those tours left that I haven’t played much yet, and they are all places I want to be. So, I’m going to challenge myself personally to play more tournaments than I have in the past, maybe two a month instead of one, these big ones.

RM: How do you manage all of the travelling? Do you not get jet-lagged?

CK: Everyone keeps talking about getting jet-lagged and all of that, but I don’t even know what that is. I eat when I’m hungry, I sleep when I’m tired, and I don’t worry about anything else. The only time I use an alarm clock is if I have to go to church, or if I have a tournament. A lot of it I think is psychological.

RM: So, you must really enjoy it?

CK: I keep myself busy, I’ve had a lot of difficult things happen in my life personally, with my family and all of that, so it keeps my mind challenged and going, and it’s exciting to go to new places. I want to see it, because it’s a special place, it’s a special world. I’ve a chance to do that, and as long as I’m healthy and OK and interested, and have the energy to do it ... I’m on a five-year plan!

Most Viewed Articles