World Poker Tour

Casey Kastle

Birthplace
Chicago, IL

Hometown
Chicago, IL

Total Winnings
$354,646

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Casey Kastle discovered poker as a young man and became more involved with the game after helping a church group host a charity casino night event. He dealt blackjack for the evening, but some people stayed after the event to play a $2-$4 cash poker game. He fell in love with the game and was soon playing up to six nights each week, though he didn't see it as a viable career option until the late 1990's.

In 1998, in addition to his cash game success, Casey began playing tournaments and placed in his first event ever at the Carnivale of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas for a $22,800 payday. From there, he continued doing well in tournaments around the world on a very regular basis. But more than his impact on each tournament he played, he had an impact on the entire poker world. During his first years on the tournament circuit, it struck him that non-smoking players were often greatly affected by the smoke of other players, and he began a petition that gained support from even the smoking players. He took his pleas for non-smoking poker rooms to the management of casinos around the United States, and he is widely-regarded as the person responsible for smoke-free poker areas.

Besides being hailed as a players' rights advocate, Casey has a poker resume that is tough to ignore. He has ten World Series of Poker cashes thus far and fourteen World Poker Tour in-the-money finishes. With a number of those WPT cashes very close to the television table bubble, it has become Casey's mission to find his way to one of those TV tables very soon. He did, however, make his way to two final tables on the Professional Poker Tour " one in 2004 resulted in a sixth place finish at the World Poker Finals, and the other at the 2005 Shooting Stars of Poker saw him finish in fourth.