DALLAS — Southern Methodist University senior Harvey Castro is a scholarship soccer player at the school, but his post-college pro career is more likely to be in a different sport.
Last week, the 21-year-old won $275,660 at a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Okla., beating out more than 1,000 other players in the tournament.
Castro said he only played at home with his brother before turning 18 when he became serious about the game.
“I started out with the $50 online,” he said. “Ended up realizing I had a real interest for it, but I didn’t have the money I needed to play.”
He got a job as a lifeguard to increase his buy-ins in tournaments playing at a local legal card house and eventually building up to the point where he’d regularly buy into $2,500 cash games starting about six months ago.
“My parents were actually supper supportive which has meant the world to me,” he said. “They know that I’ve been super calculated about every step of this.”
When he’s not in season, he said he averages about 18 hours per week playing poker and tries to learn from the best players in the game. He said new technology like simulators allow players to train better and learn more about decision-making, similar to watching game film for athletes.
“What sorts of hands, what sorts of hand classes are they doing certain things with?” he said. “Are they being passive? Are they being aggressive in these certain types of hand categories?”
While he still calls it gambling, he fully believes it’s more about skill than luck.
“In the long run, it’s 100% skill,” he said. “If we play for tens of thousands of hands, the better player is going to win money every time. Over the short run, if we play for three hours and get 300 hands in, I’m going to win more often but you’re going to win sometimes.”
He decided to enter the WSOP event because it fits between the end of summer school and the beginning of fall practices for soccer. The event was a $1,700 buy-in.
Castro said tournaments carry more risk because most players go home with nothing but a person could leave at any moment during the higher-buy-in cash games.
His highest previous tournament win was $19,000.
“I was aware of the stakes that were at play but poker’s something that I just – you can only control one decision at a time so that’s all I tried to do,” he said. “I really managed expectations.”
A group of 1,025 players whittled down to 120 and then a table of 12 on the final day.
A critical Ace-King hand gave him a roughly 3-to-1 chip lead with two players left to beat.
“I didn’t expect to win really at any point until we were down to maybe the final three,” he said. “I was like, ‘'Ok, I can do this thing.'”
With a drive back to Dallas, he was worried about the money and opted to take a check over the cash option. He said his teller told him, "congrats," too.
“Everyone’s making jokes like, ‘Ah, you got the bill this time’ but no one’s been out of line about it,” he said. “I mean I’m at soccer practice. I’m just trying to graduate in December and then look at what my poker career looks like.”
The winning weekend wasn’t over, though.
A couple days later, Castro got engaged to his girlfriend of three years, who graduated from the same Flower Mound high school he did. The engagement had been planned long before the tournament win.
“The ring had been paid for. She wasn’t getting an upgrade yet,” Castro said, laughing.
The finance major plans to play soccer for the next few months and graduate in December. He plans to take a year to see where his poker career goes with an undisclosed number in mind of what he’d want to earn. While he doesn’t have any big purchases planned, he dropped about $1,000 on shoes and clothes last week.
“I’m just hopeful that I get to help pay for a wedding,” he said. “That’s the dream.”