From the Pitch to the Poker Table: Harvey Castro Crowned WPT Season 23 Player of the Year

They say poker is a young man’s game, and Harvey Castro just hammered that point home. The 23-year-old former Southern Methodist University soccer standout officially traded his cleats for chips, clinching the World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 23 Player of the Year title. 

Despite not hoisting a WPT Main Event cup this year, Castro’s relentless deep runs and a marquee win on the Prime circuit proved that in the POY race, every final table counts. We're giving you his 2025 POY race in review.

Castro’s path to the title was a masterclass in "closing the deal." He finished the season with 1,850 points and over $411,000 in WPT earnings. The foundation of his victory was built on two massive pillars: a runner-up finish at the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event for $193,600 and a dominant victory at the WPT Prime Lodge Championship, which padded his bankroll by another $225,020.

While the poker world was watching Schuyler Thornton ship the WPT World Championship for a staggering $2.2 million, Castro was quietly accumulating points across multiple stops. Thornton’s massive win was only enough to land him in third place on the leaderboard, proving that the POY title rewards the season-long grinders. Kharlin Sued gave Castro the biggest sweat, finishing second with 1,600 points after a late-season surge at the Bay 101 Shooting Star.

Castro now joins an elite fraternity of players who have claimed this honor, including legends like Daniel Negreanu, Faraz Jaka, and Bin Weng. For a kid who was playing college soccer just a couple of years ago, the transition to poker royalty has been nothing short of a sprint.