Cary Katz: The PokerGO Founder, Super High Roller Champion, and Architect of Modern Poker Media

Live Earnings$42,569,388

WSOP Bracelets1

GPI Rank275

Personal

BornJanuary 29, 1970

HometownLas Vegas, NV, USA

NationalityAmerican

Poker

WPT1

EPT0

Triton0

WSOP Cashes67

Cary Katz: The PokerGO Founder, Super High Roller Champion, and Architect of Modern Poker Media

Cary Katz is simultaneously one of the most successful businessmen in poker history and one of the most accomplished high-stakes tournament players of his era, a dual identity that makes him unlike almost anyone else in the game. Born on January 29, 1970, and educated at the University of Georgia, Katz built his first fortune as founder and CEO of the College Loan Corporation, which grew to become the seventh-largest student loan company in the United States. He channeled that business success into a second empire built around poker: founding Poker Central in 2015, launching the PokerGO streaming platform, and creating the Super High Roller Bowl, Poker Masters, and U.S. Poker Open, tournaments that collectively redefined what premium poker media and high-stakes competition could look like. Between building that infrastructure and competing in it, Katz has accumulated over $42 million in live tournament earnings, a 2019 Super High Roller Bowl London title, and in 2025 won the WSOP bracelet that had eluded him through 67 prior cashes, completing a story that spans business, ambition, and the quiet joy of a game he first learned from his grandmother.

Cary Katz’s Personal Life

Cary Steven Katz was born on January 29, 1970, and grew up in Georgia, where he developed an early interest in card games through his grandmother, who taught him poker as a child. He pursued a business education at the University of Georgia, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, a foundation that shaped the entrepreneurial thinking he would apply across multiple industries and ultimately to the world of professional poker.

Katz is married to Jackie Katz and the couple have six children together. The family is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, a city that serves as both the spiritual capital of poker and the practical center of Katz’s poker media business. In addition to his commercial ventures, Katz has shown a commitment to philanthropy through his chairmanship of Stop Child Predators, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting children from exploitation online. His public identity is that of a serious, accomplished man who happens to also be a deeply passionate poker player, someone who has chosen to spend significant resources building the game he loves into a more professional and more watchable global sport. He holds strong conservative political views, reflected in his 2014 founding of CRTV, a conservative media platform. Despite his wealth and public visibility, Katz maintains a reputation for warmth and directness at the table, characteristics that make him a beloved figure in the high roller community he has done so much to support.

Cary Katz’s Beginning in Poker

Cary Katz entered competitive poker in 2004, the year after the Moneymaker boom transformed the game’s public profile and drew a new generation of players to the felt. His first recorded tournament cash came that year at Festa al Lago II in Las Vegas, where he finished 24th in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship for $10,381. It was a modest beginning, but it confirmed that Katz intended to compete seriously in the game’s biggest events from the outset rather than build gradually through smaller buy-ins.

By the time he founded Poker Central in 2015, Katz had already accumulated significant tournament experience and earnings, establishing himself as a legitimate high roller competitor before he became the primary architect of high roller infrastructure. The two roles reinforced each other: his presence at the table gave him credibility with the players he was trying to attract to his events, and his position as the organizer gave him access to the relationships and insights that informed his own game. His commitment to playing at the highest buy-in levels, almost exclusively focusing on super high roller and high roller events, reflected both his competitive drive and his financial position as a successful entrepreneur who could afford and was drawn to the most exclusive tables in the world. That focus eventually paid off in spectacular fashion with his 2019 Super High Roller Bowl London title.

Cary Katz’s Strategies and Playing Style

Cary Katz is a technically sophisticated player who has invested seriously in understanding modern poker theory, a commitment that becomes increasingly necessary as the player pools at the super high roller level continue to rise in quality. He is known for patient, disciplined play that leverages his business instinct for thinking in long-term expected value rather than reacting emotionally to individual outcomes. His experience in high-pressure corporate and entrepreneurial environments has given him a composure under fire that serves him well in deep tournament runs where every decision carries enormous financial consequence.

Katz has studied extensively and surrounded himself with world-class players and coaches, which is evident in the quality of his decisions at the highest stakes over more than two decades of competition. He has a particular reputation for resilience: having accumulated 67 WSOP cashes including multiple final table appearances before winning his first bracelet, he never allowed the absence of that specific milestone to define or diminish his approach. He continued competing, improving, and producing results in the world’s most prestigious events year after year. That tenacity, combined with the analytical mindset of a successful CEO who built two major companies from scratch, defines a player whose presence at the final table of any super high roller event is genuinely meaningful. He plays for the competitive challenge and the love of the game, motivations that have always been more compelling to him than any single result.

Cary Katz’s Greatest Achievements

Cary Katz’s career includes landmark victories in some of the most prestigious tournaments on the global circuit.

His biggest live poker result came at the 2019 Super High Roller Bowl London, where he won the £250,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $2,610,317, defeating a field of the world’s elite players in what remains the defining tournament of his playing career. That same year he won the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge in Melbourne for approximately $1,048,000 AUD, and had previously taken down the 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller for $1,492,340, giving him three major high roller titles across consecutive seasons.

He also won the 2021 PokerGO Cup $100,000 Main Event for $1,058,000 and the 2023 PokerGO Cup, demonstrating continued excellence in events he helped create. In 2025, he captured his first WSOP bracelet at Event #83: the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout, earning $449,245 in the process, a moment that concluded 67 WSOP cashes and multiple close calls including a runner-up finish in the 2023 WSOP $100,000 High Roller for $1,592,539.

As the founder of Poker Central, PokerGO, the Super High Roller Bowl, Poker Masters, and U.S. Poker Open, Katz’s off-table contribution to the game may ultimately exceed even his impressive playing record, having built the infrastructure that elevated professional poker’s presentation and reach to an entirely new level.

Cary Katz in WSOP

Cary Katz has 67 WSOP cashes totaling approximately $7.8 million, a record that traces back to his first cash in 2004 and spans over two decades of dedicated World Series participation. Before winning his bracelet in 2025, he was consistently cited among the most accomplished players never to have won one, a list that his strong results kept him near the top of year after year.

His three WSOP runner-up finishes, in 2013 (Event #19: $5,000 PLH), 2017 (Event #52: $1,500 NLH), and 2023 (Event #29: $100,000 High Roller, $1,592,539), spoke to a player who repeatedly found himself in position to win the title and fell short. When the bracelet finally came in 2025 at Event #83, a $2,500 Freezeout that Katz won by defeating Breno Drumond heads-up, the reaction from the poker community reflected genuine warmth for a man who had given so much to the game and had simply been waiting for this particular result to complete his legacy as both its leading promoter and one of its most persistent competitors.

Other Major Achievements

For detailed results and career statistics, see The Hendon Mob profile.

FAQ about Cary Katz