69-year-old Don Ciaglo is a busy man living a great life with many interests, including poker. He’s a tournament director in California and participates in regular home games with friends, who, it's very apparent, are a massively important part of his life.
When we met him here in Lake Tahoe last year, he won a $400 event for his first ring, which earned him a seat in the 2025 WSOP Tournament of Champions that he spun into something far bigger. (More on that shortly)
But Ciaglo’s win last year was missing something.
You see, Ciaglo plans an annual trip with some of his best friends to Lake Tahoe to play in a WSOP Circuit Seniors event. They rent a cabin, share stories, hang out, and then play some poker.
Doing it right
Last year, Ciaglo was the first of the group to arrive and decided to play an event before his friends got to town. This was the event he won for his first WSOP Circuit ring, and as great a moment as it was for him, his winner's photo was just himself, his newly won ring, and the winning four-deuce offsuit that his friends still tease him about.
This year, he did it right.
Ciaglo won the $400 Seniors Event on Sunday with his friends there by his side, on his rail, and in his winner’s photo.
“It’s cool, in fact, when I got my photo taken, the most important photo for me will be the one with all my friends in it. That was special.”
Nothing but love for Lake Tahoe
This annual retreat for Ciaglo and his friends is something they all look forward to and obviously enjoy, but the champion, who has worked in the gaming industry for many years, especially appreciates all that Harvey’s/Caesars Republic Lake Tahoe offers.
“I’ve been coming up here for years, and years, and years. It’s a great atmosphere, Caesars puts on a fantastic tournament, dealers are fantastic, y’know, the fact that they give the food at lunchtime is great. I’m in the Sacramento area, what’s not to love coming up here?”
The win also came with a $5,000 package to WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas, which sets up another trip for him and his friends to look forward to. So just how many of them are invited to this one?
“As many as want to come to The Bahamas. That’s going to be really cool. December’s right around the corner.”
$100,000 in carry-on
Now, while this win earned him the Ticket to Paradise, let’s rewind to that 2024 win and the entry into the 2025 WSOP Tournament of Champions this past May that came with it, because there’s a story there, too.
Ciaglo is one of the very few people who made the most of that freeroll, spinning his entry into a third-place finish for $100,000. Ciaglo told us how amazing it felt to leave the streamed final table after his elimination, pick up his phone, and see over 300 messages from friends and well-wishers.
But it was the collection of those six figures worth of earnings that he’ll never forget.
“The best part was Commerce was not able to give me a cheque or wire the money, they had to give it to me in cash because they didn’t have people to sign for the cheque, so I literally got on the plane the next day with $100,000 in cash, watched it go through the x-ray machine, TSA never said anything, it was just the craziest experience.”
Poker talent is just a small part of Ciaglo
So, with two wins here in Lake Tahoe and that $100,000 TOC score in some of the very few tournaments he plays, with the kind of success he has, why don’t we see him playing more? His response was truly poignant.
“I love poker. I am blessed in terms of having an incredible life. If you had time to delve down into all the different things that I have going on in my life, you’d just be shocked. So, poker is just one of a number of things that are just outstanding that I do, and so I just spread it all around. I never let winning get to my head. As much as anything, this is just for fun, this is just about taking all the guys and gals in my league out for a nice meal and telling the story, right? That’s what it’s all about. People like to tell their bad beat stories; I like to tell the stories of winning.”
We can’t wait until next year to hopefully hear some of those stories and perhaps tell another one of our own — of Ciaglo winning again.
