On December 1, 1965 Vito Casucci was born on Long Island, New York just in time to be his parent's first tax deduction of the year. Vito graduated from Lawrence High School in 1983 and in 1994 took an air cargo position with TWA. In 1989 he married his sweetheart, Susan and soon after he was transferred to St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1994 the airline industry was experiencing some turbulence and Vito decided to make a career change. That same year Missouri passed a law allowing Riverboat Gambling and Vito became fixed on the idea of gaming as his new career direction in life. He enrolled in a local dealing school to learn to deal poker. His first position out of dealing school was as a poker dealer with Station Casino in St. Charles. He worked his way up the ranks and in 1999 he was appointed Cardroom Manager.

He left Station's in 2004 to assist in the opening of the new poker room at Harrah's, just across the river in St. Louis.

In 2005 Vito was offered the position of Cardroom Manager of Harrah's Showboat in Atlantic City. By this time Vito and Susan had two children, a 12 year old daughter, Alyssa and a 9 year old son, Dominick, so they packed up the family and moved to AC.

Within a year Vito was approached once again and offered the position of Director of Poker Operations for Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The kids, now 13 and 10 were a little reluctant to move to Las Vegas but Vito commented, "At least you don't have to shovel sunshine."

The family made the move and Vito is now managing the largest cardroom in Las Vegas with 30 live tables and 30 tournament tables. According to Vito the kids are adjusting to the sunshine.

DB: Have you made any major changes in the poker room since you were appointed Poker Room Manager?
VC: I've only been in town for about a month and some of that time I've had to go back East to take care of some unfinished business. I've made a few small changes in the limits played here at Caesars. We are now spreading $3-$6, $6-$12, $10-$20 and even a $400-$800 limit hold'em. We are also spreading nolimit games with $1-$2, $2-$5, $5-$10 and $10-$25 blinds.

DB: Does Caesars Palace offer any daily tournaments?
VC: Yes, we run daily tournaments seven days a week. We are presently running two a day, a 12 p.m. no-limit with an $80 buy-in and one $50 rebuy, and a 7 p.m. no-limit with a $120 buy-in and a $100 rebuy. Players start with $1500 in chips and receive $3000 with the rebuy in both events. We are also looking into adding some additional events in the near future but I don't have anything definite at this point.

DB: You are one of the only rooms in Las Vegas that has an adjacent tournament room equipped with 30 tables, has that proven to be a success?
VC: Yes, because when we have a major tournament it does not interrupt our day to day operation of our live action.

DB: Do you believe your room will incur any negative impact during the WSOP?
VC: No, if anything I believe we will experience a lot of notoriety because we are a Harrah's property and we are right down the street from the Rio..

DB: What is your prediction for this year's main event at the World Series of Poker?
VC: My over/under 8,100.

DB: What, if any, role will you have at the WSOP?
VC: My room will continue with business as usual, so I won't have much of a role at the WSOP but I have been asked to be a guest announcer.

DB: There has been some talk that the buy-in for the main event at the WSOP should be increased next year, what is your opinion on that and is Harrah's entertaining that in any way?
VC: No I don't believe it should. Harrah's has put together a panel of pros as an advisory board that represents the voice of the players and they meet with several of Harrah's top executives on a regular basis to discuss these matters. They are all in agreement that the buy-in should remain the same because it's a tournament that anyone can enter and have a chance at winning. They added a $50,000 HORSE event this year to give the pros a chance to find a true poker all-around champion. In the HORSE, players must excel in five different games, Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight or Better Stud, not just nolimit hold'em.

DB: What are some of the major tournaments held at Caesar's?
VC: We just completed the National Poker League's Vegas Open. The event consisted of 10 $1,000 buyin events with the winners of each event returning to play head's up. The five winners of the head's up match then returned to play a final table. The overall winner was Keith Tilston and received $100,000. We also held a very successful NBC Head's Up Challenge where Ted Forrest took home $500,000. The Camp Helmuth event was held here last year and we have another one scheduled for August 11-12.

DB: In the short time you've been here who is responsible for making your job a little easier?
VC: My entire staff and my leaders, Howard Greenbaum, Vice President of Specialty Games and Jimmy Wike, Vice President of Table Games have all been very supportive and encouraging.