Paradise, Thy Name is Casinos Europa

Rookie Year

By Jan Shulman

Paradise, Thy Name is Casinos Europa

When Nick Gullo called from Casinos Europa to invite Barry and me to Costa Rica, I literally jumped out of my hospital bed. What is a little pain compared to a week in beautiful Costa Rica?

I was a little nervous about the trip, as I do not always have the best luck with airplanes being on time or having my bags show up. This time I got my bags, but our Dallas flight was three and a half hours late. Apparently, three passengers did not have proper documents so all of the bags had to be taken off the plane to find the luggage belonging to these three people – and then all of the bags had to be put back on. Barry fell asleep as soon as we got on board, so when the pilot announced that we would be leaving in a half-hour, he thought we were landing in San José.

To my delight, Terry Severin, the director of poker, was at the airport to meet us. It was almost midnight and I was so grateful that I did not need to speak terrible pigeon Spanish. I could barely speak English by then – actually, I could barely speak at all. Terry took us to the hotel and helped check us in; what a lifesaver he was.

The next day we went to Tara, a hotel fashioned after Gone With the Wind's Tara, with some Card Player writers to have lunch. I was thrilled to finally meet Michael Wiesenberg, Mike Cappelletti, Lou Krieger, and Jim Brier, all of whom are very nice guys.

Linda Johnson, who has been to San José four times in the last nine months, played tour guide, which she is so good at doing. The only problem is that Linda is a little or a lot more daring than most of us cowards. Nothing really fazes her, and she definitely knows her way around.

That night we headed to Casinos Europa. The club had set out a lovely buffet for the poker players, and like all poker players, we attacked it with glee. Nick Gullo sat with us, and every three minutes someone approached and thanked him for this or that. How often does this happen at home? Never!

I was amazed at the number of other Americans who were there, such as Lisa and Mark Tenner, Bob Thompson, Erik and Rual Seidel, Bonnie Rattner and John Strzemp, Tom McEvoy, and the list goes on.

Maria and Max Stern, who are from San José and still have a residence there are the most gracious people – whether they're in San José or in Las Vegas. I was so happy to see them again.

We stayed at the Radisson Hotel, and I learned that talking louder and slower does not help someone understand English who doesn't speak it too well in the first place.

Luckily, almost everyone spoke English in the casino, and if anyone didn't, someone at the dinner table spoke Spanish. Anything I wanted was always brought to me with a smile. The feeling you come away with is that you are special, and that they are happy to have you spend time with them.

I also observed that all of the Americans were nicely dressed. The atmosphere was so different from the World Series of Poker: There was no tension, no yelling, and no card throwing – an offense that can get you removed from the casino. It was simply people having a great time. Laughter was heard from every corner of the room.

At 9:30 p.m. there was another dinner break for those players who didn't get enough to eat at the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. buffet. Again, everyone indulged heartily. Nick had also hired a famed pastry chef, and one whole corner of the poker room was dedicated to his creations. I think it should be renamed the porker tournament, the way we all ate. The waiters always saw me coming and ran to get a Diet Squirt for me. Talk about pampering – I loved it!

I have decided that it was fortunate that only our bags were weighed at the airport, because I think we all went home with a bit more body baggage than we came with.

As I sit here reflecting on the week, I am constantly reminded of how small the world is. I was in San José, Costa Rica, with a group of poker-playing Americans and poker-playing Costa Ricans. I was no longer intimidated by poker jargon and really enjoyed spending time with the group.

The main thing that reminded me that I was not actually in paradise was listening to Nick Gullo, born and raised in New Orleans, speaking Spanish with a Southern accent. I shall miss him and all of the nice people at Casinos Europa. I will especially miss Cesar, the captain who ran to get me a diet drink whenever my glass got low.