Poker in Costa Rica

"The monkeys have my hat! The monkeys have my hat!" Someone was shouting that out at the top of his lungs, or maybe it was the silent voice inside my head screaming to me as I swung through the jungle like Tarzan. Well, I was not swinging on a vine, actually, but it was as close as one gets these days. I was in Costa Rica, on what's called a "canopy tour," and there are a few of them scattered about the countryside. Imagine a long span of wire strung between the tops of trees, high in the mountains, maybe 30 or 40 yards each in length. At each tree there's a platform to stand on, about 6 feet around and 60 feet up in the air from the tree's base.

It's not as dangerous as it looks. Each of us was rigged out in a chest and thigh harness secured by a carabiner – an oblong metal ring with a spring-hinged side that's used by mountain climbers – to a pulley that allows one to glide the length of the cable span. There are nine spans in all, and between spans No. 5 and No. 6, my ball cap – it's my favorite, an "ESCARGOT 2001" hat – sailed off my head down to the jungle below. It might have been a macaw in the trees that snatched it, but that's a long shot. I'm laying odds that one of those treacherous monkeys made off with it before it even hit the ground.

When I glided into platform No. 6, I was at the highest spot in the canopy, with a view out over the mountains to Playa Hermosa, a nine-kilometer pure white beach that's only a mile away and a long way down. I had an incredible view over the trees to an unspoiled beach that's worth the trip all by itself. Much of Costa Rica is pristine – it's a land where active volcanoes still bring forth new land to the planet – and it all seems an apt metaphor for the country itself, and for the burgeoning interest in poker that seems to be occurring.

I was with a group of writers who had been invited to sample Costa Rica's charms and poker games for ourselves, and we spent a week as the guests of Nick Gullo, general manager of Casinos Europa, which is located at the Radisson Hotel in San José, the capital of Costa Rica. A series of poker tournaments was scheduled, as well as plenty of time to see the sights and sample the culture.

Costa Rica, located between Nicaragua and Panama and about the size of West Virginia, is unique among Central American nations because of its long and stable democracy, as well as a 95 percent literacy rate, the hallmark of an educated population. San José, Costa Rica's largest city, is located in rolling hills midway between the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. While most of Costa Rica's natural attractions are located on one coast or the other – approximately a three-hour drive from San José – the casinos are in the city, and so are the Americans.

Because Costa Rica has a relatively low cost of living, stable government, and universal health care featuring doctors who, for the most part, have been trained in the United States, it's become a booming retirement community for Americans. Approximately 25,000 of them live in or around the San José suburb of Escazú, and many of these retirees can be found playing poker at Casinos Europa on any given night.

Just how Americanized is Escazú? Well, for one thing, there's an English-language newspaper called the Tico Times, and on a visit to a local shopping center, I found all but one of the restaurants in the food court to chains that you might find in any mall back home. Half the folks in the mall were speaking Spanish, and the other half were conversing in English.

But the poker was different; especially the tournaments, and they were a lot of fun. Although the entry fee was only $10, there were unlimited rebuys for the first four levels plus a one-time opportunity right before the break to purchase up to 30 add-ons for the price of 20. But they don't holler "rebuy" in Costa Rica; they shout "camisa" – the Spanish word for "shirt," as in, "I lost my shirt." It wasn't unusual for a $10 tournament to wind up costing $300 in "camisas," and some players even exceeded the $1,000 mark in rebuys.

The cash games were lively, too. Each night there was a $10-$20 hold'em game, and on most evenings there was either a $10-$20 half hold'em-half Omaha game, or a $10-$20 Omaha game. A no-limit hold'em game got going on most nights, too, as did any number of lower-limit games. There were buffets for the players that were terrific, full of fresh seafood, beef, and chicken, as well as mangoes, papayas, and other tropical fruits. An elegant dessert bar topped it all off. Dinner was served before each tournament began and then again at the 9:30 p.m. break. If one were sufficiently hungry, it would have been possible to put away two lavish dinners within a three-hour period.

It's OK to speak Spanish or English at the tables, and since most employees speak English, making yourself understood is never a problem, even if you don't speak a lick of Spanish. If you go, here's all the Spanish you need to know to get by at the tables.

English Spanish

Call Pago

Bet Apuesta

Raise Subo

Rebuy Camisa

Straight Escala

Flush Colór

Four of a kind Poker

Full house Full

They play for dollars at the tables, so there's never a need to convert American currency into "colones," although the exchange rate while we were there was 330 colones to the dollar. In fact, regardless of where we were in Costa Rica, the Yankee dollar was gladly accepted at the going rate of exchange.

Costa Rica is a wonderful place to visit, particularly if you're into eco-tourism or nature, or just want to get off the beaten path and discover some wonderful natural vistas. Even San José – a sprawling, crowded city by anyone's standards – offers up some choice fare. There is any number of museums that are worth a visit, and one evening a group of us had dinner at La Monastére, a former monastery high up in the hills with a panoramic view of San José and the nearby mountains. If you journey to Costa Rica and want one elegant meal in spectacular surroundings, make sure you find your way there.

We also dined at Tara, a charming bed and breakfast with a terrific restaurant and a Gone With the Wind theme. Tara was originally built as a villa for the Shah of Iran, who died before he could ever occupy the place. Richard Shambley, who divides his time between Costa Rica and San Diego, bought and morphed the Shah's former estate into its current iteration as an antebellum replica. Now he plans to add a casino and 100-room hotel, creating an upscale resort hotel with casino, while still maintaining the antebellum theme.

If you go to Costa Rica, you might opt for equal portions of poker and outdoor activities: a few days at the Radisson and Casinos Europa playing poker and other casino games, and a few days at either coast seeing the kind of natural beauty that's found only in primordial, unspoiled lands with pristine beaches. You'll need your passport, but you can get by on very limited Spanish, and there's no need to convert your dollars into colones and back again.

And if you go on the canopy tour and see a treacherous little monkey wearing an ESCARGOT 2001 ball cap, snatch it off his simian head and tell him it's mine.

Visit my website at www.loukrieger.com. Poker for Dummies is available at major bookstores everywhere, and all of my books are available online at www.ConJelCo.com and www.Amazon.com. My newest book, Gambling for Dummies, will be in your neighborhood bookstore this October.