Casinos Europa

All I have heard the past few months is how much fun poker in Costa Rica is. I am now a believer. I was excited to fly there and play at Casinos Europa. How could I pass up a free vacation? All I had to do was play poker for 50 hours (which included the tournaments) and the casino would reimburse my airfare. What a deal!

For me, the poker started on the airplane, as I lost four of six freezeouts to Mark Gregorich (master of the river card). I was stuck $40 and hadn't even passed customs yet. We arrived at the hotel at midnight, and I was happy to see some of my Costa Rican friends whom I see only at the big tournaments in the United States. Alex and Humberto Brenes were both playing pot-limit hold'em, and convinced us to start a live-action no-limit hold'em game. I had played live-action no-limit hold'em only once, but I thought I would give it a shot by buying in for $1,000 in a $25-$50 blind game. Before I knew it, I had lost one-third of my stack without even seeing a flop. I decided to move in with a few marginal hands, got lucky, and made the money back that I lost on the airplane. One thing that I liked about the no-limit game was that one had to buy in for the average amount of chips of the players at the table. Hence, the game became bigger and bigger.

Before the first no-limit hold'em tournament event, T.J. Cloutier gave a one-hour seminar on final-table play and other tournament tricks. He emphasized the importance of letting people knock each other out, and moving up the pay structure ladder. He then said that you have to play for the win, because that is where all of the money is. After the seminar, a gourmet dinner was served. I found myself eating kosher boar, along with other healthy dishes. Not only was the trip free, the food was too.

As I walked into the tournament room, my jaw dropped. Standing by every table was a beautiful Costa Rican girl, who was there to get players drinks, empty ashtrays, walk players to pay for rebuys, and so on. At first I thought that the female poker players would object because there weren't any male table hosts, but I was wrong. Every girl had an inner beauty and was equally nice to everybody. It really showed me that society has a large impact on human nature. In America, girls are not nice to me. They may pretend to be, but they are really using me for my Omaha knowledge (LOL). However, in Costa Rica, they don't have Omaha tournaments, so I stopped being paranoid. OK, I went off on a major tangent. Let's get back to the tournaments.

The first four tournaments had a $10 buy-in with unlimited $10 camisas (rebuys). I took 12th place the first night, and still lost money; $10 adds up after you make 72 rebuys! I was not trying to break the rebuy record, but I must have come close. The funny thing was that Mike O'Malley made the final table a few times, and was never into a tournament for more than $10. He needs to gamble more.

There are a few things that are different at Casinos Europa. Everybody has to wear a name tag. I am pretty good with names, but some people may not be. It was a real pleasure calling people by their first names even if I didn't know who they were. It made things very personable. Another difference is that everything is on credit. You don't pay for the camisas until you bust out. I like this policy, because it stops the poor-sports from storming out of the room after they bust out. Instead, they have to cool off while in line to pay for their camisas. Finally, there is the term "fondo." Fondo means "all in" in Spanish. The Costa Ricans love to say the word, because they love causing you to have to make a decision. Kenny Goldstein got heads up with a Costa Rican priest in the third tournament. There were 20 Costa Ricans cheering for the priest, and three Americans cheering for Kenny. The locals really didn't care who won – they just wanted to hear the word "fondo." They started screaming each time the word was used. They chanted "fondo" over and over again, as if it were a soccer match in England. It got to the point that I had to stop cheering for Kenny because I wanted to fit in with the locals.

The championship no-limit hold'em event had a $500 buy-in and unlimited $500 camisas. When we got to the final table, I was in pretty good shape. I was in second place, and we unanimously decided not to increase the blinds for a round in order to keep it a game of skill. As I looked around the table with seven players left, I noticed that I hadn't played a hand and had become the short stack, and was the only American left besides Adam Schoenfeld and Nick Gullo. I was excited to see Nick there, because he is the casino director, and he loves poker. Adam is a first-year tournament pro, and soon will be writing for Card Player about his experiences as one. Anyway, Adam kept saying, "I'll give you a trombone," instead of saying "fondo." I guess "trombone" is the same as saying "all in" if you live in the slums of the upper east side of Manhattan. Adam eventually "tromboned" himself to death, as he went all in against Jose Stawski with A-K against Jose's K 7, and lost to the flush. I ended up finishing third, Don Luis took second, and my new friend Jose Stawski won the tournament and almost $50,000. Jose is one of the better players I have seen in my short poker career. Because of his work and family, he doesn't have the opportunity to come to America to play in the big tournaments. He is a true class act, and I predict that he will do very well at next year's World Series of Poker, if his wife lets him visit Las Vegas.