As I write this, I am in the middle of the Southern Caribbean, enjoying one of my favorite vacations - a poker cruise. Over the last 10 years, I have traveled all over the world to play poker. I have been to every major tournament, many small tournaments, and some out-of-the-way tournaments, and have been to some places to play poker that no one has ever heard of. During my travels, I have experienced great hospitality, great action, great food, and everything in between. I have been to places and seen things that I had only dreamed about years ago. What am I getting at?

Well, three days before I boarded this cruise ship, I was leaving San José, Costa Rica, where I had attended the Howard "Tahoe" Andrew Celebrity Poker Challenge. What I encountered while at that tournament is something that will be the talk of the poker world for months to come. Casinos Europa, in conjunction with the Radisson Europa, hosted what I believe was the most phenomenal poker tournament ever. From the five-star hotel and unbelievable food, to the action live games, crazy tournament structure, and girls in black dresses, I have never enjoyed myself more. The people of Costa Rica, the staff of the tournament, and, most importantly, the casino owner and most gracious host Luis are to be commended for putting on an event that surpasses anything the poker world has ever seen.

Casinos Europa has hosted these tournaments before, usually attracting 10-20 American poker players. This particular event, with the help of a great marketing plan, attracted more than 200 Americans. Because of the greatly increased participation level, there were of course speed bumps encountered. The first four events featured a $10 buy-in with multiple rebuys. In a normal tournament, multiple rebuys means you can make one rebuy if you fall below a predetermined amount of chips. This tournament allowed you to make anywhere from five to 30 rebuys each time you were eligible to rebuy. Talk about a prize pool!

Playing in this tournament proved to be both challenging and thought-provoking. Whenever someone went broke, you could see him looking around trying to decide how many rebuys to make. Since a rebuy was only $10, it took some thought to figure out a correct rebuy strategy. In the first tournament, I was lucky enough not to be eligible to rebuy during the rebuy rounds. At the add-on point, I had just over 1.2 million colones, which was pretty good considering we started with only 35,000 colones. I had a decision to make: Should I make up to 30 rebuys, which would cost me $300 to get 1.75 million additional colones? I opted to play it out on my initial $10 investment. About one hour after the break, I limped in from first position with A-A and got knocked out when the small blind called with Q-7 and flopped Q-7-5. However, I was pretty proud of myself for making it that long on a $10 buy-in, inasmuch as some people were into the tournament for more than $1,000!

The next day proved to be very similar to the first day. I ran my initial buy-in up to more than 1 million colones during the rebuy period. I was in the same situation as the previous day, and decided to do the same thing - not add on! Immediately after the break, I doubled up with A-6 against A-Q, and seemed to coast from there on out. We were one away from the money and playing hand for hand when the following hand came up: From first position, I raised the $1,000 big blind to $10,000, almost half my stack, with Q-Q. The next player to act called time, and finally decided to call all in for about $9,000. I liked this call, as I knew he didn't have a great hand. Everyone folded, and I turned my hand faceup. He said to me, "Oh, no, this time you have a hand," and turned up the J 10. I was shocked. This player had just put all of his money in with jack high, and from his statement, must have thought I had 10 high! Of course, I wouldn't be telling this story if the flop had not come J-J-10! I managed to rebound and wound up placing second in the tournament with just a $10 buy-in. Costa Rica - what a country!