Clear the Rail!

After the L.A. Poker Classic concluded at Commerce Casino, I went home to Las Vegas for a few days before heading back to Casinos Europa for the second time in six months. Some people think Costa Rica is far away, but it really isn't. From Las Vegas, it is a three-hour flight to Houston, and two and a half hours from there to San Jose, Costa Rica.

My flight from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica, didn't seem to take much time, because I played some heads-up no-limit hold'em $40 freezeouts with Palo Alto, California, phenom Diego Cordovez. I am shocked that this guy has such good tournament results, because he is the biggest heads-up pushover ever. After thrashing Diego for two hours, I was up 2-1 and had enough money for my first tournament in Costa Rica, because it was a $10 buy-in, $10 rebuy event. My goal was to spend only $40, but after I had paid $680 to the cashier, I realized that I would have to beat Diego 17 games in a row to pay for it. Instead, I ventured into a live-action no-limit hold'em game.

I have played live no-limit hold'em only a few times, and love it. To my knowledge, there aren't too many cardrooms in the United States that spread it besides Lucky Chances Casino. The nice thing about the game is that there are so many different styles of play that can be effective. I like to play only premium starting hands, whereas someone such as Alex Brenes (a San Jose local) likes to mix it up and play any two cards, even with a straddle at times. The straddle is an interesting touch to the live no-limit hold'em game in Costa Rica. One can straddle from any position, and restraddle from any position. For example, if the No. 1 seat has a $10 small blind and the No. 2 seat has a $20 big blind, the No. 8 seat can make it at least $40 and the No. 4 seat can make it at least $60. After the nonsense (or fun) of the straddles, the action starts at the left of the final straddler. It is an expensive way of buying the button. Anyhow, the game was all action, and usually started after the rebuy period of the tournaments ended. On the final night, after we were knocked out of the championship event, we had a live no-limit hold'em game. After about an hour, James Hoeppner busted out of the game, and in Spanish, Alex Brenes suggested that we give James a standing ovation, as if he had just busted out of the final table of an event. We did, and everyone thought it was funny – except James. I hope this starts a tradition in Costa Rica.

In my last column about Casinos Europa, I mentioned that there were beautiful Costa Rican models in the poker room helping with the service. They were there again this trip, and again, everyone enjoyed how nice there were. In one of the tournaments, I was sitting next to my friend Doug Jewett, who finished second in the overall points race behind up-and-coming player Paul Wolfe. I made some sarcastic comment about the ugly people who were distracting me. Doug jokingly yelled, "Please clear the rail. These models are making Jeff nervous!" I don't think they made me nervous, but they sure were more attractive than American railbirds.

A total of 83 people entered the $500 no-limit hold'em championship event, which had a $100,000 guarantee. Jason Brice from Houston, Texas, won the event, beating a final table comprised of Francisco Fonseca, James Hoeppner, Danny Schechter, Sousha Huijers, Brian Green, Howard "Tahoe" Andrew, Eyad Ballout, Alex Brenes, and Catalina Sanchez.

On a different note, we welcome our newest columnist, George "The Engineer" Epstein, in this issue. George will be writing about a variety of low-limit poker topics.

The Ladbrokes Poker Million, scheduled for March 28-31, has been postponed.