Travel With Me … Costa Rica - Part VII

by Daniel Negreanu | Published: Feb 14, 2003

Author's note: This column was written months ago as the conclusion of a seven-part series. Since then, unfortunately, the state of poker in Costa Rica has suffered some changes.

Ever hear the expression, save the best for last? Well, that's just what I've done by saving Costa Rica until the end. Here is a recap of where we've gone on our little journey across the globe: We started out as teenagers in Toronto, then made some grown-up trips to Vancouver and Windsor. We then turned 21, and it was time to hit the big time in the West, in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles. From there, we hopped on a plane and took the four-hour flight back to the East Coast to play at Foxwoods and in Atlantic City.

Before leaving the United States, we also dropped by the Bay Area, Reno, and Tunica on our way overseas. There, we had the pleasure of taking in some culture, as well as playing some poker along the way. We went from the beautiful Isle of Mann to London, and then finally to Vienna, Austria.

After that long journey, we took a vacation on the PartyPoker Million cruise, which brings us to our final stop, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has beautiful women with great personalities. Is that even possible? Well, it's the norm in Costa Rica. I can't tell you how much I love all the people there. I really feel like I'm in my element in Costa Rica. I've made two trips there, and missed a total of five flights home. It's so hard to leave! In fact, I know a few Americans who never did!

I realize that it isn't a real vacation when I'm going somewhere to play poker, but Costa Rica and the PartyPoker cruise were the closest thing to it. To be honest, I treat my trips to Costa Rica like vacations, anyway, and break most of the work rules I have when I go there. I'm there just to enjoy myself, and winning or losing at poker doesn't affect my having a good time.

Apparently, there are fabulous tours through the rain forests in Costa Rica, but I'm slightly embarrassed to tell you that I didn't make any of them! Instead, I spent most of my time partying with the locals at the Pueblo and drinking Imperial beer and Gwarro (it's like a softer version of Tequila). I usually didn't get to bed until 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., and then slept the day away.

When I woke up (at about 4 p.m. or 5 p.m.), I did it all over again! Seriously, though, I did play some poker. The tournaments there were also really fun for me, as the structure was, shall we say, rebuy friendly?

You see, the buy-in is just $10, but don't let that fool you. The least I ever spent in one of the tournaments was $350, and the prize pools were usually well over $50,000. In fact, Adam Schoenfeld and I both hold some pretty embarrassing rebuy records from those tournaments, but it's all in good fun.

One day, Adam wasn't even trying to rebuy like a madman and ended up making 108 rebuys, totaling $1,080. Well, I ended up going even crazier than that.

It was so easy to get out of hand there because I didn't have to pay for my rebuys until the tournament was over! I just yelled out my favorite Spanish phrase, "Maximo camisa," and was given the maximum rebuys allowed.

At $10 a pop, I could handle being an idiot for a few hours. When I did it at $500 a pop in the championship event, I started to feel a little too silly.

On my first trip to Costa Rica, I rebought 16 times in the main event, spending $8,500 for the tournament. Then, it hit me - this is real money, and I had better start playing well. Anyway, as I did the entire week, I kept the Imperials coming, but also paid close attention to the action and ended up playing pretty well. To make a long story short, I ended up winning that tournament, and $70,000. Suddenly, I didn't feel so silly.

So, on my second trip, I figured I was now a big shot and had the whole tournament thing figured out. Again, I went insane in the main event (this time, a World Poker Tour event) and broke my previous record, rebuying 17 times for a total of $9,000!

No problem, I'd been in that position before, Imperial, por favor! Again, I started to play well after the rebuy period. I had some chips, obviously, as I took the maximo add-ons. I lost a key pot to Dewey Tomko, in which I had J-J against 10-10, and later lost with J-J again, but this time to K-K. That hand was the end of me, but I had one problem: I looked in my pocket and there was no $9,000 there to cover my camisas.

Uh-oh. It was time to find out how good my credit was around town, and luckily, I found someone willing to loan me camisa money, as well as some extra Imperial money. I was off to the Pueblo with some of my newfound friends to dance the night away, and then I'd fly home in the morning. Of course, I didn't get back to my hotel until the next morning, which made flying out of town impossible; another missed flight, and another distraction fee - oh well, it was well worth the extra day.

Are you as exhausted as I am? Prior to writing this seven-part travel series months ago, I was informed by our executive editor at Card Player that my next column was late, so I thought I'd rush out a quickie. Well, some 8,000 words later, that quickie turned out to be an entire night's work, resulting in the series of articles concluded herewith.

I hope you enjoyed this series on the places I've been, and perhaps I will see you at one of them soon.