Bienvenidos

i arrived in costa rica safe and sound on june 15th. humberto brenes was on my flight from houston (official site) to san jose. of course, he was flying first class and i was crammed into a coach seat. steven was a little late picking me up because he gave someone a ride home from the casino before heading off to the airport. no problems - steven tends to be late so i was unconcerned. as soon as we got home to his house in escazu i showered and changed and we headed out. he had received an invitation to the grand re-opening of the casino at the white house in the hills of escazu. they had a 5 - 10 no-limit hold'em game going. we weren't playing, just doing a little drinking and socializing.

we started playing poker on friday. my first day was filled with suckouts against me and decent to very good lay downs on my part. we first played at steven's main place - the horseshoe casino which is owned by dewey tomko. i lost a little and steven won alot. no terrible beats for me yet. steven had a nice hand where he flopped a set of deuces with a heart flush draw on board. he made a big bet and got called. the turn was absolutely golden - the deuce of hearts which led to steven being fully paid off. i had pocket aces twice and once won the blinds and won a very small pot the other time.

we then went to the radisson home to casinos europa which hosted the costa rica classic during the first season of the world poker tour (official site). both humberto brenes and greg raymer were playing there. they were playing some sort of promotional event for poker stars (official site) employees. greg raymer was receiving most of the attention since apparently anyone who plays poker in costa rica is likely to see humberto on at least a semi-regular basis.

i had aces cracked three times while playing at the radisson including one time when i was all-in pre-flop against kings. i can't say that has ever happened to me before - having them cracked three times in the same session, that is. just like any other poker player i have had aces cracked by the lower pocket pair too many times to mention. it was slightly unnerving, but i guess i'm over it. even with all of my bad luck we broke even for the night. the play can be wild here. our buddy joe sorge would feel right at home. in fact, joe's game is definitely tame by comparison. joe, i suspect that when you come to visit you will not leave. downtown san jose is gambling, booze, and women. it's hard to imagine that he would feel compelled to use his return ticket home.