Weekend at the Beach

Kerri and I spent the weekend in Tamarindo, Costa Rica for Paradise Poker's $1,000,000 Masters IV final table. Our upgrade to the Daihatsu Terios didn't work out so well--it was basically the equivalent of a Suzuki Samurai (if you remember that car from the 90s). So we took it back and upgraded to the Toyota Prado--the international version of the Toyota 4Runner. It made the drive to the coast about 5 times smoother.

Enough about cars. We arrived on Friday evening and had a great cocktail party and dinner with the 10 players that had made the final table. 9 men and 1 woman. About par for the course for poker these days. We were all secretly rooting for the woman during play on Saturday, but unfortunately she was short-stacked going into the final table. Toby Stubbs took down the top prize.

We had a great dinner on the beach afterwards to celebrate with the Paradise Poker team. And then off to the Jazz Casino in town for a little poker both nights. We played from about 8-2 on Friday night and I was dealt AAs, KKs, QQs, JJs, AK, AQ, and AJ and went home the big winner. Anybody can play when they get the cards though. On Saturday night, I wasn't so lucky and gave back a bit of my winnings to the locals. But just a bit.

The drive back from Tamarindo was a long one after getting stuck behind a sugar cane truck for about 50 kilometers. That's 30 miles for all of you in the States. Have to think in 6/10 when I'm in Costa Rica! But it was made much more enjoyable with some lively conversation with our good friends John and Janna. Great to spend the weekend with them as they are headed back to Ireland in March.

(Photos to come! We bought a disposable camera for the trip--as we had our digital camera stolen on New Year's--only to have me leave the disposable by the pool. Thankfully, someone turned it in and the hotel is mailling it to us in the States.)