Well, here we go again. Another poker tournament. This will be the biggest event in Costa Rica in 2006, and it also sounds pretty phenomenal, doesn´t it? Just put in an arbitrary "World" somewhere in any event, and you are dead sure to be a success it seems.

These guys have done it before, though. The seasoned player and TD Warren Karp is in charge of the event, founded by Herb van Dyke (yeah, I guess the potato eaters in Holland didn´t realize the complications some of their names could have in an English speaking future, but maybe it DOES refer to the devices protecting the lowlands from the Atlantic waves, help me Don/Linda/Susan! I thought it was spelled "dijk"?)

I am in San Jose now, getting stuff for The Light House (buy it! www.thelighthousecr.com), so I went down to Casino Europa to check out the action. The events started Friday last week, and the main event begins Thursday afternoon with a $2,500+100 buy-in. It looks like the Brenes dynasty has come out firing at everybody, Humberto won the 1st event, Alex won the second, and there were 3 Breneses in the last five at that one!!

I was encouraged to take a stab at a $125 buy-in tournament through a "cheaper" $35 satellite. Having just won an $11 double shootout satellite last week on Pokerstars and from there making it to 171st place in the Sunday $1,000,000 guaranteed cashing almost $1,200 I felt it was a great deal, until I realized what I thought was an 8-player thing turned out to be for 10 players, 2 seats at stake, meaning the casino raked $100 out of a $350 pot!? I upped and left as quickly as I could, kindly bringing to their attention the outrages rake. They nodded with a smile: I guess they knew....

Stay tuned for poker action in the following days.