The West Wing casino invited everybody to join their second "$15,000 1st place guarantee" tournament this past Friday and Saturday. In a previous blog you can read hot it went in my first attempt at this event. At the following WPS I talked to the tournament director and convinced him to create deeper stacks for this one in comparison with a way too aggressive blinds structure in the first one, leading to a less than 8 hour total 40 player tournament for $1,500. When Dustin and I showed up for the warm-up cash game Thursday night Fernando was proud to announce that he had followed our advice, and we were happy he had listened.

The cash game was fun and wild. It was the highest stakes I had played myself so far, NLHE $5-10. There were some relatively deep pockets at the table, and I think the average buy-in was $500. It went up, then down. I bought in for another $200, then it went up again, and then down again. Bought in for another $200, and meanwhile the table had loosened up considerably, there were now stacks with thousands of dollars and hands kept digging into pockets again and again. It was still an enjoyable crowd, everybody in a good mood, and a lot of jokes were cracked.

I recovered a little bit, when the big hand of the night (for me!) finally emerged. In position I called with pocket 7s after 3 guys had limped. Flop came 776 (!!), first position bet, two guys folded, one called, and I called. Next card was a 5, and now there were 2 hearts on he table. Again first position lead out this time provocing a fold. I called. The river card brought a 3 of hearts, and my opponent checked. I had only around $200 left now, so I pushed all-in, and my opponent called with 2 pairs thinking I was bluffing a flush - I guess I was! Not long after it was bedtime, and I walked home with $1,550.

Friday it was business all day, and then Julieth, Dustin and I went early to the casino to see if we could play a satellite to the event. We waited a long time, enjoyed some disappointing snacks on the terrace with the magnificent view, and still nobody showed up! Surely it was just a question of time, and finally we had 10 players for a satellite. None of us made it, but when we stood up the casino was still virtually empty, what had happened?! At the first tournament there were almost 40 players, and now we were 12!?

Management decided to postpone the start until 9 p.m. to see if anyone would be showing up late, but no change, same twelve gloomy faces. Now, you would think "1st place $15,000 guaranteed" means that they actually will guarantee a first prize of $15,000 given the published format and buy-in, but management decided to appeal to the players to either chip in to "fill up" the prize pool or give up the tournament and play a ring game instead. It ended with a ring game.

My experience from international backgammon events with guaranteed prizes is clear: You either live up to your guarantee or you are out of the game. I expect the same will happen with the Jazz casino in Escazu, unfortunately. I was really looking forward to this event becoming a regular on my personal poker tour.

Sunday we made it back to a much more positive thing: The Pura Vida Poker Team Championships 2006! Despite - or maybe because - the event had to be shrunk to an exclusively Tamarindian event it has been a blast, and even if I can not play I have enjoyed running the action so far. The third round became a great evening of poker, and some of the top teams let a couple of the trailing ones into the race for the championship. We are now on an October Rain Break until November 5th.

Julieth will be going on a vacation in Switzerland October 5th, so I am considering going to a tournament in Panama that weekend, business could be in the way. We shall see.....