398 players set a new record for a prize pool on Costa Rican soil, almost a million dollars total. I headed for San Jose Thursday morning early, but of course - today of all days - a major part of the only road connecting Guanacaste and the Central Valley had washed away near Miramar and only one baaad lane was passable, creating huge lineups of miles and miles of cars and 18-wheelers, DAMN! I arrived at the hotel in the last minute before kick-off and got seated at table 40 out of 40 tables total!

Good table I thought. I was in seat 5, seat 1 had a complete newcomer of live poker, goofed off a chunk of chips to me and others, could not stack them, never knew how to bet the right amount etc. etc., in other words: Lost without a mousepad! Seat 2 was better, seasoned amateur, seat 3 a tight German who later revealed himself as a raving lunatic, seat 4 another young internet qualifier, sweating with nervousness. Seat 6 a loose calling station, but with moments of great aggression. Seat 7 the same type, very loose calls preflop. Seat 8 and 9 pretty tight, seat 10 the Brazillian Pokerstars Pro Andre Akkari.

Got off to a quiet start. Seat 9 had had some unfortunate hands and was clearly frustrated. In one hand he had raised in early position preflop to 150. One caller in seat 1, I was on the button with



and decided to call.

The flop came



Seat 9 lead out with 300, seat 1 folded, I did the Hollywood thing and called reluctantly.

Turn came



Another bet from seat 9, this time 600. Again I gave it some time, call.

The river brought



This time seat 9 just checked. I bet $1,500, hoping to be able to milk him a little and he called, muck! My guess is he was holding AK.

My stack grew to more than $13,000 (started with $10,000), but later I bluffed some of it off to Andre Akkari (he called me with second pair on the river, darn it) and then our table was broken. I was moved to Table 3, seat 3 which was two seats to the left of my fellow countryman Ole Busborg Jensen, and two seats to the right of Victor Ramdin.
Since I goofed off a few thousands to Akkari I had been on a card drought, nothing, nada nichego, zip zilch zero!! With the blinds growing and my stack dwindling it became quite frustrating. My new table was more loose than the first one. Ole was sitting very tight, seat 2 was a maniac with very loose raises, Victor too was struggling with a low stack and no cards. Finally I found



in mid position, my first action in 45 minutes. I raised 3 times the BB, then the SB came over the top with a huge reraise, had to muck.

Half an hour later, blinds are 75-150. Ole raises in mid position to $400, our loose mate in seat 2 reraises to $1,400, and I am looking down on



My stack is at $8,000 approximately so if I decide to raise I have to push it. So I did, Victor goes in the tank!! Finally mucks, Ole squirms in his seat and eventually mucks, and now the squeezeplay is complete, seat 2's hand hits the muck too.

A couple of rounds later I get a couple more hands under the belt and finally hit average again at around 13,000 when we go on break.


Back from the break we now hit level 5, blinds 100-200, ante 25. A young fellow from Long Island opens in early position with $800. It is folded to me, I am holding



I decide to call, everyone else folds. The flop comes



He leads out with $1,400, I decide to re-raise, make it $4,000. Afterwards I thought my raise was a little too big. If his bet was indeed a probe bet, he would probably have let it go against a smaller raise, but as it were he decided to push all-in and he had me covered. I think he must have had a set, kings, aces or perhaps the nut flush draw, I mucked and shrunk to below $8,000 again.


Another wave of drought hit my hands and my stack slowly dwindled to just above $6,000 With blinds now at $150-300, ante $25 I had to get lucky soon. Mr. Maniac to my right kept raising and stealing and I was just waiting for an opportunity to punish and get lucky, I needed to make a stand and stop him or my tournament would be over soon. Finally he is doing another preflop raise to $800 on the button, I am in the SB with



good enough to make a stand I thought. To make sure he knew he would be playing for my entire stack I reraised him to $3,000. He thought about it, then pushed all-in. Now I had to call, even if I was dominated - the price was good enough, he flipped over



I got no help from the board and it was all over.....