What Do Costa Rica, Poker Tournaments & Nick Gullo have in Common?
By Debbie Burkhead

The answer is, the perfect combination for a very unusual $10 buy-in tournament with 60 to 80 players which produces an unbelievable prize pool of over $10,000.

Nick Gullo, formally in the casino business in Las Vegas, now the General Director of Casino Europa in San Jose, Costa Rica, has created a most interesting and reasonable poker tournament which makes for an incredible overlay for most tournament players.

Before I explain how this tournament works, let me give you some background on how I ended up in Costa Rica for the first "Celebrity Challenge Poker Tournament" and why I will be returning in October for yet another such tournament.

I met Nick Gullo when he was the General Manager of the Showboat in Las Vegas a few years ago. I was extremely impressed with his enthusiasm for poker and our mutual love of the game and desire to promote poker made for a lasting business and personal bond. I introduced him to Tom McEvoy and Susie Isaacs because we four had one common goal which was a major nonsmoking poker tournament in Las Vegas. The four of us came up with what was to be the "Showboat Spectacular". Due to circumstances beyond our control the tournament was cancelled and Nick resigned from the Showboat.

Nick and I stayed in touch and worked together on other unrelated projects. About a month ago Nick and I made contact and he told me that he was in San Jose, Costa Rica and was the General Director of Casino Europa. As usual the main topic of our conversation was poker related. He was very proud that he had opened a poker room at Casino Europa. With the room open and successfully operating his next goal was to promote Casino Europa in general but poker at Casino Europa in particular. We discussed the possibility of a poker tournament that would intrigue Americans to make the trip to Costa Rica. Our brain storming resulted in a Celebrity Poker Tournament with special guests, World Champions; Susie Isaacs, Tom McEvoy and Max and Maria Stern.

Susie, Tom and I boarded a flight to Costa Rica on August 3, and spent the next seven days playing tournaments, sight-seeing and just plain having fun while being treated like royalty. Casino Europa is a Las Vegas style casino surrounded by mountain views, beautiful foliage and friendly Costa Ricans. When we landed in Costa Rica that evening we were joined by another poker-loving friend, Darlene Wood, who had arrived earlier from Florida. We were met by Nick, his lovely wife Janine, and Jaime Alvarez, Nicks assistant.

Back to the poker competition. One of the most unique twists to this tournament is what they refer to as the honor system. Players sign up for the tournament and play begins without anyone actually paying to play. There is no real money exchange between the casino and players until the player either wins, places or is eliminated. At which time the player makes good on his buy-in and rebuys, by paying his "marker." (Back to old-style Las Vegas.) Sounds hard to believe, but it works. This says a lot for the honesty and integrity of the people of Costa Rica.

Now let me explain the impossible: how a $10.00 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament can be the greatest overlay in poker history. For your original buy-in of 3000 colones, or $10, you receive 30,000 colones. The exchange rate is approximately 300 colones to one U.S.dollar. All Casino Europa poker tournaments are played with colones while the live action games are played for U.S. Currency. The blinds start at 1,000-2,000, with 30 minutes levels and a multiple rebuy period lasting the first two hours. The beauty of this tournament is the structure of the rebuys; during the first level of play if you are under your original 30,000 colones you can take one or two rebuys, and the amount of rebuys you are allowed increases with each level until the final rebuy period at which time you are allowed a total of 12 rebuys. To make things a little more interesting and to promote more rebuys the casino gives you a free rebuy for every two you take. For example if you purchase all 12 rebuys you are given six free rebuys for a grand total of 18 rebuys. Each rebuy gives you 30,000 colones and if you multiply that by the maximum number of rebuys allowed at the end of the final rebuy, you can get 540,000 calones. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what a tremendous prize pool this kind of rebuy structure can create.

The three Celebrity Challenge tournaments held during our stay generated 61 to 81 players per tournament with prize pools from $12,203 to $14,748. The Susie Isaacs Challenge alone attracted over 80 players with a prize pool of $14,748 making it the largest poker tournament Casino Europa has had to date. Results of these three tournaments are located in the tournament section of Poker Pages.

Having been so successful, Casino Europa has invited the three of us back in October to do it a again and to add to the already successful turnout they have added two new Celebrities, T.J Cloutier and Linda Johnson. They are also having a tournament named after me which is quite an honor to be included in this cast of characters. The tournament will be held October 6-10, 2000 and will include four no-limit hold’em tournaments and one Omaha high-low. Along with custom made trophies for 1st place winners Casino Europa will award a Card Player Cruise for two.

Open play poker games begin in the afternoon and includes low-limit hold’em and Omaha high-low split. Every Thursday night at 8:00 PM, a popular and much bigger game of no-limit hold’em with a $1,000 buy-in is held. They also have $10 tournaments Sunday through Wednesday nights. Mention Debbie Burkhead or Susie Isaacs and you might get a few extra colones for your buy-in. Speak to Nick Gullo about a poker rate at the adjoining five star Radisson Hotel.

Hope to see you in Costa Rica.