Callin' Costa Rica

Usually the best way to reach me is by dialing my US phone number:

(720) 224-9730

I have it set to forward to me wherever I am in the world. But I thought I'd also let you all know our new phone numbers in Costa Rica in case you want to call us direct there:

Costa Rica
Home: +506 282-4985
Scott's Cell: +506 862-7000
Kerri's Cell: +506 872-7000

From the US, just dial "011" to get an international line, then the numbers above. And of course, our US numbers stay the same:

United States
Scott's Cell: +1 720-470-9890
Kerri's Cell: +1 720-470-4743

I've also included this information in the navigation bar on the right so it is always accessible.

Miami Heat Game

Kerri and I just got back to Denver from Costa Rica. On the way back, we swung through Miami. Now, normally our flights into the US would go through Miami anyways, but this time we had a special reason. Paradise Poker is a sponsor of the Miami Heat and we had to represent the company at a Suite Night for the players of Paradise Poker.

We had a Sky Box for the event for the Paradise Poker players, but also had 4 seats down on the floor which we took turns sitting in which put us right down on the action. To give you a sense for how nice the Heat staff was in getting us good seats, we didn't zoom the camera at all for this photo of Shaq.

At halftime, our great reps from the Miami Heat gave us a tour of the stadium, including the Heat locker room. Well, "locker room" isn't the right word. "Gentlemen's Club" is more like it! There was a fitness center the size of a 24-Hour Fitness, a lounge with pool tables and big screen TVs, a training room that looked like something out of Rocky IV (the one with Ivan Drago), and the locker room itself was all dark wood, huge spaces for the players, and big screen TVs on the wall to watch game footage.

We were in the locker room during half time just after the team went back out onto the floor to warm up for the second half so we snuck a pic with Shaq's shoe from the first half! At a size of 22, his shoe was a tad bigger than Kerri's.



I even got a picture of Mike Dunleavy in front of the Paradise Poker signage. Dunleavy went to my high school, led the team to a State Championship, went on to Duke, won the 2001 National Championship, and now plays for the Golden State Warriors. I don't know him though, and he certainly doesn't know me.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast/lunch at Jerry's Famous Deli on Collins Avenue in South Beach which--based on the proof of this photo--has the world's largest menu. For those of you that grew up in the 80s, Collins Avenue is also the same "A1A, Beachfront Avenue" referenced in an ever so popular Vanilla Ice song.

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Wish at "The Hotel" before meeting up with some friends for drinks. No relation to "The Hotel" in Vegas. But Kerri did have a drink that glowed like a neon sign in Vegas. Seriously.

Costa Rica Livin'

Great news! Kerri and I have found a house in Costa Rica. It took Kerri just two days with the help of our awesome real estate agent Juan Pablo to find this place. It's a house in a complex of 4 other houses in Santa Ana, which is a suburb outside of San Jose and near where we are building our new office for Paradise Poker.

We officially move-in this Monday, but we won't be moving our stuff down to Costa Rica until the beginning of April and even then it will take 4-6 weeks to get there. But from June on, you are all welcome to come visit us! We've got a great guest bedroom and always have an open invitation for anyone that wants to come check out Costa Rica.

But don't try to send us mail because it won't get to us. Costa Rica doesn't really have a mail system like the US. In fact, they don't even really have street names and home addresses. This is our address!

Santa Ana, de Forum 1 kilómetro Oeste, Urbanización Rio Oro, Caseta de guarda 3 cuadras largas al norte y cuatro cuadras oeste, Condominio Villas del Roble

Jaco (Pronounced "Hako")

Kerri and I have just returned to Santa Ana from our first weekend trip to Jaco, Costa Rica (near Punta Renas and Manuel Antonio). I was interviewing a few candidates for Paradise Poker and we brought them down to Costa Rica to interview and show them the country.

We stayed the first night at the White House, a boutique hotel up in the hills of Escazu and owned by an American here in Costa Rica. Yes, it really does look like the White House. Kerri and I stayed in the Grover Cleveland room. No, I can't tell you anything Grover Cleveland did during his presidency.

After a night at the White House, we hit the road for the 2-hour drive to the beach in our rented Toyota 4Runner. The road to Jaco is a curvy one, but it's not the curves that will get you. It's the cows. This Tico was kind enough to yield the road to us.


We spent Friday night at the Los Suenos resort in Jaco, had an amazing dinner at the restaurant Nuevo Latino, and then played poker into the wee hours of the morning. The next day, we lounged by the pool and in the hammocks by the beach.

On the way back, we saw an interesting sign...



And then we realized what the sign meant when we looked over the side of the road and saw this!

World Poker Tour Shooting Stars

You never think your first live poker tournament is going to be a $10,000 buy-in.

Kerri and I flew to San Jose for the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Shooting Stars event at the Bay 101. Paradise Poker had sent 108 players to the event through satellites and super-satellites online so we were there to represent the company.

The format of the Shooting Stars event is a bit unique. One "star" is assigned to every table. The player that eliminates each star gets $5,000 so each star ends up with a "bounty" on their head the length of the tournament.

All of the stars were out in force, both poker and Hollywood:

• Phil Ivey
  
• Doyle Brunson
  
• Phil Hellmuth
  
• James Woods
  
• Jennifer Tilly
  
• Shannon Elizabeth
  
• Phil Laak
  
• Mike Matusow
  
• TJ Cloutier
  
• Chip Reese
  
• John Juanda
  
• Layne Flack
  
• Eric Seidel
  
• Allen Cunningham
  
• David Williams

On the second day of the tournament, two players from Paradise didn't show up. Rather than let the seats go empty...

...I got the call to play.

The "star" at my table was Gavin Smith who has won multiple World Poker Tour events and over $2,000,000 in career winnings. I played very tight for about 3 hours, pretty much only entering pots where I had AAs, KKs, QQs, or AK/AQ suited. I won a couple of hands--just enough to keep from getting blinded away. Eventually a few of us at the table started to get short-stacked and started looking for a solid hand to push on pre-flop.

I looked down and saw AAs. Since everyone at the table knew I was playing tight having watched me play for the last 3 hours, I limped. I hit the jackpot when Kristy Gazes went all-in. I called, she flipped over her AK suited, and I flipped over my AAs a bit half-heartedly (considering that it was my first live tournament and she has won tournaments and over $350,000 in lifetime winnings). No Ks or diamonds hit the board and I doubled up to $5,000.

A few hands later, I got lucky going all-in with AQ only to see the other guy flip over AK (seriously dominated) when a Q hit on the flop. So then I was back up to around $10,000 (where I started) and probably not too far off the tournament average at that point. And then I played stupid. Got too pot-committed on an A-high spade flush draw, called an all-in after the flop, only to see runner-runner red. I thanked my table and made my way for the rail, 150th or so out of 600, my first WPT event behind me.

My Favorite Moments from the Tournament

• I sat down at the table about an hour late and my seat happened to be right next to Gavin Smith. He offered me a "last longer" bonus for our watches (e.g. whomever lasts longer in the tournament gets the others' watch), but I quickly turned him down considering that my watch was a wedding gift from Kerri. Oh, it had nothing to do at all with the fact that he is 100 times better than me.
  
  
• I'm sitting at the table and someone I don't recognize walks up to the table. He looks at Gavin Smith and says, "Gavin, do you want this now?" and reaches into his pocket and pulls out $30,000. IN CASH. Poker players...
  
  
• Though I didn't make it far in the tournament of even close to cashing (Top 45), I did knock out three other players!
  
  
• Sitting in the bar having lunch at the table next to Nam Lee--who went on to win the whole tournament.