The free blackjack tournament that the Las Vegas Hilton was promoting for any player that received a suited blackjack is not so free. They sprung on the players at the last moment a 100 fee to any player that wanted to receive a free ace at a predetermined time in the tournament and the ability to turn in one card of your 2 card hand if you wanted to. Now since everyone should take this option if they are going to play the tournament the free tournament just turned into the players putting up almost all of the prize money .How sneaky can they get. Now unless they are returning all the players money this is not so free of a tournament and a bad public relations move by the Hilton. Joep2
Agreed. This looks like a classic "bait and switch". Shame on you at the Hilton. You should know better.
MMmmmmm.... Can you say "GAMING CONTROL"....LOL. Seems like rules couldn't be changed at the last moment like that. I know Atl. City, states of LA, MS, & OK, all rules have to be submitted to the State police or Gaming control for approval proir to the event. Seems like Neveda would have a simular rule and if so it seems that any and all rules should have been posted proir to the event.
Call The Robbery Squad Its not as bad as first thought It's Worse The extra money that the Hilton is asking the players to pony up is not just a one time fee. Its called a " MULLIGAN " where you as a player can change one of your cards in your hand or get a new double down card if you do not like your first one. This option is available to all players every round for an additional 100 dollars and if you are playing in this tournament it's an option you can not afford to miss. If other players have it you should also. So they literally have you over a barrel if you are playing to win. Now this is something that should create a Griffin flyer because this is highway robbery at it's best So lets take a look at the numbers last night they had close to 900 players who showed up for the tournament. There is still a late registration Tuesday morning for the rest of the players who did not show last night for this "FAKE" free tournament. Over 1,000 players have qualified for this tournament but lets just go on the 900 number If all players buy the first round "MULLIGAN" that's 90,000 that the casino has collected . 900X100 = 90,000 The first round of 900 players will consist of 150 tables of 6 which 2 will advance which makes the second round 300 players not including the wild cards that get drawn back into the tournament .So now 300 X 100 = 30,000 Next round 100 players will be in round 3 100 X 100 = 10,000 Do I need to go any further the casino has already has the capability to have collected 130,000 in " MULLIGAN " money before the 4th rounds begins.This tournament is most likely to be a 6 round tournament with theses many players. Lets not lose sight that in order to play in this tournament you needed to have received a suited blackjack for you " FREE " entry. The minimum amount of time that it should take you to receive a suited blackjack is 84 hands. How much money did the Hilton rake in with over 1000 of the players playing for what they thought was a free shot at 100,000 in prize's. How about the players that tried and never received a suited blackjack. For a casino to take in at least 130,000 and most likely way more and call it a ' FREE " tournament is criminal. Most of us agree that casino are justified to make at least 10% off tournaments that players can just buy their way into without any prior rated play on tables or slots .But this tournament had a playing requirment to gain entry into it. Some players were told they could enter a guest also so as you can see the Hilton wanted as many players as possible in this tournament.Just in case a couple of the players passed on the "MULLIGAN " fees. Joep2
What are they thinking??? This can turn into a major public relations problem on the part of the Hilton in return for a one time windfall. They have another tournament coming up in Nov., 2006 with the same "suited BJ" requirement to qualify. I would guess that most who are now playing in this event (May, 2006) had plans to try again in Nov., 2006. Now with this "switch-a-roo", many of those will not bother with the Nov., 2006 event. Also, many will now "swear off" ever playing in the Hilton again in their live games. Shame on the Hilton. They should heed the saying "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." NOBODY likes to be played for a fool. Now I have a question. For the $100 are you buying 2 options or 1? What I mean is: Can you get an Ace whenever you want and do the switch or can you just do one or the other but not both?
From the rules sheet Two seperate entries on the rules sheet 29. MULLIGAN RULE: All players will have the opportunity to purchase in advance, a "mulligan" for $100. The player must purchase the $100 mulligan before any action takes place at the table for that session. A mulligan is when a player chooses to discard any one card during the session. You may only mulligan your chosen card ONCE during any session. A mulligan can only be played during your turn. 30. AUTOMATIC ACE RULE- At the beginning of each session, a number will be drawn. The number drawn determines which hand each player in that session will receive an automatic ace. Chips
A question for you guys that are participating: Are the players complaining about this? I would hope so. Man, I'm glad I decided against coming out for that one.
Maybe my back saved me...LOL I've been sick thinking I missed out on this event, now it sounds like I maybe glad my back keep me from making it out to play. Anyway good luck to all of you playing the LVH (Semi-Free) tournament this week...LOL.
Some bad info Joep2 Not sure of your source Joep2 re having to buy a "$100 mulligan" for every round if you wanted it, but you only paid the $100 once and that gave you the option to "mulligan" once in every round you played. Also, everyone in the round got a free first card ace on the same numbered hand. Round 1 Session 1 was hand 15 (out of 24). Chips
Not that bad then... I still would have like to known prior to the event about the $100 fee for swithing cards, but it is open for everybody so no real harm here. The big question is what is going to be done with the extra income? As much as I hate for a casino not to put 100% of the extra fee's back into the prize fund, I understand it is their business and bottom line is it is their money. Now if Joep's earlier post from a few months back are true and the LVH is wanting tournament players out off their events, this is a good way to piss a lot of them off if they don't add at least some of the extra added funds from these fee's back into the prize pool.
The Story Behind The Story The regular tournament players for the most part are the ones that saw this option and realized the huge downside to it. So this may be an attempt by the Hilton to just piss off the tournament junkies into never playing another Hilton event. They do not like us there and its very evident. How much is Jimmy Wike missed now. He would never pull a stunt like this. This has been said before their new casino manager is and always will be a small time/small club grind joint suit. He is not capable of running a real Las Vegas casino the proper way. In a side note his employees who cant say this out loud whisper it and its a well known fact .He has no ones respect. In a question and answer period at the rules meeting a player asked where the MULLIGAN money was going. The whole room broke out in laughter. No one had the nerve to ask but one player did and I give her credit .She was given the answer that the prize money is the same. She the repeated the question again and again the answer was the prize money will remain the same .So if anyone is wondering where it went it went to pay for this FREE tournament and then leave the Hilton with a huge payday. Joep2
No Real Harm??? I disagree. Granted that $100 is not a huge amount for most players, the point is that unexpected rule changes are turning this otherwise good tournament into a crap shoot. Although one is not forced to pay the $100 for a tournament that was advertised as free, one must pay the $100 in order to maintain a level playing field. I would suspect that only the totally inexperienced would opt not to pay since being able to discard one card per round, at will, makes for a huge advantage (over those who don't pay) if handled properly. The 2 rule changes, MULLIGAN and "an Ace for everyone" (you even know when you'll get the ace), turns this tournament into a circus - a "carnival game" if you will. I have to admit that I thought Joep2's opinion of the Hilton was out of spite but I'm beginning to think he may be on to something.
I'm confused? I am not a big fan of the $100 fee for a Mulligan and the guaranteed Ace, but just stop and think about this, what BJ games do they sound like? WSOB and the UBT! They are trying new gimmicks; remember the WSOB was just played there a few months ago and they had a similar twisted for the Mulligan, a Burger King power chip or something like that, (you'll see soon on the WSOB). Granted you didn't have to pay a $100 for it on the show, but my point is just a few months ago all of us players wanted to get on the WSOB. It didn't matter that they had new gimmicks and twists for TV, so what is the big deal now? (Other than the $100 fee). Do I like the gimmicks no, not really, but does this mean that later this year or next year I won't try to qualify for the UBT or WSOB? No, not at all. The prize money is to high for any of us not to try. Were talking amounts that can make a difference in our life style. This reminds me of the old joke: Old man goes up to attractive younger woman and ask if she would go to bed with him for a million dollars. The lady answers yes, so the old man then ask if she would go to bed with him for a dollar, she yells at him "What do you think I am"! The old man replies we have distinguished that now I am just negotiating the price...LOL My point is several of us are spoiled and or tournament whores…LOL. Listen to us bitching about the some of the same rules just a few months ago we were begging to play. Granted $50,000 for first is not the same as the $500,000 first the WSOB offered but there in lies the comparison with the above joke.
My three cents! Lol. Very funny Big Tex. This reminds me a lot about BJ tournament afficiendos who complain on this site about being excluded from tournament invitationals, unless of course they are invited by UBT and /or WSOB.:joker: :joker: :joker: Our principles are always accommodated by our own self-interest. I don't claim to be an exception.
Follow-up An informal poll of some "select" tournament players had a range of the percentage of participants that bought the $100 Mulligan between 35 and 85 with both the mean and the mode below the arithmetic average of the highest and lowest estimates. LVH tournament staff were asked and said "no more than 40% (with confidence). There was a significant percentage of players that did not know how to use either one. A number of players did not buy the Mulligan for the first round, but did in subsequent rounds. All participants at this event get an automatic invite to their upcoming 3 Card Poker, Craps or Pai Gow 100K tournaments, but not their NOV Blackjack Tournament (you will still need to qualify with a suited blackjack with a minimum $10 wager). It is likley that the NOV Blackjack Tournament will include the Free Ace and Mulligan options as the LVH viewed this tournament format as very successful. It is unlikley that their smaller (one coming up in JUN) blackjack tournaments will include either option. Chips
My Opinion I say that a lot of players will not try to qualify for this tournament again based upon the last minute rule change that was added this time . Why not just invite 1000 players and have them put up 100 dollars and give that away as the prize money.Now that would be fair. Plus you will have 1000 players in their casino on a Tues. and Wed. that otherwise wouldn't be there . Whats the chance of that happening ? This was seen leaving the casino manager office at the Hilton Joep2
November Entries Oh, I think you might be wrong again. There has been such a huge rush for November entries at the tables that the pits ran out of entry forms for a couple of hours. Regardless, it's just a game, it's just gambling. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. And the casino will always make money one way or another.
It seems like Nevada is the only place other than self-regulated Indian casinos that can change the rules right before the start or even midstream. Does the gaming commission just let them do as they wish?
