Most casino websites give little or no rules. This is the first time Horseshoe-Southern Indiana is running a tournament of this size. Their normal rules for past tournaments include: 6 deck shoe BJ pays 2 to 1 2 advance per table. Reading "between the lines", it looks like this tournament will also be 2 advance per table. I'm sure that they will not state in the rules that historically, this casino operates one of the worst run tournaments you will ever attend. Nothing runs on time and the quality of the dealers varies widely. They may or may not enforce the rules depending on their like or dis-like for a given player. Most players with any level of player's card will probably be able to get a room for Friday and Saturday (or Saturday and Sunday) at less than $529 (Saturday alone is $299). I got mine comped with limited historical play at that casino. As an alternative, one only needs a room for Saturday night if the drive home isn't too long i.e. less than 12.5 hours . This casino runs their tournaments primarily for the locals who do not require a room. There are no package deals - tournament & rooms - each is separate.
I originally signed up for this event but canceled because of impending weather. When I called to cancel I asked how many signed up for the tournament and was told "I can't give out that kind of information". Gee, I didn't know I was asking for rocket science secrets. I'm hoping the turn out was good so they have this event in the future. This is probably the biggest prize ever offered in this area. So I was wondering if someone who attended this tournament can tell me how many players were there? Also, did any BJT members do any good?
Report on $100,000 Horseshoe-Southern Indiana Tournament Hi Toolman - The tournament had more than 400 entrants. At least half of them were comped or partially comped. I met a few locals, but didn't meet up with any regulars from this site. It wasn't quite as badly run as you had led me to expect. Nothing like the old days at Majestic Star. All of the rounds were 15 hands. Each player began each round with $1,000 in house chips. Minimum bet $25, no maximum. There were six sessions of round 1 on Saturday, seven players at a table with three advancing (It only took me three trys with the $100 re-buy). Round two began at noon Sunday - seven players at a table with two advancing (not me). Semi-finals followed with one advancing from each of seven tables. They drew six wild cards for this round. Finals paid 50,000, 20,000, 10,000 and down to 1,500 for seventh. Semi-finalists who didn't advance received 250. If I had known about the small number of hands per round and the no-limit betting, I wouldn't have made the trip and paid the $500. Almost every round that I watched ended with kamikaze-type all-in play with wild results.
Thanks for the update, Jonny21. Sorry you didn't do better but the 2:1 for BJs and no max bet does throw a greater luck factor into the mix. A couple of years back at one of their tournaments, starting with a bankroll of 1,000, another guy and I ran our bankrolls up to around 35,000. I squeezed out a win (won by about 2,000) on that table to advance to the finals. One comment I heard from the peanut gallery is that they never saw bankrolls that large for that casino's tournaments. From your description, it sounds like they pulled in at least $100,000 from entry fees and re-buys. That's good news because it will encourage them to have this tournament again. Having a lot of comped entries is normal for this casino. But that's not so bad since it brings in a lot of inexperienced tournament players. Those players will also give a lot of side action which is what the casino wants. PS: I'll update the Calendar listing for this event (bankrolls, min bet, etc.) so we'll have a historical reference for future events there.
more on the Horseshoe-So. Indiana Thanks for reminding me, the 2 for 1 on blackjacks does make it even more wild. At my table in round 2, on the 14th hand there were six of us left, all making big bets. Four players got blackjacks, one got a 20 and I got a 14, which I busted on. I was surprised at how packed the place was. There are high table minimums (a couple $15, the rest $25 or higher). They even have a section like a bar where you stand to play blackjack. The regular blackjack game is very bad, eight decks, with about two cut off, hit soft 17, no re-splitting of aces.
The area you describe is probably the worst place to play in the casino. The bar area (stand while you play) is meant for young ploppies who are there to party. Their high limit room (on deck 4) has decent but not great games. However, during busy times the minimum bet is $50 but during off times games can be had for $25.
