Here's a new online blackjack tournament I just learned about.. It's at an online casino and sportsbook called BetCom. Entry Fee: $50. 50 hands, betting $5 to $1000, with a bankroll of $1000. Multiple Entries allowed. The format is accumulation, with the top 6 scores on each of the two qualifying days going into the final round. There's a leaderboard so you can check your progress. The two qualifying days run like this: (All times Eastern) Friday Nov 26th 10 PM - Saturday Nov 27th 10 PM. Saturday Nov 27th 11 PM - Sunday Nov 28th 11 PM. Those twelve players plus 3 wild-cards play in the playoff round on Tuesday Nov 30th, 8 AM to 11:59 PM. The nice part: Prizes look excellent: 1st = $5000 / 2nd = $2500 / 3rd = $1250 / 4th = $750 / 5th = $500 6th - 15th place get a free $100 NBA Finals proposition bet. Access to more details, and the leaderboard is available at their site. Click here: BetCom
Ev Thanks for letting us know about this opportunity Ken. I read the info on their website, but I didn't see any indication of how many players were expected. Since it sounds like the prize money is guaranteed, if there is less than 200 players, there should be an overlay (unless I misunderstood the promotion). I am guessing there is no way of knowing how many will play?
Question about the Leaderboard I was checking out this tournament but the only leaderboard that I can see (before signing up) is one that lists only names and no scores. Will I be able to see the scores to beat while I am participating? Thanks. GF
Doesn't look like you can see scores When I looked at the tournament yesterday, I saw the empty leaderboard and assumed they would post both name and score. But, as you note today, only names are listed. That makes this a lot riskier venture for players, having to guess where the cutoff is. I'll probably still sign up and try it in the early evening, but without knowing either scores or number of participants, I'm not nearly as interested as I was before. If they happen to display scores after you've signed up, I'll let you know here. But I don't expect that to be the case.
New to Online tourneys Is it usual to see the score posted? I haven't entered a BJ tourney before online....
Leaderboard scores added Yes, thanks for the heads up. The scores are now posted, not just the names. Guess I'll give it a try!
Leaderboard & Site Evaluation Obviously this is their first attempt at a tournament. I found the account establishment, sign up, & log in very difficult even though a casino host very kindly phoned me several times after establishing an account. I found navigating to the tournament site a multiple step process that should be simplified. I have a cable connection and found the site to be very slow in the playing process. I was even disconnected once & told to check my cable connection. There was nothing wrong with my connection but I had to go completely through the acces process again. Also, I found their graphics quite poor compared to many other sites. The layout is poor & the screen cannot be moved to make the bottom figures more readable. Nor can one tell how many chips are in play without looking at the bottom of the screen. And the hand status figures displayed with both player & dealer are very small. I have just finished playing & am listed as third on the leaderboard but I have not seen where actual scores are posted. Any direction pointing me there will be appreciated.
Hand count remaining Please note that their rules count a split hand as two hands. I do not know when the deduction is made to the remaining hand count. But when I was getting down to the last two hands remaining, I received a notice that I had played all 50 hands, even though the screen had shown 2 hands remaining, & then went to zero. This was a real surprise.
Hope this helps-link to main page I have not played yet and may wait until tomorrow although I did make my first deposit. Here is a link to the main page where the leaderboard is listed: http://www.betcom.com/com_login.asp Since I don't seem to be able to make it "link" - you can use Ken's link below and click on the 10K BJ Tournament area, this will bring you to the leaderboard (you may have to scroll down to display it)
I'm in the finals Well, unless something extraordinary happens during the 1 hour of grace time after the official cutoff, I've advanced to the finals in this event. I'm in second place at the moment, with a total of $5840. I did have to enter three times to accomplish that, so my cash outlay is $150. But, since a seat in the finals is worth more than $700 on average, that's not too bad. I did notice that the login screen leaderboard shows all top players, whether they've finished their 50 hands or not. The leaderboard displayed inside the casino where you click to begin play shows the 6 highest players who have played all 50 hands. A useful distinction to know.
I got lucky Congratulations Ken on being 2nd. I am fourth on the first try. I was down to $250 & just played wildly to rebuild to $5750. As you have heard so many times, it is better to be lucky than good. We shall see what Tuesday brings.
..I wish i would have played today..no competition qualified yest. but there is no competiton today.....low scores...
Competition Just wait, there is still 6 hours to go. And it is not to late for you to enter today for another $50. Maybe with the present $1600 sixth place cutoff it would be a good investment.
Money on the table I qualified with $5750 but it surely did not carry over today. The first 10-12 hands were really good when the small bets were out there. I had a coupke of BJ"s & some doubles to get up to about $1700. But then things just as bad as they had been good. Nothing worked & about hand 36 I became a zero. If anyone has not played yet, be careful when depending on the hands remaining counter. It lags far behind the hands that have been played. I experienced this in the prelims & decided to use a counter during the play process. I found their remaining hands to be inaccurate. They stated that splits counted as two hands but did not state anything with regard to pushes.
It's been so long ago that I don't even remember what place I ended up in for this event, but I do know that I won an NBA Finals prop bet of $100. I picked the San Antonio Spurs at the awfully low-sounding odds of 3 to 1. Well, thanks Spurs for the extra $300 this week!
