I have added the Mohegan Sun “$20,000 Blazing Blackjack Tournaments” to the event calendar. These are a series of 8 weekly tournaments in July and August with a grand finale August 30, 2007. The entry is $100 and the prize pool of $20,000 each week is guaranteed, thus anything less than 200 players will be an overlay. First place is $10,000. The 36 semi-finalists each week receive entry to the end-of-season Final Tournament which has a guaranteed $75,000 prize pool. --jr
Entries The first one had 180. If you won the preliminary session you went straight to the semi final. There was no elimination round. They did say they were expecting more for the second week.
Mohegan Suns Blazing BJ Tournament - not so hot !! Mark and I played in this tournament this past Thursday night at Mohegan Sun. Because only ONE seat moves to the semi- finals from each initial table it turned out to be one of those free for alls where many players cowboy out of the gate with max bets and double from there, leaving lots of room for luck and not much for skill for the table. 6 players at a table, Start w/ 20K - min 100 bucks - max 10K , 20 hands. One player moves on to the semis... We both got knocked out of our initial rounds and re-bought just one time - no luck for us. Casino tournament rules were not enforced, lots of string betting, lots of audience participation ( to the point that the guy sitting next to me fan club were standing behind him and telling him exactly how much chips we had and how much to bet - and noone spoke to them). This reminded us of the Montreal tournaments - lots of all ins .. No room for skill play if the cowboys were lucky. Just becomes a game of catch up ... They drew a decent crowd and said they sold out each round - but there were several tables that did not have players at them. Would we do this one again?? Probably not - we did like the $59 rooms though that came as part of the pre registration package.. Mohegan has awesome hotel rooms ! Finished the trip off at Foxwoods where Mark fared much better at their BJ tables - one HOT shoe ! Me , not so well !! Cheers ! Elaine & Mark
Mohegan Sun BJ Summer BJ Tourney Have to preface my response. Last time visit to Mohegan was May 5.. had sugery and could not travel till late July.. Went july 26 and entered BJ tourney and finished 2nd w/ 67K in chips.. Tourney was OK with my last hand bet at 10K being on the button and a lead of $250 ..dealt A9..dealer showing an 8 and the last player showing K5. I stood and he doubled down and drew a 6 for 21..(grrrr). Came in 2nd but had a good time..wife talked me into going back on Aug. 2nd and I got knocked out due to cowgirl going all in from 1st hand..She caught in the 1st 5 hands 3 doubles and a BJ betting 10K each time..Played catchup till 6th hand.. As far as confusion during play, there was nothing to speak of.. As far a number of players, I believe there will be anywhere between 60 on the low side to a possibility of 144 on the high side, presuming 6 to a table with 3 rounds... The number could be higher based on the fact that when I arrived home on Aug. 3rd, I had a letter from Mohegan that I qualified for Aug.30 finals. This leads me to believe that since I placed 2nd in weekly prelims they will probably extend invite to weekly 2nd & 3rd place finishers in the weekly money finals also . Hope this info helped.
Mohegan Sun Blazing Blackjack Tournaments update I agree with KittyLiXX about the one-advance format. For me, that is the ONE big downside to this tournament. It appears the management was overly optimistic about the number of players who would participate. There are 12 tables available in the tournament pit and they set up the format for 4 first-round sessions yielding a maximum of 288 players. They have not come close to that expectation. The most they have filled was 9 tables in any one session. The attendance in each of the five weeks to date has been 180, 172, 173, 216 and 179. And btw, that includes 8 free-entry players each week who made the final leaderboard in the freeroll Win-A-Seat contest. As a result only 3 rounds have been played each week. The upside of that is if you do win your first table you are in the semis and also qualify for the end-of-promotion final tournament with the $75k prize pool, entirely funded by the casino. They will have 288 players for that one. If there are not 36 players in the weekly semis (and in 4 out of the 5 so far there have been only 30, with 6 tables of 5 players), the remaining 6 qualifiers are those non-advancing players with the highest first-round total. I have not seen rule violations to that extent. At every round I have played or observed, the tournament director has always announced that spectators are not to talk with the players. The written rules (available at registration or download from the web site) prohibit interaction between players and spectators and state “If a problem occurs during play, it is the participant’s responsibility to bring it to the attention of a Supervisor or above, immediately.” If no player spoke up, well, shame on them.:violin: --jr
Mohegan BJ tourney Aug 30 Jackaroo was right on the money..I originally ran a format on the number of players that would be seated at the final ( Aug 30 ) with the most logical format and came up with a high of 288 and a low about 180 participating.. I based the 288 on a reasonable assumption of 12 tables and yadayada, yadayada... but thought the 288 was way too high with the amount of participation in the early rounds and lowered it to about 160..Low and behold when I spoke to the Tourney person, she stated they will have 288 participants. I was also told that, if you are a participant you will receive a guest pass for one to accompany you.. There will be a hot and cold buffet also for all.. A REMINDER.. SOME MIGHT NOT SHOW UP.. IF YOU PLAYED AND GOT BUMPED.. THERE MIGHT BE A CHANCE OF YOU "SCOOTCHING" IN WITH YOUR DEMAND THAT THER ARE PARTICIPANTS MISSING AND YOU COULD POSSIBLY BE THE NEXT HIGH AMOUNT PERSON PRESENT TO BE AWARDED A SEAT.. NEVER KNOW.. To Kittylixx ... Mohegan does do things right for their guests..Place is impeccable all the time ..Rooms are always top shelf w/excellent service.. Me and Mrs. never got stiffed there.. ....... Big KUDOS to Jackeroo...
MoheganSun Aug. 30 finals Before I get into update, I'd like make mention and thanks to all that posted messages.. I'm a newbie to BJ tourneys since July when I walked into Mohegan and played for the 1st time in a tourney. Got home and started to research on tourneys and got gobs of info from this site; articles by K. Smith, purchased Wong's book and program, other info from the LV Advisor and fingered through BJ Bluprint by R. Blaine. I studied and crammed for the finals and was well prepared. The most important thing I learned was that "LUCK" does play a part but having the understanding and some skill that will counteract the luck factor, for the most part, as long as you are patient in a tourney. The tourney format was 20k chips,min bet 100, max 10k, ns 10's, BJ 3 to 2 only, surrender OK, 20 hands with only high chip count advancing. I sized up competition, which consisted of 3 ladies in their late 60's, one young guy, me and a 69 yr old sly old goat. I sat 2nd and bet behind the sly one who started out with a min bet. Me and him bet 14 minimum bets in a row. The 3 women had no conception of basic strategy and were betting crazy. By the 15th hand my old sly fox to my right bet 5K and I matched.. He drew a BJ and I pushed..16th hand he bets 10K and I match him..He draws another BJ and I lose.. 17th hand he bets 5K and I max bet the 10K. The sly one draws another BJ and I push !!! 18th hand I bet 10K and he bets minimum and I doubled down w/16. 19th hand I tapped out and he won.. I was disappointed but was thrilled for the sly fox because I would have jumped out of a window if one of the three won... I don't know how they qualified in the 1st place coupled with the fact they all knew each other. After the 1st round I went to him and wished him and we had a nice talk about the round..One thing he said to me was that he was only concerned about me, because I played flawless Basic strategy and I followed him for 14 hands..As he went to his next round he said to me, "I just got lucky and God willing, I'll see you next year." I smiled and we went our ways. Thanks for all the help, Frank656
Frank656, I like the story. Not the end result of your tournament, but the story was good. You learned a hard lesson - correlation does not always work. I've been eliminated many times due to correlation. It seems like when I have the lead and I correlate with BR2 or BR3 to maintain my lead, I get swung over and over again. Not saying correlation is bad, it's just that when it doesn't work it often turns into a disaster. Anyway, sounds like you're hooked. Looking forward to hearing about your further adventures in the world of Blackjack Tournaments.
Northeast Coast Tourneys ?? Toolman, Thanks for the note.. I kept my game KISS and had fun.. Food was good, open bar and all the staff were helpful and smiley. Wifey and daughter had a great time with the eats and bar. Can't say enough about Mohegan and how they do things right, ALL THE TIME !!...... The only drawback is that there are no open entry live tourneys in the Northeast to speak of. We live in NE PA and drive 41/2 hrs. to Mohegan about once or twice a month. I dislike Atl City due to single deck BJ, no surrender & and I think it was 6 to 5 on a BJ, (wasn't sure on BJ payoff cause I could not read small print and walked away) place was like a cattle auction at the open tables, standing 3 deep which felt like .."Take a number at the specialty deli, butcher shop or fish market on a holiday weekend". There were also many closed tables and people were asking pit supervisor when the next table would open and people would be sitting at a table in anticipation for the dealer to arrive. Ridiculous to say the least. We stayed one nite earlier this year on a comp and found black mold around the tub when we went to our room. Called front desk about it and was told it was caused by the ocean salty mist... I'll either be at Mohegan or on Bet.21.. hope to see some open tourneys on the east coast soon.
