I have talked to a few players that played at the Gold Strike last week, but no word on who the finalist were. I heard the format wasn't much of a hit, but that was all.
Tami Sturgeon made the finals and finished 5th. I haven't heard any other names. The event was generally regarded as a good deal, though several players stated they didn't care for the reverse-hybrid format.
Springbac made the final table but busted out early. I lost the first round then re-bought and lost again. Both times the victim of PROSPERING PLOPPIES. What was interesting for me was I was BR1 with near a max bet lead over BR2 when there were about 5 or 6 hands left. Considering my lead, BR2 kept betting minimum which struck me as odd to say the least. I was later told that BR2 (MR. X) was a seasoned player. On each of the last 3 hands he was betting before me and was on the button on the last hand. He still bet minimum on the 3rd and 2nd to last hand. From this action, I suspected that he was palming 1 or 2 large chips so I was keeping a close eye at the time. Anyway, BR3 made a miraculous comeback that made watching MR. X worthless and I concentrated on doubling up max bets to challenge the new leader. In the process I lost track of MR. X so I never did see if he was palming the chips as I suspected. In retrospect, I should have kept an eye on MR. X to see if I was right. They only had about 170 to 180 players which I thought was disappointing considering it only cost $50 and that included a room - but maybe they didn't consider it low. I think the turnout could have been better if it was not held on a Monday and if it was opened from the beginning instead of by invitation when signing up first started. On the whole, the tournament was well run with a couple of minor problems. After the countdown the floor person did not give out the the scores unless you asked. Also, the dealers could have used some more training - on one table in particular the dealer was not turning over the hand count markers so that table played a lot more than the 25 hands planned. As was mentioned, the format needed some improvement: Round 1: 1 advance per table Round 2: Accumulation - 32(?) out of 48 advance Round 3: Accumulation - 5 out of 32(?) advance Round 4: 1 wild card drawn for final table. Many BJT members there and I had a good time in spite of losing the tournament and the fact that the dealers, live and tournament, were stone faced.
The low turnout was'nt because of Monday. It was because of the way they acted. I tried to get in i was told i did'nt have enough points. 3 weeks ago i played 6 strait hrs there. They need to decide up front if its going to be invatational or not and stick to it.
Good Tournament Well, the format was interesting. The tournament was run well with very little flaws in exectution. I didnt know anyone except Springbac on the final table. I did see many BJT.comers there, and was able to meet several of them. It was my pleasure to meet new BJTers, and I hope I get the option to play against them again.
Dynomike1, If you don't mind me asking, what was your average bet for the 6 hours you played? Don't know from your post if you got in or not but TXtourplayer made a post 10 days before the tournament that one can get into the tournament without an invite by following his instructions. Click on the following link for his post: http://www.blackjacktournaments.com/bb/showpost.php?p=24469&postcount=12
