An area casino is having a weekly tournament on Mondays from 2/28 thru 3/28. They pay $5,000 for first place down to $250 for 7th place. Setup: 6 decks. Play up to 4 hands via splits. Double on any 2 cards except BJ. Double after split. Dealer hits soft 17. Don't know about Surrender, some of their tables allow it, some don't in normal blackjack. $500 bankroll, Minium $25 bet, no maximum. No Charge. Qualifying rounds run from 4:00 to 6:30. You can only enter once and must be a Classic card holder or higher. That would keep people that don't frequent the casino out. Qualifying round is 14 hands for 7 people. Each round you are given a 2X payout coupon which can be used on the hand of your choice. Whether you win, lose or push, the 2X payout coupon is collected by the dealer after use. Top 140 money winners from qualifying move to round 2. List posted at 7:00 with round 2 at 7:30 and 8:15. Round 2 is 14 hands. Top 40 money winners plus 9 wild card move to round 3. Wild card winners are announced at 9:00 with 14 hands shortly therafter. Winners at each table move to the finals at 10:00 for 21 hands. So, my question is what would be the betting strategy in the qualifying round. I don't know how many people they would get in the qualifying round which makes it a little tougher I would think to get an idea of how much money you need. I have thought of a couple strategies 1) Bet it all on the first hand plus the 2X payout coupon. If you win you should be in good shape to move to round 2 betting minimum the rest of the ay. If you push all you lose is the 2X payout coupon. If you bust you go home. 2) Bet $250 on the first hand plus the 2X coupon. This allows you to split or double if warranted but should get you to the second hand. Probably have to bet more than minimum after this but if you win you'll double your money which should set you up good. 3) Bet $25 every hand. The worst you would be is left with $150 if you lose every hand. Probably not good enough to advance. 4) Some middle of the road strategy. I'm not sure I can make it since it's on a Monday but if I do, I'd like to have my strategy in mind before I go.
Go last If you can get your chance last you will know what you have to do. If the totals are low you know you don't have to come out firing big bet's and if the totals are high just the oppisite. I guess since you just show your card to get in you shouldn't have a problem waiting till later to play.
maybe this'll help... hey mrbill, there have in the past been several threads regarding accumulation format strategy. if you search "accumulation" you'll access all of them, or you can just look up the "strategy question for bally's blackjack getaway" thread started by bj hilo (january 10th). good luck to you! -k
