How about Austria?

European Blackjack Championship 2006

Ken,

I managed to find the details of this tournament via an old Email link from a former German Global Player named Sunshine (remember her and Selecti)?

www.casinos.at/default.aspx?muid

Click on English, Tournaments and the Austrian city is Linz.

Have a look guys and tell us what you think.

Andy.

 

Cheers Andy. And Ken of course

You know, this might just be do-able for me. It's £160 or $300 entry so all I have to do is get my money out of Global and I'm off!!!

Here's what I cut&pasted form the site:

European Black Jack Championship 2006
26.11.2006 13:00 - Linz
On 26 November the 2nd European Black Jack Champion will be determined from 140 participants at Casino Linz. The prize pool of this tournament weekend is € 63,000.

If you are interested in this exciting event, you can either obtain a tournament ticket directly (€ 240 each) or enjoy the exciting atmosphere with a “Kiebitz” ticket (€ 30 each) including the sparkling wine reception, oyster bar, gala buffet and beverages.


Casino Linz Promotion
Tel. +43/732/65 44 87
Fax +43/732/65 44 87 - 17222
linz@casinos.at

Something doesn't quite add up though. With 140 competitors paying 260 each the prize pool should be around 37,000. The casino would have to add in over 26000 to bring it up to the advertised prize fund. What am I missing?

Cheers

Reachy

 

European finalist

One of the German players (Tina) on this years tournament cruise made the final table for the European BJ championships, I believe she was 2nd or 3rd last year.

She was a VERY good player and very nice. Actually all three German players were very nice and good players, Klas (sirklas), Tina, and her boy friend Bernd.

Best wishes to any and all of them that plays in this years European Championships.

 

Yes, I remember us. We are still alive, but still drifting towards poker - a game where the luck factor is not sooo high. Nevertheless, we will play in Linz of course.

The complete link to the English championship site is http://www.casinos.at/content.aspx?muid=8874119a-5d5c-4800-a067-30475eef7d67

However, the English site doesn't tell the most important thing: The tourney is completely sold out! There is only one satellite left on 11/25/06, with €220 entry for up to 70 players which plays out the last 14 remaining tickets. With a ticket value of €240, that satellite is clearly very very -EV.

 

Bugger!

Have to wait until Paris then!

Careful what you say about luck in TBJ though, it could all kick off again!!

Cheers

Reachy

PS. Poker is boring!!

 

Easy to answer: You are missing the rebuy and add-on (hidden in the "tournament rules"). A €100 rebuy can be taken up to hand 18 (from 25) in the first round, no matter how many chips you have. €30 add-on up to round 21. As nearly everybody takes rebuy and add-on (I've been there last year), as a matter of fact the entry fee adds up to €240+100+30=370.
If you don't qualify in the 1st round, you even need €100 more to enter the consolation round.

However, there is some sidegame equity at stake: Last year some of the tables opened up for cash game as soon as round 2 was over. They continued dealing out of a shoe (normally, all casinos in Austria strictly use shuffle machines). And they have a very interesting rule variation: You can insure from anyhere in betweed half your original bet up to double your original bet! If you can keep a sidecount of facecards, this can get very lucrative...

 

Very interesting,the only other casino that I ever knew about to offer that insurance option was the casino that Marvin Ornstein owned in Haiti during the 1990's called the El Cortez . It can be a very positive EV but also a clear signal to the suits that you are aware of your surroundings. Thats what Marvin told me he used for.


Joep

 

Always next year Reachy

Thank you for the information Selecti and good luck in Linz.

I know that you and Sunshine went over to Poker but you should check out what is happening with Elimination Blackjack.

Unfortunately, just has the game was ready to explode, a law was passed preventing American’s playing on the net which I am sure you are already aware of.

Just to let you know that you have broken Reachy’s heart and mine as we were hoping to come over to Austria for some live table experience.

Thank you for the link. If you hear of other tournament games over there can you let us know?

It’s good to see you posting again.

Andy

 

Thank you, Andy.

Of course I found the Elimination Blackjack game on Bet21.com, and had some nice games there (and some tough losses).
Unfortunately, the 100% bonus seems to clear with poker only, and even more unfortunately, poker players at UB seem to be a bit less donkeyish than elsewhere.

There are a few tournaments in Austria, one in Switzerland on 12/2 and 12/3, and one with a nice overlay in Luxemburg on 11/17 and 11/18 (probably also sold out - we didn't consider it this time because we have a big poker tournament that weekend).

I suppose small buyin events don't make the long jorney worthwhile for you?

I still haven't managed to get rid of my shop and have more time for my real profession . At the moment, I cut the time off my sleeping hours. However, I am not really sure if this will work for more than a few days...

 

Poker not boring

Hi Guys,

Selecti posted all the information you need about the European Blackjack Masters. So I don`t have nothing more to say about it. I hope to do fine there and perhaps make it to the finals (would be great). I do have a card for Linz, so I won`t play the satalite one day before. They will only give 10 % of the buyin for the pricepool, the rest will be the entry cards.

@ Reachy:

Poker is not boring. It´s really a game of skill, like selecti wrote before. I am also going in the poker direction. Especially No Limit Holdem Poker Tournaments. There are more books available. You can develop an own style. You can win more money. It`s not so boring then Blackjack Tournaments. I hope you don`t understand me wrong. I really like to play blackjack tournaments, but I definitely think, poker is more interesting! Blackjack Tournaments also is a game of skill. But the luck factor is very high. If you don`t get the right cards, it doesn`t matter, If your name is Joep or Mister X. I have no idea, how much luck there is exactly in Tournaments Blackjack, but the luck factor must be 70 - 80 %. In poker I would say it`s 70 % skill and 30 % luck.

The people with the other view would say: No, Sirklas, you are wrong. There is more skill in Tournament Blackjack. Why do good players win more often than not so good players? The answer from me is: Because good players play many tournaments, and it`s a question of time, untill the will achieve good results. They have the skill. Mixed up with 70 % luck, that must bring some nice results in a long period of time. I also know very skilled players, who are so unlucky or have been unlucky. If they keep on playing, their wins will come in the future the more major tournaments they will play. That is a worse answer and I can understand, that some of you don`t want to hear that, but it is my true opinion on that point. I didn`t want to believe that, when I started to play Blackjack Tournaments. But now I see things realistic.

Your Sirklas

 

poker

Sirklas

I played poker quite a lot before I played BJ and I've got masses of poker books (23 last count) but I just got bored of it. I don't know what happened but it stopped exciting me. But maybe that's my problem. No doubt it's a game of skill but don't underestimate how many times you will lose a hand because some buffoon got really, really lucky! The poker forums (which I still frequent mainly as a lurker now) are littered with bad beat stories.

Each to their own however, and I certainly won't get into a debate about which is the better game, it's horses for courses as far as I'm concerned.

As for the luck:skill aspect, well we've been there before and it's probably just best to agree to disagree on that point. What I will say is that I think that skill is more apparent in elimination style BJ than traditional forms. One of the reasons I believe this is because you are often called on to make moves much more regularly in EBJ, to avoid elimination for example. The other reason is that the process of elimination means that fewer people are left on the last few hands and in my opinion this makes it less of a crapshoot. I've noticed this more since I've been playing at Golden Palace and comparing the play there to UBT. A game I played at GPal yesterday basically involved everybody minimum betting until the last few hands then chucking out maximum bets; it was anybodys game. Just some thoughts...

Cheers

Reachy

 

Watching Linz tourney's

Sirklas/Selecti,

Can you watch the Blackjack Tournament games with a Kiebitz party ticket or is the playing area off limits to people who have not entered?

Looking at the details on the link below, I am not sure if this ticket is just for a reception area for guests, or gets you a spectator’s seat for the tourney.

I am interested in coming over at a future date to have a look at a live game.

I would also like to know if the dealers give their instructions in English to non-German players.

Thanks.

Andy

http://www.casinos.at/content.aspx?muid=8874119a-5d5c-4800-a067-30475eef7d67

 

Still 2 tickets available!

Hi Andy,

you can look at the tournament, when you have the Kibitz ticket. You also get the dinner (and free drinks) and all the other things, which belong to the tournament with that ticket. It costs 30 € and I know, that the were sold to the players wifes etc. The told me, that the Kibitz tickets are limited.

If you are interested in coming an play the tournament, one german guy from out german blackjackforum wants to sell two tickets for the tournament for the original price but only in a packet! I you are interested, send me a PM quickly.

Of course the German dealer will talk to you in English, If you please them before. That is no problem and was never a problem, when I saw people playing BJT in Germany...

I hope I aswered to everything you wanted to know.

Bye, Sirklas

 

Thank You

Thank you for the information Sirklas,

I can't go but Reachy may be interested in those tickets.

Andy

 

LC Britain's secret weapon?

Hmm,

I have just been reviewing the posts on this thread and notice that London Colin is clearly absent.

Given that the European Blackjack Tournament is not too far away from our shores I thought Colin might have come on with a post asking the odd question.

Now I may be barking up the wrong tree as we say over here but could England be fielding a ‘ringer’ for this tournament in the shape of London Colin?

If my memory serves me right from the Global chat room Colin is pretty adept at the German lingo and may have lived over there for a while.

Only you can enlighten us Colin.

Andy

 

Ich bin kein ringer

I do like to ask odd questions though.

No, I'm not signed up for this tournament. I was tempted for a moment, when it was mentioned that some tickets were still available, but I thought better of it. Maybe when I've gone through a rigorous training regime of learning how to chip-count and to play without a pocket calculator by my side (I assume they don't allow that in live games) then I'll summon up the courage to try my luck offline.

I'm actually half Austrian, but hardly any German was spoken at home when I was growing up, so my language skills are pretty shoddy. I spent a year in Munich which helped a bit, but I think I've forgotten most of what I picked up while I was there.

What we really need is some UK tournaments so we can dip our toes in the water.

 

Go for it guy's

Good luck to Sirklas, Selecti, Sunshine and anyone else from this site that are competing in the 2006 European Blackjack Championship in Linz Austria this weekend.

Let’s hope that one of our members does the business and wins the tournament.

Andy.

 

Sunshine is on such a great streak, I think nothing is impossible right now.
She just won us a $8000 two week's Caribbean vacation, including a $3000+200 buy in into a $500k guaranteed (poker) tournament.

We'll do our very best.

 

Awesome!

Well done! Very nice!

The entry is only for her or also for you? Or will you play the tournament?

And: Thanks Andy! Hopefully we will make it to the finals. It`s a tough format there.

Bye, sirklas