The Usual Harrah's Snafus I talked to my Harrah's host a week or so before the event, and she assured me that I was comped into the WSOG blackjack tournament at Harrah's. I showed up, and was told that comped entrants needed to go to the cashier, where they had two adjacent windows set up to process comped folk. I waited half an hour in line, and made it to the window. There I was told that they had no record of me being comped, and that I should wait off to the side while they investigated. An hour went by with me getting increasingly annoyed. Finally, a suit shows up and says that only table game players were supposed to be comped into the tournament (I play video poker). He tells me to go have a drink some where while they decide what to do about me. I return half an hour later, and they have finally decided to comp me as promised. I've since talked to my host, who is trying to find out why the hell this happened to me. Other than that, the tournament seemed to run reasonably smoothly. The last time I asked, they said that they had around 260-270 entrants. Since I quickly tapped out in both of my qualifying rounds, I didn't hang around for the semifinals or finals.
I got this report back from a friend who was there, and with his permission: The WSOG Event 1 was held on Fri Jan 18 Round 1. Round 2 along with semi-finals and finals were held on Sat Jan 19, 2008 at Harrah’s AC The total number of participates was announced and the exact number was NOT recorded but he believes it was in the 270-280 range. The break-even was 200 and since this was a first time event the Tournament Director, John, was pleased. Registration was held on the main casino cage and the actual tournament held on the 3rd floor in a meeting room. There were 12 tables. Rounds were held every hour at 8, 9, 10 & 11 on Friday. The 2nd round was at 3, 4, 5 & 6 on Saturday. The top 49 players were announced at 6:50 pm and the semi-finals started at 7 pm. This consisted of 7 tables of 7 players. The winner of each table advanced to the final table. The final table was scheduled to begin at 8 pm but due to longer than expected actually started around 8:40. Winners of the final table were not observed. The prize pool was 100,000 to winner and the final table was awarded a percentage of the overage money – exact percentages (if interested) can be posted/edited later. The 2nd place finisher at each semi-final table also received money. Those were the actual events and facts of the event. This was a hybrid event in that Rounds 1 & 2 were accumulation. Each player started with 10,000 and 25 hands were played using AC rules. The total of the 25 hands was awarded to the player’s name. Round 2 was identical to Round 1. However unlike the Tunica hybrid tournaments the totals were NOT added together. They took the highest amount that a player achieved from either Round 1 or Round 2. After both rounds were completed they released a list of the top 49 players who them advanced to the semi-final tables – 7 tables of 7 players where it became a winner advances event. Here is where the problems arose. AFTER they released the list of the top 49 players they stated that the top 3, 10 & 20 from that list were eligible for the bonus rewards. At no time was this ever mentioned. Therefore the winner of this 100,000 event, if their score from Round 1 or 2, wasn’t in the top 3 is NOT eligible for the 1,000,000 prize. Some of the tournament people had informed the players that the chip totals from the semi-final would be used to calculate the top 20 list but the Tournament Director publicly stated that the totals were garnered from Round 1 and/or Round 2 because this tournament series includes Roulette and Craps as well as BJ. While this may seem like a minor point, it is a major problem. Since there were no printed rules available at the time of playing this player attempted to reach what he felt would be enough to advance to the semi-final round. That chip total was calculated based on prior BJT.com threads concerning hybrid tournaments. While his total was reached and exceeded and he was able to advance to the semi-final round, he did not anticipate the level that would be necessary to make the top 10 and therefore is not ineligible for any of the bonus money events. Had the TD posted clear and concise rules, based upon my chip totals I would have indeed made the top 10 list. Good Points: TD and staff – very nice and pleasant overall Facilities – good. It is nice to have the event OFF the main floor as it is less distracting The chip totals were NOT posted prior to all tables completing their play – excellent way to hold a hybrid tournament as this is much fairer to those playing in the earliest rounds Having a 100,000 event with only a 500 buy in proved to be PROFITABLE for the host casino. They were able to pay for their prize pool from entry fees proving that indeed BJT can be profitable. Problem Areas: 1. No printed rules were available. NONE! 2. Prize money distribution was unknown until the semi-final round 3. Bonus award – no official announcement was made until AFTER the fact. If the top 3 finishers at the final table were not the top chip total players, then a lawsuit could be pending and well-deserved. Imagine winning the 100,000 event and NOT being eligible for the 1 million dollar award! 4. Confusion about rules. For example in AC you CANNOT double down on a blackjack. Fair enough. However, when questioned about splitting 10’s and receiving an ace on one of the 10’s, our hero was informed that doubling down would not be possible. His argument was this: the split 10 and ace would not be paid as a BJ so the player should be able to double down - and this idea was scoffed at. 5. Betting – string bets were common place 6. Outside interference. There were many players who were talking to one another about what the best bet to make was. While some chatter can and should be allowed a betting time limit of 30-60 seconds should have been enforced. Advice from spectators was observed at the semi-final table(s) 7. Advertising in the casino itself – very sparse. No pre-tourney event(s). No gifts, no signs and unless you happened to be on the mailing list you wouldn’t have been aware that a BJT was occurring. The overall event was nice but having played in several tournaments it was obvious that the host facility has NOT done that many BJT. With practice and experience it can and should prove to be a good avenue since they have a large market to draw upon (NE region).
