Keeping The Million Dollar BJ Tourn.Alive

We all by now know that the Las Vegas Hilton is not going forward with the Million Dollar Tournament.In an effort to keep this tournament alive I have been trying with the help of 3 other members of BJT to land it with another casino.The only problem that we have faced is that the Hilton has in excess of 3,000 rooms and the new location has only 400 rooms.The new casino wants very much to host this event and has plans to have a prize package in excess of 2 Million Dollars.The only stumbling block is that they really don't have enough rooms to accomodate all the tournament players.This Hotel & Casino is already at 98% occupancy for the rest of the year.Please give me your opinion in posting and or voting on the choices that I have listed.Your feedback will be instrumental in keeping this tournament alive..

Thank You

JOEP

 

BJ Millliooons!

Joep: didn't see listing of choices. Homever, if your casino is interested in hosting a multi-million tournament, similiar to Hilton's, rooms shouldn't really be a problem.

One: the Hilton's 1k entry was based on 120 per month. If new casino had no top end on monthly entries, buy in could possibly be reduced, players savings to go to accomodations elsewhere. How many rooms in Vegas?

A number of particpants didn't want room at Hilton anyway. They had place t
o stay and wanted rebate for not staying at H.

Two: H. Didn't have banquet or reception like even IP and certainly not the top notch that stardust had. There's a savings to the site, unless they want to extend the LV touch to we roustobouts.

Three: If you build it. They will come. Open to all classifications of BJ players. Where the novice, the pretender, the contender and the salty experts can clash for bragging rights of being the best, especially since everyone is playing with everyone else's money and the casino only has to put personnell and survelience in place and regardless of what some tournament sites claim, the players do give them action off tournament, just because they are there. There are only so many disciplined numbers people, names go unmentioned.

Four: A large percentage of tournament players have the comps at other sites for their stay.

So I say rooms at the site be damned. Put it on. Put it on for multi millions and watch that site become famous for it.

 

Way to go, Joe!

I'd sleep in the gutter to attend a $1M tournament. I might even consider staying at your place.

 

Million Dollar Tournament

I think anybody that is willing to pay 1000.00 to enter the tournament can find a place to stay in Las Vegas. I say lets get it on.

Kennye

 

I'm in, but!

Joe you know how I feel, I am always trying to get more and better tournaments (that all players can play in).

Only negitive points that I will bring up is without the casino offering rooms with your entry, that the monthly qualifiers should pay back more then the Hilton monthly did. Remember the Hilton lowered the monthly payouts because of offering free rooms.

Also if the casino is not offering any extras are they paying 100% of the entries and reentries back as prize money? I have no problem with any casino making a profit (that's what they're is business for), but if they don't want to give any extras why should we give them extra.

Last point, if reentries are offered will they be regulated? One reentry is find (at $500), but I don't want someone that can afford to keep trying several times trying to buy their spot. If they know they can have unlimited re-buys they can start off making big bets without worry of busting out, knowing they can re-buy. This would be a hugh advantage over those players who can't afford it.

As long as it is fair for everybody I'll promote the hell out of it.

 

Rich McKelvey

Joe, In the years that I wrote my column for Blackjack Confidential Magazine, I came to learn, the players come primarily for the competition. They come for the companionship, they come for their dream. Most players at this level could care less if they got a free room or free tuna fish sandwich from the casino. Set it up, push it hard, my wife Carolyn and I will be there to dream along with you. Regards, Rich McKelvey

 

It's All Good

The room situtation is really the only bridge to cross.If we can cross this bridge you will see the biggest blackjack tournament ever held with final table prize money that will knock your socks off.

Prize with only 150 players per month & re-buys ---Hilton 's Payouts

1st 1,000,000 --- 1st 1,000,000
2nd 250,000 --- 2nd 40,000
3rd 100,000 --- 3rd 25,000
4th 75,000 --- 4th 15,000
5th 30,000 --- 5th 10,000
6th 25,000 --- 6th 5,000
7th 20,000 --- 7th 3,000

12 semi finalist 5,000 each ---- 12 semi finalist 1,000 each


Prize Package with Avg. of 200 players per month & Re-buys

1st 1,000,000
2nd 500,000
3rd 250,000
4th 150,000
5th 125,000
6th 50,000
7th 25,000

12 semi finalist 5,000 each

These numbers are not etched in stone some small changes may be made but as you can see with a good turn out every month this will be the biggest blackjack tournament ever held to date .

The host hotel has a limited number of rooms available which they get big money for and if comped they receive sufficent play to warrant the room comp.Since I cannot assure them of the level of play that all the players will give up front and I wanted to be straight with them I wasn't about to promise them something I could not stand behind.If you look at the proposed payouts to be offered I believe the non room factor will not be an issue if that comes to be.To answer Rick's concern about the rebuys everyone will be assured at least 1 re-buy.

This option should be a no brainer

You can re-buy for $500 and get back into the tournament or go back home and return to pay another $1,000 plus travel expenses in another qualifing round.As far as the concern of a player who has ample money playing fast and rebuying more than 1 time as of now it looks like only 1 rebuy will be offered.This as you should know has little concern or affect on your outcome.Sometimes you will have to beat one less player as the fast player has busted out and sometimes you will be playing for 1 seat as that player has gotten a big lead.I personally like it when they step out early better than half the time they are gone long before the countdown because they just can't take their foot off the gas pedal.Please fell free to ask me any questions here or if you like your questions not to be made public, private message me I am here to help all with all your Million Dollar concerns.......Lets find out who our next Million Dollar winner will be......... shuffle up and deal


Thanks,
JOEP

 

Excellant

Lets get it going Joe. What can I do to help!

Still one note: I know you said at least one re-buy, I would have it as only one re-buy! $500 re-buy will be to costly for a lot of the players to do more then once.

You don't want to make it a all you can play in like the New Frontier. At $500 each re-buy the advantage would be to the very rich, not the best players.

 

Re-Buy Money

Just remember the rebuy money is added to the prize pool .Thats how we were able to raise the prize pool up so high as compared to the Hilton payouts.The Hilton payouts never changed even if the had 200 players every month.This new 2 Million Dollar Tournament is very player friendly.If you are wondering how its the 2 Million Dollar Tournament.If you were to add up the Final Table payouts and the 60,000 paid to the semi-finalist at the 200 player level it adds up to 2,160,000 and thats not including the 12 monthly prize pool which adds up to 690,000.So total amount of money to be given add can add up to a wopping 2,850,000.Now thats a Big Tournament.........At the 150 players per month Avg. it still adds up to 2,250,000.Thats why it will be called the 2 Million Dollar Tournament.If we can get this up and running do we want to start it right after the Hilton Finals in May or wait till June ?

 

I'd vote for June

 

July or August, maybe even later

I say wait untl July/August or later to start only because of the late notice.

You have to think what is best for the over all tournament. May you already have players that have purchased their airfare or made other travel arrangements for the Hilton finals and you will also lose a lot of players (around 50 - 75 at least) that are already signed up to play the Stardust May 15 - 17. And then you want to give the players time to get back home and recoup before heading right back to Vegas. You don't want to start off by pissing any of the players off.

Also think about your advertisement, sure all of us that read Ken's site regularly will know about the event but who else? You need to give the tournament time to be advertised. Let players know about it. I'm ready to play now, but you have to think about all the players that will be needed to make this tournament a success.

I would get corporate sponsors to help fund such an event and pay for advertising (the payouts could even go higher). It really won't be that hard to find sponsors with gambling as popular as it is now. Getting a airlines would be a great sponsor and could offer discounts to players flying in to play in the tournament.

Are monthly payouts going to be based on entries and re-buys or be set? What are you looking at for those payouts?

Going back to the re-buy's, I understand that all the re-buys will go into the final prize pool, but I know several players that can't afford to keep re-buying in at $500 (some can't afford one). I think allowing ANYONE more then one re-buy would be a mistake.

I know I don't want to be playing someone that starts off with $2,500 max bets since he/she can go back and re-buy unlimited times, (I would love it if they did that and there were no re-buys). My point is they can bet crazy if they know they will have another chance to get back in, for a lot of players they won't have that option. Joe think about all the players we know that can't come back to the Hilton because of money, don't exclude them from getting to play.

 

Rebuys

I do not understand why you would want to limit rebuys. If a player has been eliminated and can't afford to rebuy, how can it hurt him if someone else rebuys? Rebuys are a win/win situation. They increase the prize pool for all of us, and they give us another chance to play. If I pay for airfare to Las Vegas, I would certainly like all the opportunities possible to qualify.

 

I love re-buys

The New Frontier is one of my favorite tournaments and they allow unlimited re-buys, but at $150 and even then some players can't afford them. For me I love the chance to know I can go back and re-buy should I get beaten out of the first round, but I am thinking about those that can't keep re-buying back.

At $1,000 entry and $500 per re-buy that will price out a lot of players. I am only thinking about the over all success of the event here. We will need all the players to keep it going, not just the players that have deep pockets.

I believe that a stuctured re-buy with one, maybe two (and only if everyone was allowed two) would be more then fair for everyone.

 

June gets my vote!

I've already bought my plane tickets for May ! This sure sounds like the answer...hotel rooms or not. Thanks Joe (and everyone) for working so hard to keep the Million Dollar dreams alive.

 

I'm In

I've enjoyed participating in the Hilton Tournament two of the three years it's been available. Count me in for at least that level of participation if a similar tournament were to be offered.

Although the poll which began this thread is unlikely to be statistically significant (there's only 26 votes registered) I have a few comments:
__I cannot see a distinction between Option1 and Option4, the two most positive responses.
__The summary indicates 26 Voters, but the poll displays 34 responses. As a result the percentages add up to 130%. This looks like an overlay to me!
__It is a mite disturbing that 2 votes are cast that if free rooms are not provided they may not participate. Correct me if I am wrong, but was not the primary reason the Hilton Tournament hasn't been renewed because monthly participation entry fees with a free room failed to cover the prize pool? If 2 of 26 voters on the Blackjacktournaments.com website are influenced by not being given a "free" room, I'd expect the percentage among those not visiting this website would be significantly higher.

The scant information provided about the Casino Hotel considering hosting the new tournament is sufficient to give me some confidence that I can identify it. In fact, if someone offered me 3-to-1 odds I'd probably bet on it. (Hint: There's plenty of rooms across the street and down the road just a bit.)

 

F&B

Hey Joe,

What about a few buffets? It would cost them very little and it would be very convenient for us if they would provide vouchers upon arrival. Two per person per day seems reasonable. Not to mention, everyone would stay on property rather than seeking freebies elsewhere.


And I'm assuming the tournament format remains the same, ie., two advance each round?

See you in about 3 weeks,

Walt

 

$2,000,000 Tournament

I don't care if the nearest room is Phoenix, AZ, I'll play. If it's right after the Hilton's Final, I'll cancel the Stardust to try for a chance. This much money is 2 good 2 pass up.
Besides, U can't retire on only one million. :laugh:

 

Re-Buy / Wild Cards

Keep in mind that in addition to the re-buys some of the wild cards will remain to keep everyone even the players that Rick refers to as not having deep pockets alive in their quest for the prize money.But anyone that plays in the monthly qualifiers and has a mind set to play more than once to try and qualify will soon realize that the re-buy option offered is a no brainer,you now have the abilty to advance in the tournament for 1/2 the original entry fee without incurring additional travel expenses and not having to pay the 1,000 entry fee in the next monthly qualify that you had plan to play in.This thread is to hear what the players want in the 2 Million Dollar Tournament if anyone has a different outlook on the re-buy sitution or sees it as a good thing let us know,your feedback is very important.We want this to be the premier Blackjack Tournament ever held and the envy of every casino who ever held a tournament.

Thanks,
JOEP

 

Re-buys are great

Joe don't get me wrong I have suggested re-buys for the Million Dollar tournament since day one. What I am concern with is if unlimited re-buys are offered. A stuctured re-buy would do nothing but enhance the tournament.

I hate wild cards. I know that while winning you need some skill and a lot of luck, but wild cards are 100% luck. The re-buys will eliminate that damm 20 wild cards to the 2nd round. Tournament play should be some skill to advance and not all luck.

 

Ummm so if wild cards are luck, than having money to rebuy is skill?