laughlin

where are the posts from laughlin? what is happening? some sorry souls like myself need a fix!!!!!! tough just playing the minis all day in wa., without hearing from the big shooters!!!!!

 

Should be noted Rebuy Bob made both final tables so far which is way cool because he is a real cool guy! Also, word is River Palms is very happy with the event and looks like a plan is in works for a first weekend in August 2nd event.

Tex is working his A dbl down S off down here. Thanks Dad!

PS, Dreamer is losing his voice, might have to talk to cards with sign language today.

 

Congrats Barb, Barney and Bob

As Ken mentioned in a previous post Mom of Thrasht took down 2nd on Friday for a cool $1800. Congrats Mom. Barney, Travel Agent Tammy and Rebuy Bob also made the final table. Thats 4 folks from blackjacktournaments.com on the final table on Friday. It should also be noted that our very own Ken Smith made the Semi's and made a little cash for his efforts along with his Royal Flush at deuces wild on Friday night. I sat down next to Ken and started playing and about 4 spins later he hit it for a cool $1000. AWESOME

I didn't see the finals on Saturday (I bombed in the quarters) but Congrats to Rebuy Bob and Tulsa Bob for finsihing 1st and 2nd. I also know that Henry T. made the final table. Storm and Barney made the semi's for a little extra cash. Congrats all.

 

wtg rebuy. good hearing from your call last nite that you and some of the the other regulars were in the monies. sounds like you did wa. state proud. iron horse casino did start their barona special. so, at least taking 2nd yesterday, i got points for the finals in 3 months. told the gang at the royal tourney last nite that you were top dog. you, were the talk of the tourney. will be going to your casino today to play the 2pm tourney

nice hit, thrasht. make sure stormy gets some of that monies!!!!! will start calling you slot thrasht!!!!!

good job by all and the best of luck the rest of the tourney.

 

Congrats again Mom

Yep, My mother made another final table in Sundays Tourney. Congrats again Mom (I'm the proud mentor). Fredguy, Travel Agent Tammy, Rookie, and I believe Tgun (correct me if I'm wrong with my failing memory) also made the final table with Fredguy winning the whole enchilada. That's five more blackjacktournaments.com members at the final table. I think the whole St. Louis mafia made the semi's. congrats all.

Rick ran a great tournament and deserves many kudos. He worked his tail off all weekend to make it an excellent experience for all. Ken Smith/blackjacktournaments.com sponsored Friday's tournament and provided many gifts that were greatly appreciated and Henry Tamburin from bjinsider.com sponsored Sunday's tournament and he also provided many great gifts for the players. Thanks guy fors putting on such fun tourneys.

It should be noted my Mom taught me how to play blackjack years ago and I taught her how to play tournament bj more recently. Now she's spanking me again just like she did when I was little. lol

 

Thrasht

I had a great time rooting your mom BarbT, what a great showing with 2 final tables of 3 tournaments! Its going to be fun to see the points totals for the weekend as a few should have collected a bunch. Besides BarbT I think 5 others had 2 final tables!

 

spanking? whoa. that could bring on a three day exile!!!!!

have a safe trip home....

 

Observation time

Working all day last Thursday traveling 5 hours until 11pm and then arriving to play SnGs and a tournament on Friday for about 12 hrs then waking and playing another 8 hrs on Saturday then another 7 hrs on Sunday then driving 5 hrs home then working on a not finished yet 14 hr work day spells one thing. Exhaustion. :sleep:

 

But wasn't it fun?

 

Sorry on the delay...

Sorry about just now getting the TBJPA results from Laughlin, I had Internet connection problems at first and then just didn’t have the time once the tournaments started.

I am actually in Las Vegas tonight, about an hour before I had to head to the airport I was contacted by another casino who wanted to talked to me about the TBJPA, so I canceled my flight and stayed over an extra night. At least I can get a quick up date out for the players.

Here is a quick run down on the four days of TBJPA events:

Thursday 5/10:

We hosted 17 satellite events from $35 to $70 entries. Mostly with one table/6 players, but we also ran a table/12 player event.

Dreamer, Swog, Themom82, Re-buy Bob were all multiple winners.

Friday 5/11:

We hosted 8 more satellites before the main event, again at $35 to $70 per satellite.

At 2:00 pm we held the Blackjack Tournaments.com tournament sponsored by Ken Smith. Ken awarded a very nice plaque for first place along with passing out lots of BJT/com caps and shirts to the players.

We had 40 entries and 37 re-buys, $8,775.00 total prize money pool.

1st = $3,115 Erick L.
2nd = $1,800 Barb Townsend (Thrasht’s Mom)
3rd = $1,360 Paul B. (Barney Stone)
4th = $921 John Merritt
5th = $462 Bob Swanson (Re-Buy Bob)
6th = $307 Tammy Edney (Themom82)

Semifinalist: received $132 each
Brad K.
Sam Vaughan (PhxSam)
Chuck E. (Rookie)
Fred I. (Fredguy)
Ken Smith
Tom K. (T-gun)

Saturday:

I hosted the first Tournament Blackjack Tour (TBT) event:
33 entries and 37 re-buys, $15,150 total prize pool

1st = $5,378 Bob Swanson (Re-Buy Bob)
2nd = $3,105 Bob H.
3rd = $2,348 Keith Wolf (a new St. Louis Mafia member)
4th = $1,641 Lowell S.
5th = $800 Richard K. (RKuszak)
6th = $510 Henry Tamburin

Semifinalist: received $228 each
Stormy Martin (Hemi-power)
John Merritt
Chuck E. (Rookie)
Pat N. ( )
Darlene Merritt
Paul B. (Barney Stone)

Sunday was the BJInsider.com tournament:
33 entries and 36 re-buys, $7,650 in total prize money.

1st = $2,716 Fred I. (Fredguy)
2nd = $1,568 Tammy Edney (Themom82)
3rd = $1,186 Keith Wolf
4th = $803 Tom K. (T-gun)
5th = $421 Chuck E. (Rookie)
6th = $268 Barb Townsend

Semifinalist: received $115 each
Lou C. (LHenryC)
Sue K. (Swede21)
Larry M. (Hopping Larry)
Harry F. (Eastxpro)
Ronald A.
Fred K. (FGK)

Now that I have the results out of the way, I want to thank all of the players who came to the events and a very big thanks to the River Palms staff who went out of their way to make everyone feel at home.

The River Palms gave-a-way 17 raffle prizes everyday for the tournament players, which included: Tournament T-shirts, grab bags, free 2, 3, & 4 night hotel stays, two - $25 promo chips, and one $100 promo chip each day. Note these were the good promo chips that were good until they were lost.

Now for the best news, the River Palms casino management enjoyed the TBJPA events so much that they have already asked us to come back in August and this time they will be inviting several of their own players, with a guarantee of so many players (I am hoping around 50 guaranteed min. I will know how many will be guaranteed within the next two weeks). If we get 50 guaranteed players + the players we had this past week we’ll start getting a nice little quarterly multi event set up at the River Palms and possibly another location in Laughlin.

Last good news, the River Palms management were so impressed by the TBJPA they have already sent out memos to their other properties suggesting that they start using the TBJPA for their tournaments.

 

Rick, Just want to thank YOU from the STL Mafia. We all had a great time.
You worked hard and put on a great Tourney! :joker:

We are all looking forward to the next one!

You had a great tournout & everyone that didn't make it missed a great time!

Congrat's to all that won!

Sooz

 

Great Weekend...

Rick:

Just want to echo the sentiments of everyone who participated in the TBJPA Events over the weekend in Laughlin...

You did a "Bang-Up" job at providing a great tournament experience for all of us who were there. It was very obvious that your hard work and prior planning, paid some huge dividends in the overall success of the weekend. My congratulations to you for a "job well done", and my sincere appreciation and thanks for giving me the occasion to see so many of my friends, in addition to having the opportunity to make a few new ones, while playing in one of the better tournaments I've participated in...

Yes, I lost my voice from "Talking to the Cards", so my only regret was that I couldn't "talk to 'em " on my way to a victory on the last day. I did give it the old "Marine Corps try", and was close a couple of times, but have to save the anticipation for the next one of your Events, whether it be on the Cruise or in Laughlin again in August.

Great group of so many people there, so I'm not going to mention any names for now, as not to slight or miss anyone, but ALL OF YOU who were there, helped make the weekend a memorable one for me.

I think that you have a "Tiger by the Tail" here Rick, and as the numbers increase in future events, and as the word gets our regarding your "Customer Service Mindset", the TBJPA will make a HUGE impact on the Blackjack Tournament Scene!

Thanks again for your efforts on our behalf.

See ya in Tulsa next week my friend...

"Show me the MONKEY" (LOL)

Skipper

:celebrate

 

Where do I begin

THE MAN I had contacted Rick several times before this event with the idea of presenting his future BJT series to the Pacific NW region. Frankly, it just didn't sink into my mini-brain so I decided to experience it directly. Yes, I had a moment in the sun that we all dream about... but REGARDLESS, I left Laughlin humbled by Rick's remarkable organization, flexibility, willingness to listen to suggestions and ACTING on them instantly when they were positive, his pure dedication (he put in LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng hours and never lost his smile), his smooth forms control system (my business is setting up tournaments for casinos and I left with many new ideas to try out up here), and finally... his pure unadulterated enthusiasm for everyone and everything related to this new series. THIS MAN is going to bring a whole new level of player to this business, believe me.
THE GAME The game itself is straightforward and uncomplicated with several features that bring out the skills- the 200 unit maximum bet from a 500 unit base and the 24 hand length of game with the surrender option are the key elements that tests every skill. We have all had a bad run of cards from time to time with few chances to try again. His format allows several options to re-enter at a reasonable cost, ultimately returning the field to approximately the original number. MO money of course for the pot, but more important, his format allows you to experiment a bit without the pressure of having to face an 8th hand knockout punch before you can even develop your game. It's really a great format all the way around in my opinion.
THE SETTING The River Palms provided a separate pit with a fully staffed crew. They also put in long and hard hours and can not be praised enough for the way they made us feel (of course it's probably just me but, believe it or not, some casinos treat t players as subhumans... you too! hummm thought it was just me ha ha.) As a rule, the River Palms customer relations department went WAY above an average casino's hospitality with spifs, comps, personal service (well, not THAT kind) etc. etc. Not enough can be said about how they feel about our group but a hint is that they definitely want us back and will beef the pot with additional players of their own on the next roll there. It was a win win all the way around.
THE PLAYERS On a personal note, I entered the Hilton's Biggee BJT 30 times at $1,000 a throw for 3 years before I made the final $1 Million event. Of course, I met, played against, and dined with some of the notables such as Stanford, Anthony, George P, Ken, Regina, Skip, etc. but today, I do not consider most of them even passing friends with the exception of Ken and "Motormouth." WOW! I left Laughlin with more friends from our founding core group than the total number of people I even MET during the Hilton series. This kind of friendliness and companionship is what I always visualized for the Hilton series when I set up 2 satellite tournaments in Washington to FEED their monster series. Last weekend brought together REAL people from Michigan, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington with hearts of gold, a great sense of humor, topnotch skillful play, good sportsmanship, interesting life styles and left me with a sense that THEY WERE FAMILY. As a result, I committed to the cruise and hope to see many of them again in July. YOU will love these people too!
THE FUTURE I can only say that the humble beginnings last weekend went incredibly well. This series will be so heavily demanded as time passes that you will probably be able to play a santioned event within driving distant of your house. Keep your eye on this one- it's going to be HUGE!

 

Wow

Rick, You are to be congratulated on pulling off such a successful 1st tounament....and to read the genuine praise from participants far and wide regarding their experiences, is icing on the cake. Really proud for you! Now, get some rest :laugh: !

See you in Tulsa,
Lee & Frank

 

Well done Rick!

Such positive and genuine testimonials about a BJT is unheard of and bodes well for the future of your tournaments. Congratulations!

 

A real success!

I have to add my congrats to the finalists at the three tournaments - and to Tx for making the tournament such a success. I echo Rebuy-Bob's sentiments ( a great post by the way Bob) - and believe that this is the beginning of something BIG!!!

 

pond

I'm glad to hear that the 1st stop in the TBT was a resounding success, I wish I was there. Sounds like it was a veritable role call of BJT.com members and it would have been great to put some (more) names to faces. I'm really pleased for all those involved, especially Rick, who is after all the driving force. I hope it continues to grow and becomes the "big thing" that people think it will be. Any chance of popping over the Atlantic and hosting one in Blighty, I know 3 eager players...

Incidentally are you planning anything online or is that too risky in the current climate?

Cheers

Reachy

 

Poor Swog...

I love all of you guys...

Bring it on next time! See many of you in a few days in Tulsa. The rest of you I'll see again at one of Rick's future Events...

Stay safe all, and make it a GREAT WEEK. "Rebuy Bob", I'll get you at a later date when the cards decide to really LISTEN to me! LOL

Skipper aka Dreamer aka UBTerminator aka "The REAL bad Boy of Blackjack"

:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: