The Las Vegas Hilton Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament 3 qualifer was played this weekend. I've posted the final five hands of the final table in Play by Play. Congratulations to my brother Jerry who finished in fifth place, and was one of the Sweet 16 this month! Now we both have a seat in the May big event.
Wow! A last hand to dream about. The winner had more than just the blackjack gods smiling on him. Not only did Elchynski have the good fortune to be the chip leader and act last going into the final hand, but he also had a big enough lead so that half the others could not catch him even with their bankroll all-in! Nice rays from the bj gods. Enter now whatever superforce (BJ devils?) controls decision-making here as BR2 and BR3 completely blow it. First up, BR3 throws in the towel with a minimum $100 bet. Now she can’t even win it with a swing! Then, lo and behold, BR2 does likewise!! Only $550 behind he gives away the store with a $200 bet. At this point Elchynski must be pinching himself to be sure he is awake. When the betting gets around to BR1 he can lock out everyone but Pauser with a minimum bet, in which case Pauser must get all his money working and win his hand. Elchynski bets the $100 and Pauser doesn’t get the miracle. Seeing a hand like this play out for $20k just has to give you encouragement to keep on shootin’ for that final table. :gun: --jr
Dream Table While covering the last 5 hands of the Million Dollar Tournament every month for this site it's almost impossible to really look at the bets being made and figure out right on the spot what the player is trying to accomplish with these bets.My main concern is getting the chip count's correct, the bets sized up and the cards dealt to the players and how they played their hands.This months final hand after looking at my notes is a BR 1 Dream last hand hand for a final table, with first place being 20,000 .Br 1 has a 550 lead on BR 2 going into the last hand and has last bet. Br 2 only bets 200. Br 3 who had to bet first only bets 100 even though she is behind by 1400 but leads 4 by 1850 .Now Br 4 who has 3500 total and is betting before Br 1 bets 2500 and can get to 7000 with a double or 7250 with a BJ.What does Br 1 bet 100 dollars .I can understand not wanting to cover BR 4 BJ but at least bet enough to get to 7050.With Surrender you could even bet 600 to cover the BJ and surrender back only losing the lead if Br 2 would double and even though br 2 had 11 vs 3 he did not double. So this final table was about evereyone who had a shot for first place just passing up on it and then Br 1 returning the favor and letting BR 4 at least have a shot at the top spot.Why can't I ever get this easy of a shot for 20,000.I had to double my Blackjack to win my Monthly Qualifier in June 2004
Joep hits all the bases. As usual, Joe's analysis is right on. I really blew it when I said BR1 had a lock on everybody except BR4. I was completely overlooking the return from a blackjack on the two max bets. Normally a double exceeds a BJ but of course in this case, after BR2 & 3 had bet, no one could make a full double of a max bet. In another thread Joep wrote: Amen to that. First and foremost is this site and all the more advanced players who graciously share with us novices the benefits gained from their years of playing experience. Thanks again, Joe. --jr
