Millionaire Maker Blackjack Qualifier

Maybe we can make the 35!!!

Glad to hear they made the offer to everyone. It can't hurt.

I expect the St. Louis Mafia to be well represented. Some were absent for the last tournament which is part of the reason for it's cancellation.

Now if we could just get Ken Smith to join us maybe the 35 would be a shoe-in.:laugh:

Looking forward to seeing you, ptaylorcpa, and any others that care to venture to the mid-west.

 

RIO Million, yada, yada

Well now I don't feel so bad that I couldn't bluff, bamboozle or beg my way into the Rio's Mill maker. It was sold out April 5, they said to me 5 times, yet Saturday round one's had some tables with only three players.

As far as the bum rush, I'd forgotten that's the Rio style. I told a dealer once, "well, at least give me the ten seconds." And string bet is whatever that particular dealer says it is.

One more little trivia bit: Once a dealer paid a high roller with a clear plastic 500 dollar chip, actually about half the size of a marker. I didn't notice when it happened, my bad. But when the PLAYA put it out on the last hand and I asked what that was and was told it was five hundred(in addition to the players stack I was counting) I swallowed hard, knowing I was already a max bet behind, when all along I thought I was in range. Just one more thing to watch out for.

 

harrahs st louis

i estimate 6 to 8 st louis mafia at harrahs on May 21th hope they will have it see you there toolman.

 

New Qualifier

Just found another Millionaire Maker Qualifier at Harrah's-Rincon in San Diego, June 16-18. It's a $100 buy-in, open to all Total Rewards cardholders. Guaranteed $20,000 in prizes, with 1st place advancing to the finals at Ceasar's in August. Tourney details are on Harrah's website.

 

St. Louis 5-21 was a go

Well they did it. Harrah's St. Louis had about 40 players for the tournament so the tournament was held. They had to bribe the players with a tee shirt and $50 worth of match play and it worked (somewhat). Also, the St. Louis mafia was well represented this time.

I'll be the first to grant that this tournament needs some rule changes and the dealers are pushing way too hard for you to get your bet down in a few seconds. However, I don't understand why it's such a dismal failure. They are promoting it and cash payback is 95% of the entry fees. Something is not working. Maybe it's the competition from other casinos. Any opinions?

I think I was the only person from this site to make the final table on 5/21/06. I needed that elusive last hand win to take first place but that was not to be. Oh well, try again 6/11/06. Note that 6/4 & 6/11 are the last 2 tournaments in the series at Harrah's St. Louis.

 

Congrat's Toolman

Nice going making the final table last weekend. Hate to hear you missed that last hand again, toolman also made the final table at the Stardust earlier this year and the same thing happened. No luck on the final hand.

Still keep making those final tables and your luck will change.

 

Toolman

Congrats on making the final table this past weekend. Be patient, one of these days those cards will cooperate on that last hand. It was good to see everyone and meet DeltaDuke from Memphis. This list must do some good because it seemed like a lot of the field were out of town players from this list. I might try to come play again if my schedule will allow. I was able to "Win back my entry fee" with those match play coupons. It is just tough driving home and getting up the next morning for work. We got home at 3:30 so only a couple hours sleep takes it's toll.

Pat

 

Speaking of the Millionaire Maker series, I got my invite to the two Tunica MM tournaments the other day. (Sheraton & Grand) The Grand tourny is the third weekend of June and the Sheraton is the next weekend. Sorry I don't have the mailout with me right now but you can check a calendar for the dates. I'll try to put them up tomorrow. One free night comes with the offer.

 

Harrah's St. Louis - attendance?

I'm planning on going to Harrah's St. Louis for their last Millionaire Maker Qualifier on 6/11/06. I don't want to waste my time if they don't have the required 35 to hold the tournament. I missed the 6/4/06 tournament so I don't know what the attendance was for that date.

Does anyone know how their attendance has been holding up?

 

Harrah's St Louis

The 6-4 tournament was canceled. Also the 6-11 tournament has been canceled and will be rescheduled in July. No date has been set and no details, but was told that it would probably be an invitational.

 

Thanks

deltaduke:
Thanks for the info. This saves me a lot of time and aggravation. I'm playing a tournament at Caesars Indiana tomorrow (6/10/06) and was planning on driving from there to Harrah's St. Louis for their tournament if I didn't make the final table at Caesars Indiana. Now I have 2 days free. It's like delaying death by 2 days.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

Tunica Sheraton MM Update

I played the Millionaire Maker qualifier at the Tunica Sheraton this past weekend and thought I would share this report.
The format was thus. The first round was accumulation with all players taking a 1,000 bankroll and playing 25 hands. Minimum bet was $5, max was $1,000. The top 36 scores would advance to play in the final round. Note that this was a single round to determine the finalists. The 36 finalists would repeat the procedure to determine the winners. They were paying 9 spots but only the top 3 won the trip to LV for the MM national tournament.

I played in the earliest session and had the second highest score in the first round. (6,700) They played 5 sessions in the first round. The cutoff was 1,200 with about half the field finishing with 0. They were scheduled for 240 participants but the last session of the day was not full. I guess due to no-shows or some other reason. I would guess between 210-230 played.

Since I had won my trip the week before, I was going for broke with first (10K) or second (5K) as my only goals. Unfortunately, deciding to accept a higher level of risk in an attempt to outdistance the field comes with consequences when the cards don't come. I zeroed out after running into a 6 hand losing streak. I was much too generous in trying to figure my target number because I felt that there would be a good portion of the field being very aggressive also. It turned out that way more of them played conservatively in an effort to at least cash something. If I had hit my target of 5,000, I would have been over 1,000 ahead of second place. I didn't go to the awards ceremony but the best I could tell from watching the counts was that a little less than 4K won.

Still, the tournament was run pretty well and I don't have any complaints with anything. The only thing I could nit-pick is that they annonced to the following sessions the top score of the day. (my 6,700 until the 4th round when a 7,600 went up) On one hand, that gave them information unavailable to those of us who played in the first round. On the other hand, some might have believed that they needed to get close to that score and wound up busting out trying. Saw some familar faces from the week before and a couple of regulars from the Pearl River tournaments.

Also saw a glaring example of one of the reasons many people complain about accumulation tournaments. Four of the top five scores in the first round came from the same table in the same session. ( I was the only exception) I think all 6 players on that table advanced with 4 of the scores above 3K. If you are lucky enough to find yourself on that table, great! If not, you are facing an uphill battle.

 

accumaltion

ACCUMALATION IS ALWAYS IT SEEMS A UNFAIR WAY TO PROGRESS IN A TOURNAMENT JUST LIKE YOU SAID 6 MOVED UP FROM ONE TABLE NOT GOOD IN MY OPINION CONGRATS AGAIN ON YOUR TRIP TO LV:joker:

 

Tunica Sheraton results

Like Blackjack Rebel Too, I played in this past weekend's qualifier at the Tunica Sheraton. It was the first tournament ever for me, so I came in with very low expectations. I also played in the earliest session in the first round and amazingly (I thought) qualified for the finals with the tenth highest score (2,700).

But that was my high-water mark. I had terrible cards in the finals, losing the first three hands when I was betting moderately large amounts -- considering the 1,000 starting bankroll. Just never got any traction.

The sad thing (for me) is that just matching my morning score would have given me a second place finish in the finals! I was expecting much higher winning scores. I did go to the award ceremony to see what amounts won...here's what took the money:

1st - 3,000
2nd - 2,670
3rd - 2,645
4th - 2,625
5th - 2,400
6th - 2,350
7th - 2,350
8th - 2,100.50
9th - 1,800

It was an interesting experience...but the accumulation format made it difficult to guage how to play. I was trying to be competitive with my table, but the cards wouldn't help. Three of the folks at my table finished in the money (4th, 6th and 8th).

Reading the posts on this forum gave me some preparation for the tournament. I appreciate those who take the time to pass on their experiences.

 

Sorry to hear about that.

Are there any more qualifiers for the main event?