More from St Kitts

I don't have all the specific details, but just wanted to drop a quick line from St Kitts... i'm sure Joep will fill in the gaps later:


Kenny Einiger wins the St Kitts Classic main event for over $60,000!
(there goes my big 4-out-of-7 Calcutta shot!)


John Ressman wins the $50,000 freeroll (followed closely by Robert Williamson III in 2nd and our very own Ken Smith in 3rd)!


Annie Duke wins the final $540 tournament (its no secret, the girl is a natural at elimination blackjack! plus, i'm extra proud cuz she's the only person i've ever personally trained with the advanced tournament strategies from my as-yet-unpublished 2nd book, coming soon!)
Previn and I also made it to this final table, but no repeat performance was in order as Duke shut us down halfway through the tournament.


Official sit-n-go points winners are:
1. Vera (AKA Adriana Jade, who will be on tomorrow's episode of the UBT on CBS)
2. Previn Mankodi
3. Hollywood Dave, bitches!
4. Marvin Ornstein
5. John Blunt

All five of us will receive a $2700 buy-in to an upcoming UBT tour stop main event.


Other than that, you'll have to wait for Joep to fill in the details on the Main Event & Freeroll final tables, since i didn't attend either (due to playing in the final $540 event at a different location). Big party tonite, and then most everyone heads back tomorrow. I've decided to kick around the Caribbean for another week or so (blackjack, anyone?) so you'll have to do without me for awhile...

i should have some more info from St Kitts on my website soon, so come check it out & leave some comments. rock on, my cool cats & kitties --

-hd.

 

HD's Post:

Cool cats and kitties? Did the Caribbean turn HD into a "beatnick?"

 

Mr Dave

Can you remind me when your books are coming out, I'm getting really desperate for them. My coffee table is on a real slant now and things keep sliding off :joker:

Seriously when can I expect Bayview Strategies to have stocks? Can you sign it for me? In blood?

Cheers

Reachy

 

What I find interesting, if not amazing, is how these advanced techniques of elimination UB style play have been published and taught. All this before one tournament! Talking about foresight! Just think now that St Kitts is done, 2nd tournament, Stanford should be writing the Bible!

 

Barney-

You're forgetting that this is the second year for UBT. The shows' on TV were filmed over a year, ago. It's been around for a while, just on a much bigger scale this year because of expansion into a franchise. So the format, the technique's, aren't as new as you infer. And, in this small community, when something new hits.....a hand, a move, a stategy, a format..... It's almost imediately analized, critqued, and written about. I'm mean, look at ourb site alone. The channels to write and publish materials on this subject are easily accessible for most anyone given the size and closeness of this community. So it's not that incredible, or amazing.

Elyssez

 

Elyseez, its not incredible nor amazing so true, it is impossible. The game is such an infant only generalizations can be used at this point. The published work is using a couple games last year? There is no data. There is no real experiment outside controlled environments. Now if after this year, when they get the tournaments out of the controlled microcosm of Aruba and St Kitts or even the practice room of the authors, it might be possible to make a valid game strategy opinion. As of now any writing or teaching about the UBT style of BJT is shooting from the hip. Not that it doesnt have value, but the validity just cant be there until the game matures.

JMO

B

 

huh?

ok, buddy. whatever you say. you have a lot of strong opinions for somebody who's never participated in a single ubt event.

#1 my advanced tournament strategy certainly touches on elimination blackjack, but it is so much more than that and is something i've been fleshing out for many years now, well before Russ started the ball rolling on the ubt. the fact is, wong just doesn't cut it like it used to, REGARDLESS of the specific strategies that are unique to EBJ. rather than adapting or updating wong, my ATS is a completely different way of looking at tournaments, and its served me well. when i mentioned being proud of annie for applying these ATS concepts & winning the last $540 event down here, i wasn't being specific to the ebj format since the strategy she used would have served her just as well in non-ebj tourneys.

#2 over the past 15 months i have participated in every single ubt elimination blackjack tour stop, test run, tv invitational, countless online events, and have spent uncalculable hours deep in thought and conversation with many of the world's best tournament players breaking down every single aspect of this format. to say that somehow all of this preparation and knowledge (not only mine, but the many others who have clearly made an impact in this field) has little value or that it must just be a theoretical anomaly until some future date smacks not only of complete ignorance, but petty jealousy as well.

the fact is, simulations HAVE been run, hard data gathered, and conclusions logically drawn. it doesn't take years to do that; that's what computers and mathematical analysis are for. the fact is, many of the EBJ adjustments are simple enough to discover and apply, and to make a blanket statement discrediting (or at least completely discounting) the extensive work and research that many of us have done only serves to make you look like an idiot without a clue, buddy. Don't know where you're going with this particular line of thought, but it just doesn't compute.

-hd.

 

An infant game subjected to generalizations?! No data?! Experiments in controlled environments?!

Your right, Barney!!! The fate of humanity....NO BLACKJACK.... hangs in the balance!!! Somebody, call Superman!!!:laugh:

 

Bad boy tourney book

Hollywood,

We know that your first book on advantage play is almost ready for publication and some of us from the other side of the pond eagerly await its arrival.

However, it’s the second book on tournament play that most of us on here will be interested in.

Ken Einiger quickly brought out another edition of Play to Win to cover Elimination Blackjack and I would like to know your current position on your own book.

Is the book already at the publishers and does it include anything on Elimination Blackjack?

If not will you have to re-write the book to include Elimination Blackjack and if so do you have the option to delay the publication date?

Or do you just have to send it in as it is and put Elimination Blackjack in for the second edition.

Back to the typewriter Dave…lol

Andy.

 

Books Coming Soon: My $.02

I can clearly say that I eagerly await any book, article, blog note or whatever from any credible source on the art and science of our game. And a credible source for me is anyone who has played the game to any reasonable extent and who displays an analytical, non-voodoo approach to developing ways to play it that bring the most success. That could include many who post on this site.

At the end of the day, like any field of study, it is the collective effort of all scientists (in our case, Blackjack Scientists!) that move the body of knowledge forward. Bring it on, scientists, I'm all ears...

 

When it comes to UBT play you cant use the word "Advanced Tournament Strategy" It is more like "Hypothetical Tournament Strategy"

Did Stanford write his book before he even played an event out of a microcosm event? I doubt it. Im not saying any wrtiting wont have value, it will.....

JMO

B

 

Microcosm means a little world

Barney need I remind you that Aruba and St Kitts were nothing near this $5 dollar word that you seem to enjoy throwing around these last few post. Both of these last UBT Tour stops were open to all who wanted to play. You seem to have put your playing part of the equation on the shelf and having taking up the keyboard version of EBJ. Is your self appointed job of a shill for BJ21 over and now you have taken on the role of Microhead manager here at BJT :laugh:

Joep

 

Sold. Where can I get your ATS, Hollywood!

Long before I started to play online, I printed an article you wrote about progressing in tournaments. I found it very nteresting when it came out and I remember using the technique in a final table where I needed to catch up (two max bets behind at the 15th hand of a 21 hands final). It worked and went a long way for my first big win (50 000$) in Montreal Casino. As you said in the article, it's a tool that you usually don't need in the lower level games. Now, after a month online, I'm convinced that advanced techniques that people like you, Ken E., Ken S, etc spread are key to long term success.

Thank you

Note: I know for a fact that my tactics are very successful against inexperienced to middle level players (in about 150 games online in the last month, I'm in the money 22% of the time ). I also know that when I reach another level, something is missing (maybe progressing or not correlating enough). But I'm holding my own

Also, online, contolling the software is an added skill that I have to work on because it cost me a lot of good results so far in the high level games where I focus to much on the screen and click without looking in the heat of the moment. At least it's a skill, that I can learn by myself to control.

 

Thanks, Archie. Glad it worked out for you.

As for when my 2nd book is gonna be available.... umm.... next year? first thing's first, the first book -- which talks generally of the UBT but doesn't contain the kind of strategy people will be looking for -- is weeks away & a major announcement will be coming soon, not only with a solid, set-in-stone release date, but also with some other unique news as well! details soon...

and once again for my friend Barney with the microcosm brain, i most certainly CAN and DO call my ATS by its rightful name not some 'hypothetical' label you insist on. The fact is, you just DON'T know what you're talking about when it comes to this. TRUST ME. There are many, many unpublished advances to our game -- both for elimination blackjack as WELL as regular tournaments -- that have been common knowledge for years amongst certain circles of pro players, as well as the individual developments and advancements we each currently possess. You keep insisting that they are somehow flawed or untested WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY ARE and that is pretty laughable. I said it before and i'll say it again, you just don't know what you're talking about yet you continue to back up this ignorance with blanket statements that are just categorically untrue. Many of the ebj format strategies, for example are simple enough to apply and give one a powerful mathematical edge -- something that can be proved in seconds on a calculator, yet you insist we need years of development before we can apply these very real, proven techniques. The fact that you don't know what they are doesn't mean they don't work. If you have a mathematical edge over someone in a tournament, you have an edge over them, period.

are we done now?

-hd.

 

Micro-Macro-Macoroni and Cheese.

Barney:

You may or may not be right. If all you're lookin at is a numbers certainty for playing EBJ, similiar to regular casino basic play given game conditions, or WHAT USED TO BE tournament play.

But EBJ with the introduction of the elimination hands and secret bet and now Secret Action, which kind of snuck in there, you have three variables constantly in motion, that I doubt anyone can nail down to a reasonable certainty of quantitative play.

Now you're in to the mode of "Which hand is it in?" Do you or don't you know how your opponent is likely to play? Go ahead and make the best play the "old" way and find yourself eleminated.

To borrow a phrase from poker commentary, now "How good are your instincts?"

As always the foundation is necessary, but now, just as in Chess, say, you may know the 10 basic opening and counter moves, but you better elevate your middle and end game.

And I dare say, you don't get that from a book, or someones statistical run,, You get it from playing.

 

I'm even willing to bet that Barney STONED never even read Wong..........

So Barney bet or not ?


Joep

 

Uncle Joe for what is worth I have you rated as top 5 players in the world and worthy of writing on advanced play concerning standard BJT. But UBT give me a break. Not yet! JMO

And you lose, I read. Now you have to let me stay at your house when Im in Vegas!

 

Daves Room

If you were to stay in my home you have to sleep in Hollywood's room, is that a problem ?

His room is full of different color hair dyes
Blow up sex dolls in between a naked stripper or two
A closet full of Retro clothing
A pile of hate mail from Tex (Unread I might add)


Joep

 

Is this one of Dave's toys?

I hope not!

Cheers

Reachy