The online casino English Harbour has just added a new tournament feature to their casino, and their first-ever blackjack tournament is scheduled for this afternoon (Thursday April 27, 2006), from 3 PM to 9 PM (Eastern I presume). Now, this event isn't even mentioned on their website. To find details you'll have to download the casino and click on the new 'Tournaments' button. Details are sketchy so far, but it looks like they plan to pay 15 places, with a 100% payout plus $100 of bonus money. Entry fee is $20, and you get $200 in tournament chips. You must play at least 20 hands, but I don't think there is a limit on how many hands you can play. There is a leaderboard, and I assume it will be updated realtime. Unlimited rebuys are available if your balance drops to less than $2. Rebuys cost $10 and get you $100 more in chips. The prize structure as described was confusing because they list '2nd place: 4 winners' getting 30% of the prize pool. Here's my guess for the meaning of that... 1st gets 50% of the prize pool. 2nd through 5th get 7.5% each. 6th through 10th get 4% each. 11th through 15th get $20 bonus each. With the complete lack of promotion, they may not even get 15 players, so who knows how this will work out. Regardless, I'll be playing there this afternoon. Good luck to all. Visit English Harbour to begin.
Looks like we won't have to wonder about how the prizes work with a short field. 14 players registered so far.
A few more details: Betting limits are $2 to $200. Rules are 4 decks, S17, No DAS, ENHC, Split once, Dbl 9,10,11 only. Dissimilar ten-value cards can not be split. The initial entry, and each subsequent rebuy add 20 more hands to the total number of hands you must play before you qualify. The effect is cumulative. If you enter once, blow out early, rebuy, lose it all again and rebuy a third time, you'll need to play at least 60 hands before you qualify for the leaderboard.
Well, crap. Credible allegations of rigged games at English Harbour have surfaced. Read the whole sordid thread here: http://www.casinomeister.com/forums...hematical-proof-english-harbour-cheating.html This looks like the real thing, so my advice is do not play there or any of the other OddsOn / VegasTechnology casinos. :flame:
English Harbour VP Double Up problems The Wizard of Odds (wizardofodds.com) has a statement on his website dated May 5, 2006 concerning English Harbour's VP game credibility. It seems the problem occurred with a "Odds On" software update April 13, 2006 and was corrected with an additional update May 2, 2006. The review of the games logs by the Wizard was requested by CasinoMeister and English Harbour after a negative post April 29, 2006. It appears English Harbour reacted in a timely manner to assure it's games are honest.
Here's a direct link: http://wizardofodds.com/software/englishharbor-doubling.html I'm not convinced this wasn't intentional, but we'll see how things develop.
