Many members of this forum are very knowledgeable in tournament strategy and therefore they are excellent tournament players. Still, the most common complaint is about a bad run of cards –a deficit of always-necessary luck. We often hear that in a long run the truth would come forward. But for some of us chances to participate in blackjack tournament just don’t happen often enough. Another fuss, we sometimes go to so much hassle to get to a tournament and after playing one round (sometimes less than twenty minutes!) we bust and the whole tournament is over. Even if we advance we may have to wait until the next day to play another round (sometimes the only round we get to play). Can something be done about it? Yes. A simple, yet different tournament format that will remedy most of the above mentioned problems and still make it attractive to less experienced players. Of course, there may be many variations of the elements used in them. They can be used for resolving challenges between individuals, and for finding champions in small and large groups of players. Let’s start with a small “private” tournament Nugzy was asking about, or one that Rick can use for group of players wanting to play more tournament bj around LV Hilton’s final in May. Have all participants paired. Let them play five hands using single deck. This is as if they were playing last five hands of a round. One player deals the cards to his opponent, to himself, and to a dealer for the whole five hands, betting order changes like in all bj tournaments. Whoever has more chips after five hands have been played gets one point. Then the other player starts dealing second round consisting of five hands. This can be done until one player wins (pick one) two rounds, three rounds, or best of three, five rounds. The match (and small points) can be recorded on a scorecard. One match could take ten minutes. If we have four players at the table they could play each other making three different sets of two-pairs. After about half-hour and each player collecting up to three matches we could have short break following by another session of three matches (using different pairing of course). If it is played only to two (or three) wins per match in two and half hour everybody could play twelve matches and over thirty rounds! Whoever wins the most matches wins the tournament. If more than one player (very likely) wins the same number of matches small points could be use to determine the winner. Also, players with the top two (or four) best scores could play heads up for the first and second (and third and fourth). Similar setup could be used for bigger tournaments employing bj tables and real dealers. Each player at each table could have up to five matches before reseating would be required. Nonstop action and long term faster. There are details easily addressed at the right time, like how to assure that each players plays same number of matches having to bet last on last hand of a round. I strongly recommend using single deck for two players to make about 78% penetration, another factor helpful to skilled players but not conclusive. This type of bj tournaments could be called endplay bj tournaments. S. Yama
