Hi, I have played in dozens of bj tourneys that are invite only. Format is usually: Round 1: 2 or 3 advance out of 5 Quarters: 2 advance Semi: 1: 1 Advance Finals: Everyone cashes I have no problem getting to Semi's but I can never win. Is there a sticky thread for some advice? I've been told that card counting doesn't work well in tourney play.
Where Do You Play? frebay, where do you play? How did you secure your invites? The regular posters here share that kind of information, that's why the site exists. There are plenty strategy threads here. And there are some web resources and a couple of books. Ken Smith's e-book is great strategy resource. One-advance tables are hard to advance from. Be aggressive but don't bomb away your whole chip stack in the early or middle hands of the round.
Share and share alike The Monkeydude is spot on, frebay. Most of the best BJT players in the world hang out here regularly but very few of us can even dream of ever getting a chance to play in a tournament the size of the Bellagio 500K you mentioned in another thread (for example). Newbies who post questions here typically get a lot of sage advice but I'm afraid your initial post came off just a wee bit arrogant, whether intended or not. As Monkey suggested, perhaps you could offer up some hard facts on exactly what kind of action you're giving to get invitations into such juicy BJT's. Your ROI for the time it'd take to share your knowledge will surprise you!
I mainly play in Las Vegas, and I usually get invited from my host. I will post future tourneys I am invited to on this post and maybe some of you can get invited. I know on June 17th there is a bj tourney at Mandalay Bay limited to 53 players either a 300k or 500k prize pool. June 24th, 300k bj tourney at mirage I usually slow play and go aggressive at the end, just found this site, and I think i can learn a lot from it!
Sorry for coming off condescending! I will post rules from the tourney when I can get to a scanner. I believe to get invited to 500k tourneys, they are looking for a 15k theo avg per trip. I believe theo for mgm properties is avg bet x hours. For 300k tourneys, the requirements are much lower, 4k theo per trip. If you want the juicy tidbits it's the semi-auto qualifiers. For this tourney it was one of the following: 500k loss in trailing 12 months 250k single trip loss I have never been invited to 1m tourneys, but i've been told the theo is 25k per trip for an invite. Last month I was at a 300k tourney, and to advance to semis was one of the following: 15k theo on that trip before semi round starts 50k loss on that trip Let me know if you have any other questions!
For those who haven't seen this idea before, I assume you're talking about a way to advance to the semifinals even if you lost in the previous rounds. Lose enough money, or generate enough theoretical loss and they'll put you into the semifinals anyway. Thanks for sharing the criteria for invites. That may well be helpful. I suspect the 300k tournament may be lower than 4k theo. I was recently told by a host at another MGM Mirage property that my action qualified for the 300k, but he couldn't put me in it because of notes on my account about blackjack.
Tournament Strategy Ken has excellent tournament strategy information. You can also get Wong's Casino Tournament Strategy on his Blackjack info site. http://www.blackjackinfo.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=21 This book was written a long time ago (early 90's), but the principles still apply. At least as a one time read (study) it could more than pay for the price. Wong also put out a tournament simulation program which has limitations, but could be helpful to look at some scenarios. http://bj21.com/ads/tbj1.html Larry
Are the notes in the system about card counting? Will you be able to playing bac tourneys? I figure a lot of the same strategy applies.
Thanks Thanks, frebay. Nice report! Another good resource for tournament strategy articles is BJInsider. Ken Smith, the guru of this website, does a regular strategy column. I've thrown my own two cents worth in a time or two. There's other good stuff in there too. My own preference about card counting in tournaments is that I don't do it. But you won't get a consensus here on the efficacy of counting in tournaments. I think it's a decision each player has to make for himself. For myself, it distracts me too much from the tournament jobs tracking bankrolls, assessing opponents, etc. And a high card count could prompt you into making an aggressive bet that you don't need to make. Others point out that you can make BS deviations based on the count, and moderately aggressive bet raises in favorable counts that improve your overall chances. I tend to be aggressive when one advance. I often bet about average in the early hands and double the average in the middle hands, backing off if I get the lead or as opponents drop out of contention. When two or more advance I'm tight enough to make a nickel cry.
