Rules and Common Standards Questions

Hi All,

I have some questions regarding the rules and standard behaviours in Blackjack tournaments.

I was last week in Vegas and played in the longhorn casino Blackjack Tourny.
A few things were a bit different that what I thought it would be.

Here are the questions:

1. How many players are usaully seated in one table each round? in the final round?

2. How many hands are usually played in each round?

3. Does Blackjack usually pays 1to2 OR 2to3?

4. Can you Re-Buyin for every round you lose or just for some of them?

5. How many players progress from every table? 2? 1? and if it changes according to the amount of people then how much is it from small tournys and how much for very big ones?

6. Is it common that wild cards are given in order to fill the next round table?

7. In most tournys, does the dealer hit on soft 17?


I'd appriciate of someone can answer these question for me. If the answers are changing from one casino to the next then what is the answer on most popular casinos? what is usually the answer?

Thanks a lot,

Oren Harnevo

 

Tournament Torment

1. Usually a full table, or close to it.

2. Varies widely, but 20-30 is average.

3. 3:2 is standard, but there are exceptions.

4. Varies widely from no rebuys to unlimited rebuys. Usually you can rebuy in the earliest rounds only.

5. Varies widely and depends on tournament format. Check the rules for your specific tournament. Also, it may change from round to round!

6. Wild Cards are fairly common, but guess what- it varies widely! It depends on a lot of things including format and number of entries.

One of the most frustrating things about tournaments is that you can seldom be 100% sure what will happen when you get there. The tournament director may change the rules, the number of entrants, or even the prize structure. If you can, get a copy of the rules, even if it is a set for the casino's last tournament event. Prepare yourself as best you can, but get ready to roll with the punches if there are some surprises.

Sentry

 

House Rules! Each casino will have their own and they may vary from casino to casino. I will try to anwser each question, but they really don't have one set anwser.

1) 5 - 7

2) 10 - 42
(I have played in a couple that were 100 hands and live money, but that
was years ago).

3) Most of the time 3 - 2, but several of them do pay 2 - 1.

4) Usually only in the first round are reenties allowed, but again I have seen
a casino allow you to pay $500 (really money) to advance to the second round without
even playing round one.

5) 1 up to 3 players might advance from a table. It is not a question of big or
small tournaments, but of math. The number of players advancing have to
workout where the correct amount of players end up in the later rounds.

6) This is one of the reasons the casinos offer wild cards, so that they can
fill up the needed spaces, (the other is to keep players in the casino).
The number of wild cards vary as do the number of rounds they draw for.

7) In most I would say NO, but again I do see 2 - 1 payouts for BJ at several
tournaments.

Bottom line is as long as the rules are posted and are the same for everyone there is no problem. One tournament in Bossier City, LA (The old Casino Magic) had no rules posted for their VIP tournaments and depending on who the manager was they may rule two differant ways. I am not saying they did anything wrong it was two differant managers that made the rulings and without written rules this is going to happen from time to time.

The worst ruling I have heard of happened at the Tropicana last year. A friend of mine was playing late in the quarterfinals. With just a two hands to go he raised his bet to $3,000 (he only had $3,250 left). He was dealt a BJ and on his turn told the dealer "Pay Me", the dealer didn't hear him and so he say again "Pay Me" this time waving off, but sitting back in his stool he waved in a downward motion with his hand towards the table. The dealer thinking he asked for a hit give him another card (a 3). When he told them he hadn't asked for a hit the tournament director ruled that hand signals are used not verbal commands and that his hand signal looked like a hit and he lost his BJ and his chance to advance. Several of the other players even told them that he had said no and was waving off, but it did no good.

The LV Hilton offers surrender in their tournaments, but the normal hand signal of drawing a line behind your hand is not used, they want you to use a verbal commanded. If you draw the line and they hit you then it is your fault, but it is posted so you can't get upset with them.

The point to these stories are before playing in any tournament make sure what the rules are and as long as the rules are the same for all you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Thanks for the answers, I have two more

Hi,

Thanks for the well elaborated answers.

I have two more:

1. Their are tournaments for real money and there are tournaments in which you get 500 fake money. What is the Casino terminolgy for this kind of tournament? Funny Money? Fake Money? Play Money? is there a constant terminology?

2. How popular is surrender? Most tournaments? half? less?

Thanks again,
Oren

 

1) Non-Negotiable Chips is most common when listing this style of tournament. Some times you may hear "No Cash Value" chips used and most of the time you will see "No Cash Value" listed on the chips as well.

2) Not enough...LOL, I would say less then 20% offer it, but I would love to see it offered in more of them.