I started another thread earlier on the $50,000 tournament to be held in Yuma this weekend. First post, I mentioned the very low turnout even low cost minis got in Yuma during the summer, and suggested that entries might be light, and a good overlay might occur. Second post, I mentioned the casino's efforts to allow local players to earn their way into the tournament, or, at least, get discounted entries, and how this could turn the tournament into a seriously negative equity situation for paying players if they comped a lot of locals into the tourney. Worst case situation, 130 players buy-in for the full cost, then do a rebuy, thereby funding the entire prize pool, while up to 300 locals slide in free, to leach off the paying players money. Also I mentioned the good rates on hotel rooms at the Quechan Resort. OK - so what happened - good overlay or bad equity - lots of players or no one? Well, more than 300 local players qualified for either a free entry or a discounted entry. These players either played in the 'mini-bouts' repeatedly to earn the comps, or they registered with the pit to have their play tracked to earn comps for the tourney entry. So ..... 27 players showed up. That's it. I think maybe 3 or 4 full pay entries, including me, a few fully comped local players, and the rest part comped/part paying local players. 27 players for a $50,000 tourney. That would be $1,851.58 equity per player. And with little pay in, the casino would be putting almost all of that into the prize pool. And as I said, this casino has always honored it's guarantees. Once in the past, they had canceled a mini tournament, when only about a dozen persons showed up to play for a $5,000 prize pool ($35 entry fee). But they had also put on tournaments, with the full guarantee, when they had only 40 players show up, and the casino had to cover 75% of the $10,000 prize pool. But other than that one time, they have always honored the guarantees. Well, not this time, eating $50,000 was just too much for them, especially as they where going to pay down to 24 places (out of 27 players). So the tournament was canceled. What the casino did was offer a substitute tourney for those who wanted to play, for a $10,000 prize pool for a $100 buyin. For comped or partially comped players, their comps could be used for the substitute tourney. Paying players got their money refunded in excess of the new $100 buyin. Comped players with more comps than needed for the $100, got a dinner comp for the difference. No extra juice for the players here at all. Players that didn't want the substitute tourney got a full refund. That's it. 4 players chose the full refund, and one new player came in late, and decided to go for the $100 entry for $10,000. Well, 24 players, for a $10,000 prize pool, that's $416.66 equity for $100 buyin, so I was in for the substitute tourney. They still payed down to 24 places, so you were guaranteed at least a $50 pay out. Net equity was just too good to pass up. Two other BJTers at the tourney, besides me, one of whom took second. Other notes: Casino made an effort to make it a nice tourney. Good set up, they used a rotating button (not usual in Yuma), nice dealers and staff, and they put on a reception/registration event the evening before the tourney, with a good spread of food, as in, you didn't need to do dinner before, the roast beef, beef wellington, shrimp skewers, etc. would take care of you. A good physical set up in their event center, etc. Well done on these aspects of the tournament. Too bad no one showed up. Bad note here, the few out of towners who checked out the hotel rates, got hit with $139 a night. This is probably the highest rate Quechan resort has charged for a room in a year. They evidently felt that they could make some money off of the tournament crowd that didn't show. Final Comment: Casinos don't understand blackjack tournaments. They don't understand who plays in them, how to attract players, or how to run them. They don't know the market, they don't know how to make them work. If a tournament works, it is not because the casino does it right, it is an accident. The casino will repeatedly figure out ways to screw it up, until no one wants to play it anymore. And we don't help them, by playing in bad tourneys with carnival game rules, and encouraging them to run them as promotions with hopes of making up the money with 'side play', etc. What we get are efforts like this, a casino that figures it can run a promotion for its local gamblers, then sucking the tournament prize pool out of out of towners who will over pay for a big tournament, and over pay for a hotel room, and give them 'side play'. They don't know their market, or how to attract players, and somehow this doesn't work. Wow, imagine that. And the casino will blame the players for not supporting the tournament, and say that proves bj tournaments don't work; while the players will blame each other for 'not giving side play', and for not showing up when the money is guaranteed. Actually the staff at Quechan Resort is very nice, and made an effort to put on a nice tourney. They just don't know how, they don't know what they are doing, and they can't get away from the 'how to make the players pay for the promo tournament' way of thinking.. Final Final Comment: There were local players, who earned enough points either through the 'mini-bouts' or through tracked play, to get a completely comped entry into the tournament (and remember they had to make an effort to do this, either playing in the mini-bouts or asking for their play to be tracked for this), who did not show up to play. Free entry to a $50,000 tourney, and you don't show up? Also, quite a few players who had enough comps to get in for maybe $50 or so, who didn't show. Huh? Final Final Final Comment: What a disappointment. Quechan Resort staff say they will keep trying to put on BJ tournaments, they are thinking of a weekly tournament schedule, they have been successful with monthlies during the winter months. They also said they would be willing to try another big tournament in the future.
Seems to me that the casino tried to run a big tournament ($50,000) but there was no interest. You said yourself "Casino made an effort to make it a nice tourney..." The mere fact that you wanted to play because of the great equity shows that the players are the culprits, not the casino, for the tournament failure - the players just don't understand or they just don't want to play tournaments. Several years ago, a local casino in my area tried to run a $100,000 BJT but the pre-registration was poor so the event was canceled. Can't blame the casino for that. Players were simply not interested. My point is that not all geographical areas have players interested in BJTs.
Too many mistakes Should they have tried a big tournament? Maybe not for the Yuma market. But ... They tried to do it in August. Their past experience is that summer tournaments, regardless of prize pool or buyin, draw about 1/4 the players that winter tournaments do here. We are within reach of two major metro areas, Phoenix and San Diego, a few people do come from these areas for the monthly tournaments, $5,000 or $10,000, in the winter. They focused advertising on the local Yuma market, not the metro markets. They never made available a full set of the tournament rules and tournament format, I did not know the playing rules until today, when I showed up to play. They tried to charge the paying players enough to fund the total prize pool, even though they would make up less than one-half of the total players they were shooting for. They increased room rates to the highest level of the past year for the tournament weekend. In past tournaments, they refused to use a rotating button for tournament play, even though it was requested by many players. They said it was 'too hard for the dealers to learn', and 'didn't make any difference in play'. Players did not know if a button would be used or not, some staff said yes, some no. In past tournaments, they would never enforce a betting order, even though it was requested by many players. They said it was 'too hard for the dealers to learn', and 'didn't make any difference in play'. What was the rule to be for this tournament? Players didn't know. They talked about allowing surrender for the tournament. Some staff said they would, some said they wouldn't. They did not allow surrender. When you tried to get any info about the tournament, you would get referred to the players club. The players club never knew anything, and apparently were never told anything about the tournament except, 'it costs $250'. When you would get to the pit staff, they knew little more, mostly because they were putting it together as they were trying to get players. On none of the printed materials they did put out, until the day of the tournament, did they list the time for the reception or the starting times for the tournament rounds. They threw a 'carnival game' element into their tournament rules. Starting bankroll was $5,000. Min and max bets for the first 6 hands only were $25 and $500; for hands 7 through 12, min and max bets were $50 and $1,000; for hands 13 through 18, min and max bets were $100, and $2,000; for hands 19 through 24 (final hand), min bet was $100, with no max bet. They said to me that this would make the game more exciting for the players. Why did they think that? They assumed that all of their regular blackjack players would jump at the chance for a big tournament, showing they do not understand the difference between blackjack and tournament blackjack and the people who play the different games. They did not try cross-marketing the blackjack tournament to their poker players, with any incentives for them to cross over and play. They have successfully run $50,000 poker tournaments here. They seriously thought that a $50,000 tournament in Yuma would attract players to travel here, at least regionally, if not nationally, but they did no outreach or advertising to achieve this. If, as you say, a $50,000 tournament just might not work in Yuma, then their first mistake was a complete misperception of their own local market, and their ability to attract regional/national players, and the marketing they would need to do. Is that enough? It is not the player's responsibility to 'support tournaments', it is the casino's responsibility to provide tournaments players want to play in, and to market those tournaments effectively. It is not the player's responsibility to provide side play to thank a casino for putting on a tournament; it is the casinos responsibility to structure a tournament so that it works for them either as a profit center or as a promotion, it is not the players' responsibility to make up for the casino's incompetence in this regard. If a company produces a product so bad that few customers want to buy it, do you blame the customers for refusing to buy a bad, poorly marketed product? Should consumers be held responsible for a company's incompetence? I think I just described virtually every blackjack tournament ever put on.
I bet a mailing two weeks before the event to these 300 players would have yielded a decent turnout, at least enough to have the tournament not cancel. I'm guessing that many of those who had enough table play to qualify for a free entry didn't even know it. If you have any contacts there, it would be a useful exercise to point them to this thread I think.
Actually I've told them about this forum several times over the years, including after they announced this tourney. I encouraged them to post info here, and told them I was promoting the tournament here with a post. Told them it would be good for them to do so directly. Told this to both the table games manager and the tournament director. I also offered to talk with them about their tournaments, format and marketing strategy, informing them that I was both an eperienced tournament player and have done market analyses, etc. as a consultant for private business. Made sure they understood I was not looking for 'consulting work', but to offer friendly and helpful advice, because I loved TBJ and wanted good tournaments in my home town. I specifically mentioned in talking with them, that they needed to market to the metro areas, and pointed out the poor attendence their summer tourneys had gotten. Even left my business card with them so they could contact me back. They were spectacullarly uninterested. After all, they're professionals.
