Paradise Casinos in Yuma is starting up its Blackjack tournaments again this month. Tournament will be Thursday 28 August; staring time is 6:00 PM Arizona Time (same as Calif time until daylight savings time ends). Entry fee is $30, rebuys are $20. Prize pool is $3,000 for this one, will increase to $5,000 in November (usually). Tournaments are always the last THursday of each month, will run through May, if usual schedule is followed. Number of players for this tournament will probably be in the 40-50 range, players will increase as winter visitors return, topping 100 in starting in December/January (last February, had a record 168 participants).
Yuma Turnout Turnout can vary greatly, depending on time of year. Lowest I've seen is about 40, which was during the summer, highest is well over 100, during the winter. They stopped doing the tourneys in the summer because of the low turnouts. Yuma gets about 120,000 snowbirds each winter, so that's the difference. I would expect about 80 or so for the November tourney. But the prize pool is guaranteed, and not affected by turnout. Should note that this tournament can have significant negative equity when there is a big turnout - they can take in as much as $8,000+ while giving out only $5,000; but can be pretty positive equity when there is a small turnout.
Completely understand...which is why I'm thinking of a run now and not in December. :angel: What's a 6hr round trip for a little BJ? Poor hubby, he's just not getting this new obsession.:laugh: ETA: I called into the Pit this morning for a little more info... First round is 15 hands, on Thursday Buy-In starts at 5:30pm, you can Re-Buy until the cut-off but she didn't know when that was. The final table gets paid out a percentage, and again she wasn't sure what the breakdown was. And a single person per R1 table advances. That was the toughie for me as I've gotten really comfy with my local House sending 2 or 3 to the Semi/Final table. Still thinking seriously about rolling out there Thursday to play. Might be able to get my local Pit Boss to go as well as he's not be there in a year. :devil:
Yuma Tourney Sorry I didn't give more info each round is 15 hands, single advance, $5 min and no max bet - can go all in at any time. Can double anything, can double after split. Split aces only once, then get one card only - bj pays 3-2, insurance is offered. Bankroll is $200. Prize pool is either $3,000 or $5,000 - no tourneys in summer months, starts up in September and runs through May, usually. The $3,000 tourneys are the first one or two and the last one or two in cycle, rest are $5,000. They do guarantee the prize pools. Tourneys are always the last Thursday of the month - except - for November and December this year - because this year the last Thrusday for these months are Thanksgiving and Christmas - so they are going off a week early - on the 20th of November and 18th of December. Tourneys start at 6:00 ARIZONA TIME - Arizona is one hour ahead of California time (except of course when Cal is on daylight savings time, which arizona doesn't believe in, then cal time and arizona time is the same). So, starts at 5:00 Cal time. You can start registering the Monday before the tourney, up to start time, and, actually, can enter the later rounds, so even if a late arrival, still get to play. Big problem with this tourney is there is no button - Players simply plop out bets, in no particular order, and you are expected to bet very quickly - of course some players will deliberately lag, so they can see others' bets - dealer will sometimes hassle you if you take more than a couple seconds to place a bet - play always starts at seat 1. also - watch for players hiding chips - either obscuring their stack, holding their chips in their hand, or even, in one case, holding a single chip concealed in their hand - especially on final hand - dealers are getting better in catching this behavior - but - don't hesitate to politely ask a player to move their arm, hand, or put down their chips, etc. as needed. A lot of this is accidental, but not all. for the last hand - play always starts with seat 1, then rotates, for last hand you do have to bet in order, and can take as much time as wanted. Seats are assigned through a random process, players draw cards, Ace gets first choice of seat, two gets second choice, etc. - surprisingly, some players want to be in seat 1; though most realize seat 7 is at an advantage. no chip count is done. some tables deal from a shoe, some use a csm. Level of play is very poor, players tend to bet very large and just chunk out chips and depend on luck - but - with only fifteen hands - someone will get lucky. At one table, going into hand 9, I had $2,400 in chips, and was only in fourth place; on hand 13, I had $1,800 in chips and was the chip leader, with BR2 with under $1,000 - gives you an idea of how play goes. Format is first round, 6 or 7 players at table, one advance to semi-final. Semi-final round, 6 or 7 players at table, one advance to Final Table. All at final table get paid - Minimum is $100 I think; First gets $2,300. Occassionally will draw a wild card to final table, depending on number of players. Normally three qualifying rounds of six tables each; then will run as many 'rebuy' rounds as possible, to fill up semi-finals. Entry fee is $30; rebuy fee is $20. They run Semi-finals as soon as they get enough players qualified - so you can make a semi; lose; and still have an opportunity to rebuy into another first round table. Oh yes, they put out some minor h'ordeuvres for players to munch on. I think that covers everything. If you make it, look for a 63 year old man, stumbling around aimlessly, puffing away on cigarettes, etc. That will be me - or - maybe one of the 100 snowbirds - but look for Richard Kuczek.
Richard, this is sooooo helpful!! I'll be the non-blonde Cali-girl who's not yet 40 with her tag-along co-pilot who's not yet 50 (also not blonde). She's not a player of cards, but will be along as to keep me awake going home if we don't catch a room somewhere. We've been known to do a few crazy things of late, and this falls into that level of crazy. Now to convince husband that this isn't so crazy...and that I have a pretty good chance. That re-buy-in on a R1 table makes the odds in my favor. Oh, and the name is Sandra...goes with the Sandy Eggo pun.
Sandra I'll be wearing my BRIGHT ORANGE SHIRT - guarantee no one else will be in a shirt that color. Sandy Eggo from San Diego?
Ok, I did miss this, and you're right...no one was wearing that color. Glad we met on the last Re-Buy table. LOL, you were the first to comment on the horrible pun on my own name. I've been called everything from SandraDee, to Sandy Beach, to -- well, it's bad.:joker: And you were so right about the quality of the players. It sure brought down my play.
Quality of players there are a few players in Yuma that have an idea as to how to play a tournament, but so many that don't. It is hard to strategize against people who play totally randomly. Particularly in a tournament where they do not use a rotating button, play 15 hands per round, no max bet, small starting bankroll, and you have about 5 seconds, at most, to get your bet out. But that is exactly what the casino wants, a game that gets down to who gets luckiest. They want to give the don't have-a-clue snowbirds and equally clueless occassional local player as much a chance to win as any other, so, they want to remove the skill from the game as much as possible. With single advance tables, this is actually a tough tournament to cash.
Almost sounds like you have to team-up to attack it. (oooh, did I say that???) And I guess best bet for that final table is the damned ticket drawing they do. I was off by 2 digits on the one that was drawn. And poor husband is worried this is now on my "list of ones I want to play in"...not sure yet. Will see after Valley View on Monday.
