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Tournament Report -1999

Last time, I told you how I was preparing for a Blackjack Tournament which was held at Station Casino St. Charles and offered a $10,000 first prize. Well, I didn't win that, nor did I place 'in the money', but I learned a lot which will help me when I enter tournaments in the future. As you might gather, after playing serious Blackjack for almost 20 years, this was my first casino tournament, but it certainly won't be my last. I mean, think about it: I was able to use my playing skills in a somewhat open manner, could jump my bets at will, could split 10s if I wanted and could have made somewhere between $400 and $10,000 for about 4 hours' work! That's a good deal and if your favorite casino offers such events, you should give some serious thoughts to participating.

Since I covered the rules and prizes of the tournament in the previous article, I won't go over them here, other than to say that I discovered insurance bets weren't permitted and nothing about that was mentioned in the rules. As it turned out, it didn't affect my play, but I learned to ask about such things. The first round of the tournament had 10 tables of 6 players each and the top two at each table moved on. Each of us began with $2000 of 'funny money' with which to play our 25 hands and I began with $50 bets. As the cards were played, the count moved up slightly and I went to $100 bets. The others at the table were, for the most part, betting $100-$200 a hand and we were all losing. One guy was sticking with a flat $25 bet (the minimum) and was several hundred dollars ahead of all of us at hand #10. It appeared that I was the only counter at the table, but my skill had done me little good as the first shoe came to a close on hand #15. No one had built up a big lead, but I was down about $500 as the dealer shuffled the six decks and prepared for the final 10 hands. The table leader had a small profit, maybe $25 or so and nobody was really out of it yet. Since a lot of non-counting Blackjack players believe their best 'shot' comes at the beginning of a new shoe (actually true, since they know the casino's 'off-the-top' edge applies here), a lot of them bet big and several got Blackjacks, which paid 2 to 1. That gave several of them a $200-300 profit for the round and I was down $550. Fortunately, the count had moved up, so I began 'chunking' $200-$300 bets. I won more than I lost, the count kept going up and at hand #20, we took a pause so the 'pit critter' could count everyone's chips. By now, several players were pretty well out of it, but 4 of us were pretty close, with somewhere between $1600-$2000 each. I had $1675 so I knew I had to do some serious betting at this point. But, the count was up nicely, so I put out a $400 bet on hand #21. I was the only one to win that hand and it eliminated one player. Hand #22, 23 and 24 saw me either in first or second place and with the opportunity to be the last to bet on hand #25. Everybody bet big, so the choice for me was to either go with them and bet the $500 max, or to bet the $25 minimum. The true count was +4, so I bet big because I expected to see some Blackjacks or 20s dealt and I figured those would beat the dealer. I put out $500 and got an 8,2 vs. the dealer's 7. No one had received a Blackjack, but most had good hands, yet I figured a doubled win would put me in first place. I doubled for $500, caught a King and the dealer had a 10 in the hole. That gave me the table ($3200 total) and I moved to the quarter-finals. Boy, did I ever wish I could really play this way! Jumping my bets at will had produced a $1200 profit in just 25 hands of play and I had not received a 'natural'. Dream on, son.

We had some time, so I went to play some $5 9/6 Jacks or Better Video Poker and caught 4 Kings for $625 on about my tenth hand, so I knew it was going to be a decent day, whether or not I finished in the money.

In the quarter finals, only the top player (of five) at the 10 tables would move on and of those 10, seven would end in the money. So, I knew this was the round I had to win. On hand #1, most bet $400-500 a hand, in an effort to jump out in the lead. I bet $50 and was the only one to lose the hand. So there I was at hand #2 behind by $400 or so. But in my training sessions on Stanford Wong's 'Tournament Blackjack' software, I learned that those who start big and win are often back with the rest of us by hand #10 or so. While it wasn't easy, I held back and watched the big bets win as I was losing. But that soon turned around and one guy was out by hand #10. I was in about 3rd place and the woman in 4th was a chunker, so I figured she wouldn't last. She didn't, so by the shuffle at hand #14, there were 3 of us left. I had about $2200, a woman had about $3000 and the other player had just $500. My strategy at this point was to ignore him and basically match her bets while being aggressive about getting more $$$ on the table. By this I mean I intended to be quick to double (i.e., 9 against a 7) or split pairs whether the count justified it or not. By winning a few of those, I figured I could catch up with her without a lot of risk. Well, the guy with just $500 left bet it all on the first hand after the shuffle and got a Blackjack which paid 2 to 1, so he now had $1500. He bet $500 on the next hand, split 8s against a 10, resplit and won them all. He was now at $3000, the woman was at $3500 or so and I was at $2800. With 9 hands left, they began betting small and I had no choice but to bet big in an effort to catch up.

At the pause after hand #20, the tally showed that we were all quite close; I had $3200, the woman had $3500 and the guy was at $3000. Plain, old, ordinary luck was going to be the factor from this point on and we began pretty much matching each other's bets. We all lost the next two hands and the guy put out $500 as the first bettor of hand #23. I was next to bet and, with the true count at -3, I figured he'd lose, so I bet just $100. The woman saw him as the threat, not me, so she bet $500 also. The dealer got a natural, but the woman also had one, so she pulled into the lead. For the last two hands, it was no contest, she won and we lost. I did double a $500 12 on the last hand in a desperate attempt to catch up and caught a 5, but the dealer hit to 18. The woman's 20 gave her a decisive victory and that was that.

But the lessons I learned in the tournament were several:

1. Counting the cards is a big help, but at hand #20, forget about counting and keep track of everyone's chips; you can't do both (at least I can't). Near the end, betting according to your standing is much more important than betting by the count.

2. Betting big at the beginning to try and achieve an insurmountable lead is a mistake. Just be there with a good supply of chips for the last 5 hands.

3. You can't win by just betting the minimum. I didn't do that, but others did and it never worked.

4. Tournaments are fun and you (or I) could win. They are worth the time and $$$.

See you here next time.

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