Strategy for Baccarat Tournament?

Made it to the finals but not the winner's table, so lost. Still, I advanced almost all the way.

But, I'm real money ahead at both this casino and for all of last week's stay at the other, which is what really matters. Tournament was fun tho. At my finals table this one guy just got so far ahead I couldn't catch him he kept betting just 1000 per hand (at finals table min was 1000 max 35000) once he had his lead, which is exactly what I would have done.

By the way, I have Axel blocked but I was logged out when I noticed his post. The fact that he has no idea what that watch is, which I put in there just because I wanted to block out my name not to show off, tells me more about him than anything he has ever posted. I made the right decision to block his nonsense. Then again I suppose he might be a serious player but know nothing about timepieces, but I doubt it.

https://deployant.com/review-rolex-day-date-platinum/

Thanks to the Wizard for giving tournament strategy advice pursuant to my question at his 8/5/2021 Live Stream.

What was discussed more specifically was Blackjack tournament strategy and:
Essentially, betting small for most of the initial rounds - bide your time, and then powering up perhaps in the last 5 hands of a round, mostly on the basis of what your enemies are doing:
-Keep in mind that the dealer is not the enemy - the other players are. If the dealer is running hot, that's bad for everyone not just for you.
-If behind bet opposite of your enemy, if your enemy bets big, you bet small, if your enemy bets small, you bet big.
If you are in the lead, mimic your enemies, bet the same way as the people trying to catch you.
-Sometimes will need to bet big. Don't be afraid to throw out some big wagers.
-Don't wait until the very last hand to catch up. Make the move when there are about 5 hands left.

The Wizard considers tournament play advantage play for a player betting according to the tournament strategy of playing the other players versus playing the dealer - if apply skill should have a 3X better chance of winning than the average player, which means that if say, 10K of play is needed to gain entrance into the tournament, that a skilled tournament player should have a 3X better chance of winning than the average player, which increases the value of his 10K play to effectively 30K.

If I didn't summarize what the Wizard said correctly, I invite him to correct me.

I am also wondering - in a Baccarat tournament the dealer really isn't your enemy. I mean, there is a winning hand available on each deal versus blackjack where if the dealer turns over a 20 or 21, everyone might lose. I have been in a couple Bacc tournaments recently and actually won! one of them recently, a pretty big win actually, and in that tournament for the most part my strategy was betting opposite of what the other players were betting, and hoping that the shoe would go contrary to what was expected. For the tournament where I won, that worked. For the tournament where I lost, the shoe actually did what was expected, and my contrarian bets didn't advance me past the second round.

it wan't quite clear from your prior rules description: in a Baccarat tourny do you merely need to come in 1st or second at your table in order to move on to the next stage of the competition, or are players judged by total stack size across multiple tables?

All of the Baccarat or Blackjack tournaments I have been in involve multiple rounds and having to move up to the next round, where you start over with a fresh stack. I've been in tournaments where only 1 player advances out of 5 or 6 players at the table per round, and then I have been in tournaments where as many as 3 out of 5 advance the first round, and then maybe just 2 out of 6 the next round. Just depends on how many players are in the tournament. Also, sometimes you are lucky and your table has less players than the others due to someone's not showing up, or an uneven number of total players in the tournament not exactly divisible by 5 or 6.

Actually I was in this one tournament where on the 1st round there were just two of us, and 1 of us advanced.

The really big tournaments are often over two days, and have more rounds.

Let me add one more thing - entry into these tournaments is free and invitational. However, along the way if you lose a round you may pay to advance. I have never done that - I refuse to give them any cash for that sort of thing.

However, on one blackjack tournament I was in, they gave us the option of buying more chips at certain hands during the round. I did that once because I had too much cash in my wallet (it cost $300. to buy more chips), but after that I decided to stick to my policy of giving them nothing for my entry or continued participation. As I recall buying those chips was a waste because I advanced that particular round anyway, ahead sufficiently more than the sum of those extra chips.

Some poker tournaments (usually small ones) offer the players "add-ons" where you can buy an extra increment of chips after some number of levels for something like 1/2 the buy-in. Most players seem to pay for these, because stack size is important to how hands are played in poker tournaments.

in poker, busting out of a tournament and then paying to continue with a new starting stack is called a "re-buy," its usually only allowed in early stages of the tournament.

Right, exactly.

I just decided not to do that again for these free tournaments. And you're right, it is offered only for the first few rounds definitely not towards the end.

Another thing I didn't do was negotiate any kind of split with the table when I got to the final round of the Baccarat tournament I won. I just went for it, and it turned out well (for me).

What was funny is that it was my host who made the suggestion, "So, you guys going to negotiate some kind of split for the pot?" when saw that I had made it to the final. It hadn't even occurred to me to do that before.

On the Blackjack tournament I made it only to the second round. First round I followed Wizard's suggested strategy and advanced. Second round some guy was betting tournament max each hand except the last and actually somehow ended up with the highest chip tally. I just kept losing most every hand that round so it wouldn't have mattered much what I did I ended up near the chip bottom.

I have been in two more blackjack tournaments since mid August, and there are more BJack and Baccarat tournaments coming up.

At least I have resisted the impulse to re-buy into the lower rounds - I have played for free only.

But what I have come up against is players who randomly bet bigger and through sheer luck amass a ton of chips early, thereby negating the effectiveness of the Wizard's proposed strategy of just betting the minimum until the final five hands. For example on one of the recent BlackJack tournaments this player bet the minimum on the first hand, and then half of all of his chips on the second hand, and got two aces. He had split his bankroll exactly so that he could split - if it he had been just a tad shy he would not have been allowed to "split for less." The player got an 8 on one of his aces and a 10 on the other, and dealer busted anyway, so that quadrupled the player's bankroll. I watched and counted the cards closely and I put half of my chips out there on a subsequent hand and got a blackjack, but I still couldn't catch up by the end, because I was dealt losing hand after losing hand for some time after that. Probably if I had put ALL of my chips out on that blackjack hand I could have advanced, but not otherwise.

Anyway, bottom line being that unconventional strategies by tournament players who just bet a lot early and win by luck is winning the day lately, at least in the earlier tournament rounds.

I do agree with the below strategy, especially as far as if behind, bet opposite of your enemy, if in the lead, mimic your enemy, but you have to get to the final rounds and not be severely behind in order to even be a contender, and these players tossing it out there early and winning big early make it hard to even make it to the final hands and still be a contender.

Quote: MDawg

Thanks to the Wizard for giving tournament strategy advice pursuant to my question at his 8/5/2021 Live Stream.

What was discussed more specifically was Blackjack tournament strategy and:
Essentially, betting small for most of the initial rounds - bide your time, and then powering up perhaps in the last 5 hands of a round, mostly on the basis of what your enemies are doing:
-Keep in mind that the dealer is not the enemy - the other players are. If the dealer is running hot, that's bad for everyone not just for you.
-If behind bet opposite of your enemy, if your enemy bets big, you bet small, if your enemy bets small, you bet big.
If you are in the lead, mimic your enemies, bet the same way as the people trying to catch you.
-Sometimes will need to bet big. Don't be afraid to throw out some big wagers.
-Don't wait until the very last hand to catch up. Make the move when there are about 5 hands left.

I remember a while back our properties had baccarat and bj tournaments for the VIP patrons. No buyin, all cashless chips, everyone same amount, provided along with a gift, usually in the 250.00 to 500.00 range and a wonderful catered dinner before the event.

Times have changed!