Black Jack Tournament strategy
Can anyone give me a little advice on how to approach a Black Jack tournament?
Stanford Wong has book on tournaments. There is a kindle version [if you don't have kindle there is a PC version you download]
http://www.amazon.com/Casino-Tournament-Strategy-Stanford-Wong/dp/0935926224/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402569670&sr=8-1&keywords=stanford+wong+tournament
Quote: AlembertSo, I will be playing in my first Black Jack tournament at the Plaza next weekend. I am a half-assed card counter, really more of a compulsive counter than anything I have really devoted time to practicing. I do have a grip on general basic, basic strategy. I think it would be nice to go into the game with a bit of a plan, however, I have no idea what the plan should look like. No matter how it goes, it must be +EV as I have zero investment in the game, but it would be a lot of fun to actually be able to be competitive and heck taking down between $500 and $10,000 for cashing the tournament would certainly make the trip a lot more profitable.
Can anyone give me a little advice on how to approach a Black Jack tournament?
You've probably read my recent blog post so some of these may be repeats, but here's what I can offer:
1. Proper blackjack tournament strategy is difficult: at least that was my impression after purchasing an online book a year or so ago on the subject. I read through it and learned a few key points but there was no way I was going to invest the time into really learning the finer points. That said, it was a good purchase as it inspired me to follow a few key rules which I believe improved me over what I would have done all on my own.
2. Read the Rules! Taking 5 minutes will help you not disqualify yourself and potentially spot where others should be disqualified and also familiarize yourself with any subtleties of the particular tournament you are playing.
3. Especially if you can determine if your fellow tournament players are novices and if you don't have a better strategy to follow, consider betting minimums for at least the first half of the tournament to see where things start to play out.
4. Generally speaking, the win/lose outcome on the player side of the board is the same: so if your desire is to stay at the same relative chip level of an opponent, consider matching their bet.
5. Sometimes being too conservative is actually being risky: if only the chip leader advances and there are a few hands left and you had 5000 chips with a max bet of 5000 allowed, betting an amount less than the maximum where a loss virtually disqualifies you anyway isn't the right play to make: bet it all.
Anyway, hope the above helps- having a little luck never hurts, too!
Will definitely give an update when the smoke clears. Hopefully, my story will be half as good as BigPaybak's.
Lookin forward to a nice long weekend of Poker Tournaments at the Nugget, Craps Downtown and out Boulder Highway and hopefully cashing my first BJ tournament. Just wish I had known the EDC thing was going on before I bought my plane tickets...sounds like Vegas will be a total zoo...
So, if you have ground to make up, you want to bet big when they bet small, and bet small when they bet big. If you are leading, you want to bet the same as the opponent you're most worried about (ie, 2nd place).
It's all fairly straightforward, logically. The problem is, you have to decide how much to bet quickly, so it's easy to make a mistake.
There are interesting considerations playing the last few hands, too.
Quote: TheBigPaybak2. Read the Rules! Taking 5 minutes will help you not disqualify yourself and potentially spot where others should be disqualified and also familiarize yourself with any subtleties of the particular tournament you are playing.
Really. Always go over the rules very carefully. Not that this does much to playing strategy, but one tournament I was invited to had a clause that unhappily caught a few people by surprise-- to win any of the cash prizes, as opposed to nonneg chips, to had to have that place and have won your table. If you placed in the cash prize range, but didn't win your table, then you got nonnegs instead.
Idk you can digest the concepts in a few hours of study, and practice situations for a few hours. Should be able to get it down pretty solid in a few days if you have the time and want to, it is not too terribly difficult of material.Quote: chickenmanWong's book best resource I know of, but no chance you can digest in the few days before the tourney IMO because the betting strategy is the key and there are complications depending on stack and position. Unless you have insurmountable lead, just bet max on last hand. Also, forget counting, play perfect basic strategy.
Quote: AxiomOfChoiceThe main thing to keep in mind is that your results are correlated with those of your opponents, because you are playing against the same dealer hand.
So, if you have ground to make up, you want to bet big when they bet small, and bet small when they bet big. If you are leading, you want to bet the same as the opponent you're most worried about (ie, 2nd place).
It's all fairly straightforward, logically. The problem is, you have to decide how much to bet quickly, so it's easy to make a mistake.
There are interesting considerations playing the last few hands, too.
+1
At least in some of the tournaments I've played in, while this seems straightforward, many participants don't seem to follow this strategy.
Quote: AlembertBeing a compulsize counter, I generally know almost exactly how many chips are in play at each station, it has served me very well in Poker and should do the same if I am only competing with the players on my table.
You're already likely ahead of most of the competition then, depending on where you are playing. This is a skill I currently don't have, so I just tried to muddle through keeping track of the leader or second place if I am the leader.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
Black Jack TOurnament was an absolute bust. More to come about that later as well, wife waiting to talk....
Black Jack tournament fell by the wayside, was stuck on the craps table for an uncomfortable amount so I got to the tournament area late and missed the first 6 of 20 hands. Played very foolish/aggressively in an attempt to chip up or chip out. Busted within 6 hands. Back to my toweled chips on the craps table and re-couped all my money, to show a profit of 200 for the time. Got my host to provide me with $100 free-play on top of the BJ tourney, netted 86 off of Jacks or Better.
The trip took me up and down Boulder Highway, several sessions at the Eastside Cannery and a couple sessions at Sam's Town. Downtown play at all our favorite joints: Plaza, Golden Gate, The D and The Grand. Also took a ride out to Red Rock and hit the old Cannery on the way back from Red Rock (so I learned that it really was not on the way back....)
All in all, an excellent trip. Got home Sunday and slept for 16 hours straight.
Quote: AlembertSO here it is: Trip in a nutshell, cost about 1200 between airfare, car rental and baby sitters. Ran 16 craps sessions between various joints, got on the plane with a comfortable profit.
Black Jack tournament fell by the wayside, was stuck on the craps table for an uncomfortable amount so I got to the tournament area late and missed the first 6 of 20 hands. Played very foolish/aggressively in an attempt to chip up or chip out. Busted within 6 hands. Back to my toweled chips on the craps table and re-couped all my money, to show a profit of 200 for the time. Got my host to provide me with $100 free-play on top of the BJ tourney, netted 86 off of Jacks or Better.
The trip took me up and down Boulder Highway, several sessions at the Eastside Cannery and a couple sessions at Sam's Town. Downtown play at all our favorite joints: Plaza, Golden Gate, The D and The Grand. Also took a ride out to Red Rock and hit the old Cannery on the way back from Red Rock (so I learned that it really was not on the way back....)
All in all, an excellent trip. Got home Sunday and slept for 16 hours straight.
Sounds like you had a good time. The fact that they let you sit out BJ hands in the tournament could be looked at as a positive. I always minimum bet in the first half and hope others bet foolishly and get knocked out.
Quote: DRichSounds like you had a good time. The fact that they let you sit out BJ hands in the tournament could be looked at as a positive. I always minimum bet in the first half and hope others bet foolishly and get knocked out.
Yeah that is crazy. They should have disqualified him for sure. I've never seen a BJ tournament where you can sit out hands.
Quote: AxiomOfChoiceYeah that is crazy. They should have disqualified him for sure. I've never seen a BJ tournament where you can sit out hands.
Is it possible he was min-posted during those hands?
Quote: AlembertMin. bet posted and sacrificed for each of the hands I missed.
Oh, that seems reasonable, I guess. In all the ones I've ever played in, if you're not there, you're out, but so long as they are "blinding you off" it seems fair.
