Input desired on idea for local blackjack tournament.

We have a good following at the local place we do semi-nightly poker tournaments and there was a good number of players interested in blackjack when we did a sort of Vegas night ordeal. So I'm trying to put the rules together for a blackjack tournament. Depending on the response we might make it a monthly ordeal.

I spent last night trying to put together a set of rules and procedures- and used common blackjack play and looking over examples of blackjack tournaments that have been done to come up with the basis. Other things I had to consider was keeping players interested and wanting to keep playing (so an ability to re-buy is highly desired) and to keep the time-frame to about 3 hours- prefer not to go over 4.

So here is what I have come up with.
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Buy-in: $20 initial. $15 re-buys (15 of initial and 10 of re-buy go to pot)

Initial Chips: 5,000; Re-buy chips: 5,000 (must wait till next round)

Each round begins with equal amount of chips.

Each round will be 25 hands. *this may need to be adjusted to 20 hands depending on number of players*

Minimum bet = 100

Players that run out of chips are eliminated from round but may re-buy for next round.

At the end of each round- the players chip counts are recorded for a total tally.

Each player remaining will start the following round with 5,000 in chips.

At the end of 5 rounds the final tallys for each players 5 rounds are totaled and the player who achieves the highest score is declared winner

There will be a rotating deal rule in effect that requires the dealer to start dealing the cards out to a different player in each hand.

one Secret Bet during each round is allowed but not required- placing a bet without letting the other players know how much it is for.

The shoe of cards will be reshuffled when it runs past the cut card and/or when the 25( or 20) hand round is over- whichever occurs first.

There will be a 5 minute break each time the cards are shuffled as well as a 15 minute break at the end of round 2

Players must place a bet each hand- if they are not at the table a minimum bet will be placed for them, and they will be dealt an initial hand- if they are not back to act on their hand it will stand as is and be paid/lost accordingly.

The top two players in the final standings will be awarded the prize fund. 67% to first, 33% to second.



Blackjack rules being used:

8 deck shoe
BJ pays 3:2 rounded up
Splitting allowed up to 4 hands.
No re-splitting of Aces
No hitting split Aces
Dealer peaks for blackjack
Dealer stands on all 17's
No surrender allowed
May double down on any first two cards
May double down after split
No use of cell phones at table
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Things I have been wondering about is if an absentee player should be paid at all or automatically loose a minimum bet; if there should be a bet maximum or leave it open for all or nothing shoves, I was also playing with idea of re-buys having 4,000 chips instead of 5,000; and if I should increase the minimum bet each round.

I don't like the fact that the total from all 5 rounds will be used. I would suggest play it more like a casino BJ tournament where only the top two players from each table move to the next round. You can still let players that lose in round one to play again in round one with another buy-in. After round one no more buy in's, just the top two from each table move on until you only have six players left. Then pay top three at final table 50%, 30%, 20%.

I would also remove the secret bet as this will just confuse a lot of casual players. Don't forget to rotate a button marking which player goes first for each ahnd.

We would only have two rounds if only top-2 moved on. I don't expect more then 2 tables 6-16 players. If we have a LOT of players interested I can buy more equipment and properly train two other dealers. A max would be 4 tables. I need to make the time frame at least two hours.

Honestly since this is the first offer I don't know how much interest to expect. I still got to get a straw poll on that. We can do 4 tables max though- that I know. I'm worried if we only advance the top-2 (which is traditional) we wont be there more then an hour. Especially if we only get one table.

Also a 3-way payout split is possible but depending on how many buy-ins there are- I don't know if it will look all that lucrative. (you could be looking at 30-45-75 split in that case on a $20 buy-in)

Noted on the secret bet- you may be absolutely correct to remove that. Most of these people wont even know basic strategy.


I have also considered taking the total pot money and splitting it up between each rounds winner. giving players 5 chances to win prize money.