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Thread: Tournament Tips?

  1. #1


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    Tournament Tips?

    Hi all,

    I'm participating in a small stakes BJ tournament in a couple weeks. The buy in is $50 with a minimum $3000 prize pool. Its an elimination setup of three heats, with the third heat being the final. Each heat consists of 4 complete rounds of shoes. All players in the final receive a prize, and the last tournament winner won $2500.

    The rules:

    -4D
    -75% pen
    -3:2
    -S17
    -DAS
    -NS
    -NHC
    -Double 9-11
    -Probably others I missed

    Anyway, how efficient is Hi-Lo for this specific tournament setup (using half-deck estimation), and do you have any tips for tournament play in general?

    Thanks.

  2. #2


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    Get Stanford Wong's book on "Casino Tournament Strategy", it's on Kindle.

    Keeping track of chip stack of other players is more important than counting.

  3. #3
    Senior Member BigJer's Avatar
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    I've also heard that counting is kind of useless in tournaments.

    BTW, do not use Ken Einiger's book. Someone mentioned it's laughable.
    My Ability in Blackjack is a Gift from God!!

  4. #4


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    Be prepared to see weird stuff (doubling on 13, splitting against 10 etc.). I thought I had a place in the semi finals, had a chip lead, made a betting mistake, guy doubles a 12 against a 9, wins hand and I am out.

  5. #5


    1 out of 1 members found this post helpful. Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    All the advice given so far has been good, especially about how counting is of no benefit during short tournament rounds. Strategic betting outweighs any other factor by a wide margin. The "weird stuff" described by Zee is sometimes actually skilled strategic play (his skilled opponent took advantage of Zee's betting error) and sometimes it's nonsense because some players see these kinds of plays made but don't know why. They just think that they're supposed to play crazy at the end.

    Wong's book is good, if you take time to understand the reasons for his advice for each play he covers. Ken Smith's blackjacktournaments.com is a valuable resource.

    It's hard to give general advice for tournaments, since each one is different. Among the most important factors are

    • Starting bankroll
    • maximum and minimum bets
    • how many at each table
    • how many advance from each table


    The only general advice I can give is that, in most formats you will do well if you

    • try to bet with the flow when ahead
    • try to bet opposite of the leaders when behind
    • when time is running out and you are behind, start laying the big bets down (max or even all-in if necessary). In this situation you are trying to either secure an advancing position or bust out trying. You would also normally start doubling/splitting aggressively in this situation, but I see that the game is D9. In this case, begin your aggressive play sooner. Perhaps as soon as the 4th shoe begins. You can still split aggressively. Splitting Ts is an extremely powerful play in this situation.


    Last of all, do all of this without regard to the count. Keeping track of the other bankrolls with accuracy is a far more important task. Strategic betting is all about balancing the probabilities of various outcomes for you and your opponents. These probabilities do not change much with the count.

    Good Luck!

  6. #6


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    Quote Originally Posted by Gronbog View Post
    All the advice given so far has been good, especially about how counting is of no benefit during short tournament rounds. Strategic betting outweighs any other factor by a wide margin. The "weird stuff" described by Zee is sometimes actually skilled strategic play (his skilled opponent took advantage of Zee's betting error) and sometimes it's nonsense because some players see these kinds of plays made but don't know why. They just think that they're supposed to play crazy at the end.

    Wong's book is good, if you take time to understand the reasons for his advice for each play he covers. Ken Smith's blackjacktournaments.com is a valuable resource.

    It's hard to give general advice for tournaments, since each one is different. Among the most important factors are

    • Starting bankroll
    • maximum and minimum bets
    • how many at each table
    • how many advance from each table


    The only general advice I can give is that, in most formats you will do well if you

    • try to bet with the flow when ahead
    • try to bet opposite of the leaders when behind
    • when time is running out and you are behind, start laying the big bets down (max or even all-in if necessary). In this situation you are trying to either secure an advancing position or bust out trying. You would also normally start doubling/splitting aggressively in this situation, but I see that the game is D9. In this case, begin your aggressive play sooner. Perhaps as soon as the 4th shoe begins. You can still split aggressively. Splitting Ts is an extremely powerful play in this situation.


    Last of all, do all of this without regard to the count. Keeping track of the other bankrolls with accuracy is a far more important task. Strategic betting is all about balancing the probabilities of various outcomes for you and your opponents. These probabilities do not change much with the count.

    Good Luck!

    Very helpful post. Thanks.

    I might just keep track of the count to determine playing decisions, and just bet according to what is needed at the time to gain or hold a lead. Its pretty hard to switch it off completely after all haha.

    If the shoe is negative, I hold a stiff and other players have large bets out, you would be better to stand yeah? In the hope that the dealer makes a high total and takes/pushes their large bets?

  7. #7


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    See this for blackjack tournaments tips.
    https://www.blackjackinfo.com/blackjack-tournaments/

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