kelly_c_ritter
Member
I mostly play video poker in AC. The Atlantic City casinos do occasionally run blackjack tournaments which are usually invitational, and usually not advertised at all. Even though I have alterted my casino hosts to my interests in such tournaments, I rarely hear about them. Yesterday, I happened to be playing video poker at Sands AC, and became aware that a blackjack tournament was in progress. I called up my host, and was able to get into it.
The tournament structure was that of a 2 round event. In the first round, you played one shoe against the field with the top 6 advancing to the finals.
Prize fund was $25k total, paying down to 20th place. This was a freebie tournament. Nothing was posted about the high scores, but we were told that players were shooting for about $60k (you started with $10k, min bet 100, no max bet). I tapped out fairly quickly, and didn't hang around to find out what it took to make the finals. At the time I played, it wasn't clear whether mine was the last qualifying round, or whether there would be another one. They were running 4 tables of 6 players each at one time, and I believe there had been 120 entrants by the time I played.
I don't know whether these tournaments are run regularly, or when the next one might be. Hopefully, I will learn of the next event a little ahead of time.
Other AC casinos do run blackjack tournaments as well. I've seen (but not bothered with) Harrahs tournaments with $5k prize funds, and played once or twice in a Resorts tournament with something like a $20k prize fund. Both had similar formats to the Sands tournament. A few years ago, Taj had an active tournament program with large prize funds, but I haven't heard anything about tournaments there in quite a while. Plaza seems to only run small, very selective invitational tournaments. Hilton and Park Place do run some blackjack tournaments, but I don't have any recent information on them. I have no information on what other AC casinos might be doing with respect to blackjack tournaments.
The tournament structure was that of a 2 round event. In the first round, you played one shoe against the field with the top 6 advancing to the finals.
Prize fund was $25k total, paying down to 20th place. This was a freebie tournament. Nothing was posted about the high scores, but we were told that players were shooting for about $60k (you started with $10k, min bet 100, no max bet). I tapped out fairly quickly, and didn't hang around to find out what it took to make the finals. At the time I played, it wasn't clear whether mine was the last qualifying round, or whether there would be another one. They were running 4 tables of 6 players each at one time, and I believe there had been 120 entrants by the time I played.
I don't know whether these tournaments are run regularly, or when the next one might be. Hopefully, I will learn of the next event a little ahead of time.
Other AC casinos do run blackjack tournaments as well. I've seen (but not bothered with) Harrahs tournaments with $5k prize funds, and played once or twice in a Resorts tournament with something like a $20k prize fund. Both had similar formats to the Sands tournament. A few years ago, Taj had an active tournament program with large prize funds, but I haven't heard anything about tournaments there in quite a while. Plaza seems to only run small, very selective invitational tournaments. Hilton and Park Place do run some blackjack tournaments, but I don't have any recent information on them. I have no information on what other AC casinos might be doing with respect to blackjack tournaments.
