I arrived at the Aquarius and had an easy time buying in at the players club booth, quick and friendly. I proceeded to the registration line which had a short line and received my players packet which included the rules and a free buffet ticket along with a theme oriented T shirt. I then walked around and noticed a lot of good video poker machines and slipped a 100$ into a .25¢ 10/7 machine with a bunch of 4 of a kind bonus chances, grabbed a 4 of a kind and played for an hour cashing out even and going back to the players club to collect my free t shirt, a very nice one, off points. Walked back to my room at Don Laughlins to read the rules. Opened the rules and read starting BR was 1000$. That didnt jive with what I was told by marketing on the phone, looked at the heading and it was a roulette tourney packet. Had to walk back and get a BJ rules sheet. The rule sheet was actually detailed in terms of disclaimers but had no format info. I was scheduled for second round but came early to track the accumulations as I was told via phone call it was an accumulation tourney. A local tourney player friend in Laughlin told me it was table advance. I walked up to the director and asked what was up, I got a cold reception and was told it was 11 hands 1/6 advance. I was actually happy about this. My first round had a lady wild cat to 14700 from a starting BR of 2100. I rebuy Barneyed. total investment now 98$. Rebuy round I played smartly and won the table to advance to semis on Sunday, this locked in 100$ for me. During another visit to the snarling tourney director I was lead to believe it was going to be table advance on Sunday semi game but when I arrived Tulsa Bob, he had also semi finaled, told me it was accumulation. I asked the director and he told me to wait for the announcement. That coming when we were sitting. He then announced it was top 5 of 32 players, I think there were about 250 players in all, would final table on accumulation with one wild card. The hands played would be 21 in the semis. He also announced the prize structure and said first was 10K which was a change from what was in the rules packet that said 15K. I was mad. BTW, the phone calls also lead me to believe top 50 were paid and a layer near top 6 would get 500$, instead the semi tables got 100$. Tulsa Bob and I had a good first 2/3 of game accumulating nicely. We could see a lady at another able with several thousand in chips which, for me anyway, made me feel a need to lunge. Bob and I busted out. Turned out 3300 was needed to get 5th spot and 4th spot wasnt much more. In other words we were looking good with our totals but killed ourselves with over bets. Thats accumulation pain I guess. Then guess what, the head lady director then announced the first prize was 15K. I was mad. So in conclusion, the tourney had its problems. Reflecting on the entire event I think it has potential as they are planning offering tournaments not only BJ but roulette and craps as well. There was a point I was giving it a grade of a D but have upgraded it to a C just because Im a nice guy. It has potential tho. Low investment. Shaky organization. Good pay out. If they can iron out the little problems it could be a good event. Question is, do they really care to improve?
It was nicer to see The Legend, Skip, and Tulsa Bob. We had a nice visit after our play on Saturday.
