I signed up for it early this week and I know several others that have. Ron Neal said there were "twenty something " entries so far and he sounded quite optimistic about the chances of 55-60 players.
I'm looking forward to any reports on the Soo tourney. Any BJTers make the final, how many players showed up?
Not good, Tim. 32 entrants. First paid 2k. My 6th place finish was good for a whopping $330.00 Good chance this was the "Swan song" for Kewadin bj tournaments. SAD!!! Billy C
Wow, that is bad news. They really screwed up a good tournament at Kewadin. Hope your "win" paid for the gas, anyway. See you in OK
A well run tournament series which attracted top players from all over the mid-west and beyond reduced to side-show status. Very sad.
I haven't given up hope for it. The dude they hired as CEO (or whatever it was) has a history of getting into positions like this in casinos and not lasting more than a couple of years (Google is a big help sometimes). I'd bet his severe cost-cutting measures look great until the overall revenue falls off the end of the table. As far as the BJT's. I'm gonna fire up my bully pulpit for a few moments. I own and operate a bowling tournament series - a "tour" if you will - with a good buddy/partner. We have grown every year until we're the biggest of it's kind in Michigan. How? By finding ways of adding value to the event itself or the experience for our customers. Nearly every year we find some way to make it better for them. Even have corporate sponsors now. What does this have to do with the Kewadin BJT's? They've been doing it backwards for years. Cut - cut - cut on the benefits of making that trip or of the experience itself. Remember when it used to be a battle to get into one of them? Waiting lists!!! And you couldn't find a seat at a BJ table in the casino on Friday or Saturday night of BJT weekend. Now they can't even attract anough players for a decent semifinal round while our events here keep growing. I can say with a significant degree of confidence: They're Doing It Wrong!!!!!!!
I don't believe it will be the end, but time will tell. I believe this moron CEO will have to crash and burn first, but I believe they'll be back once he does that. These tournaments used to make money and they will again if they return the the exact offerings they once had. Good job on the final table!!
Congrads on the finish Billy, sorry to hear of the turnout. But as others have said, not worth the drive for most of us anymore. Back in the day we used to have 6 up to 10 folks come from our area (320 miles away) for these events. Hopefully Tim is right and it won't be the end and they will turn around at some point. Soon we hope! Pill
Regarding the new CEO, I had a nice conversation with a "higher up" when there and this person said that he's enjoying "Rock Star status" at present because the overall numbers look good. Said person agreed with me that it results from many, many cuts in all areas and also told me that the clientele has diminished greatly. Hopefully, this catches up with him sooner rather than later!
If you want to tell Kewadin what you think of their current blackjack tournament program, here is the way to do it. I did, and it felt good. http://www.kewadin.com/gaming/comment-form
