I'm not giving up yet!

I still believe the TBJPA can work, however it will only work with the support of the casinos and more support from the players.

I am working on something BIG for all of us, but only with the full support of the casino. If this event doesn't work then you can stick a fork in the future of blackjack tournaments.

If I can pull this off, all the monthly and championship prize money will be GUARANTEED by the casino.

Should I get the okay, it wouldn't be starting up until later next year. Keep your fingers crossed, it will be something special if I can get a casino to agree to my concept.

And not to worry, in my concept everybody will be able to play "Open to All".

Entry fees will be affordable, however rooms will not be included, but at discounted rates.

 

good luck

good luck

just make it a casino within a few hours drive of Yuma, please!!!!!!!

Vegas would be ok, Laughlin too

how about Golden Acorn or Viejas? - better yet - Paradise or Cocopah casinos in Yuma (one actually has a hotel, the other is building one!!!! and they both will have fast food outlets!!!)

and tournaments on weekends

oh yes, and we would like 200% equity on all tourneys

and if its an Indian casino - I should get 'native american preference' and start with double the chips - that 2% Indian ancestry should be worth something

I'll let you know the rest of my demands later

 

My SUPPORT and Heartfelt Thanks...

Rick:

I want to personally thank you for your conscientious efforts in trying to take this thing (TBJPA) to a whole new level. If there is anything I or others can do to assist you in the future, please don't hesitate to ask.

Some very inspirational words come to my mind as I type this response, and I'm not sure where they came from, but they seem to be appropriate:

"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits!"

Hang in there my friend, and keep your head held high as you "keep on keeping on"....

Make it a "Great Day"!

Skipper

 

Tournament players...LOL

RKuczek your sounding more and more like a tournament blackjack player...LOL

Have you heard the joke;
Why don't tournament blackjack players have tuxes? The casinos don't give them away for free...LOL

As I meantioned above, I am trying to sell my concept to a few casinos. The key in selling this is showing the casinos what it will be worth to them and the keys to making this concept work is to have an affordable entry with GUARANTEED prize pool and no fees for the players.

No BS here, I'm not telling anyone that this event is going to happen, only I am trying to make it happen.

If I can't find a casino willing to guarantee the monthly and championship prize pool in writting, or even better have the funds put in an escrow account, there is no way in hell I would touch it.

Also I believe the best location for such an event would be in Las Vegas, and here is my reasons behind that suggestion.

1. Much more to do in Vegas, before and after the events each day.
2. More rooms, most players have or can get comps somewhere in Vegas.
3. More players
4. Chance to pick up walk in players is greater in Vegas.

I am more then willing to talk with casinos in other parts of the country about hosting this event, but over all I can't think of one location with the drawing power of Las Vegas.

 

Tbjpa

Rick..the very best of luck in keeping this thing going.

One thing I have noticed....
Some of the most vociferous posters on this forum, who write paragraphs if not pages on every tournament topic have not supported your efforts.

I wonder what you have to do to get them to participate in your tournaments?

 

Get 'em a lot closer - which is totally impractical for Rick. I want to play those events sooooo much..... :cry:

Hang in there, Rick. Glad to see that you're not giving up yet!

 

leftnut

Hey Leftnut It Is Going To Be Cold In Michigan Go On The Cruise In January - I Will Be Finally Able To Participate In The Tbjpa Other Moral Than Support:d :d


THE CRUISE WORKED OUT GOOD FOR ME SINCE I CAN JUSTIFY A VACATION AND TOURNYS- NO OBJECTION FROM MY WIFE-SHE WILL PLAY ALSO

 

Fred, all I can do is try and put out a good tournament. I can't make anyone play nor do I want to force or beg anyone. If they want to play the events will be open, if not that is up to them.

I know several players who would have loved to have come played in my TBJPA events, however they had other obligations and or financal difficulties.

Trust me I know first hand the expense of playing in tournaments out of town. You have travel, rooms, food, entries, re-buys, fees, tips, transportation once your there (rental cars, taxis, or montrail), and misc. expenses, and this isn't counting anything for gambling!

When I do schedule an TBJPA event I take all of that into consideration and try my best to take care of my members.

This is why I believe that a series of monthly affordable qualiying tournaments can work similar to the orignal LV Hilton Million Dollar Tournaments about (5 years back), but with some new modifacations.

1. One such change would be only a $600 entry vs. the old $1,000 entry.
2. Re-buys at $300. Any out of town player would gladly re-buy at $300 vs. have additional airfare + another $600 entry at another time and the locals would rather pay the $300 instead of $600 the next month as well.
3. Offer a 2nd re-buy, based on avaliblity at only $150, for all the reasons list on #2.
4. Allow multiple seats to be won for the final event. This would eliminate the loss of players in the monthly events that we had before.
5. Make the pay schedule not so top heavy as in past events and pay deeper for the players.

I believe that most players would rather play for the following payouts instead of one big winner take all for a million dollars.

Example:

FINAL TABLE:

1st = $350,000
2nd = $200,000
3rd = $150,000
4th = $100,000
5th = $ 50,000
6th = $ 30,000

SEMIFINALIST: not advancing

7th - 18th = $6,500 each

QUARTERFINALIST: not advancing

19th - 54th = $1,500 each

With the above pay schedule, we could be paying something back to more players like poker does and allow our tournament players a chance to re-coup and even win some money. By doing this it might just allow players to entry more events.

There is an old saying; "You can shear a sheep several times, but you can only slaughter it once"!

It is time to start trying to keep our tournaments alive and stop all these top heavy and winner take all events.
By allowing more winners or at least allowing players a chance to break even, it should help us continue with blackjack tournamnets.

 

Some promo/marketing ideas for your event

Rick,

Just putting my marketing cap on, here are some ideas (some way out there, but you never know) to possibly help with promotion, getting more players involved, etc. You may have already thought of many of these since you've been doing this for awhile, but...here they are. If you'd like to brainstorm some more, PM me and I'll give you my phone number.
. Hook up with Anthony Curtis and have him be a sponsor. Maybe give him $x for every Las Vegas Advisor subscriber that signs up for your tournament. This will give him an incentive to promote it in the newsletter and on his website.
. Talk to the people at ClubUBT. Have them offer satellite tournaments with the winners getting a free entry to your tournament. (Yes, I know, yours isn't EBJ, but why not have the WHOLE BJT community involved.)
. Same with Absolute Poker/Bet21.
. Time the qualifying tnys and/or final to take place either two days prior to or after a major convention. Find a convention that would bring in possible blackjack tournament players. I know the casinos rate the business/industry of the conventioneers. When a publisher I worked for decided to get into the conference business as well, he asked me to become his meeting planner/conference coordinator. Of course I convinced him Vegas was THE place to have our conferences. I created four such events over a two-year period. The MGM Grand conference salesperson catered to my every whim since our customers were automobile dealers. The casino had them rated as #2 on their list of best possible conventioneers -- those who will gamble big bucks. If I were bringing in CPAs, it would have been another story, since those guys are rated at the bottom. So ask you casino rep which professions are rated high, and find out when these guys will be in town for a convention.
. Talk to the people at GSN. You never know. They could get interested in something like this -- especially if a big casino gets involved.
. Try for a casino company that has venues in other parts of the country, and have them run satellite events at those casinos.
. Once you know the dates of your events, place ads in the various Vegas magazines that all tourists pick up and/or those that are in most hotel rooms. You may even get the casino to pay for some or all of the ad.
. Name your tournament with either something catchy or something that ties into a show, restaurant, club, or theme in Vegas. You know, something like the Double Tao (almost sounds like double down) Blackjack Tournament. Or the KA Blackjack Tournament. KA being the show as well as a king-ace blackjack. These two just came to me this second -- I'm not really putting time into this, but we can always brainstorm.
. Get a named bj pro or (I can't believe I'm saying this) poker pro to sponsor the event(s). Wouldn't the Annie Duke Queen of Blackjack Tournaments attract more players? They'd get a chance to meet her (or the other sponsor). And possibly have knockout satellites where the players play against the pro, and whoever wins this mini-tourny get a free entry.
. Tie the final event into a casino or club opening. Hold the event during the first month of the opening.
. Or have a pre-implosion tournament at the next venue to go down in smoke.
. Have the event casino do something similar to what the Hilton did. Have signs at every blackjack table, letting the players know that when they get a Jack and Ace of spades blackjack, they get a card they can deposit in a strategically placed entry box on the casino floor that gives them a chance at a free entry to the next qualifying or final event. This way the tournament gets promoted at EVERY BJ table, and passersby see the entry box and signage on the casino floor. This wouln't cost the casino much at all.
. Tie your event into a major poker tournament. Could you hold it right before or after the WSOP? You'll have a lot more tournament players in Vegas. Granted they're poker players, but we've seen some crossover. That's why having a major poker player be a sponsor or spokesperson could work. Heck, why not have both a BJ and Poker sponsor?
. Just thought of this one: Have Jennifer Tilly be the spokesperson for the Double D Blackjack Tournament. BTW: D stands for Down! She can put a temporary tattoo of the queen of hearts on one breast and the Ace of hearts on the other.
. Have satellites in Europe. I"m sure Mace would help you with this. And, besides, he does this kind of stuff for free since he loves the game so much. (just teasing Mace) The winner of the final event in Europe gets an all-expense-paid trip to the final event in Vegas.

That's it for now. If you or others want to brainstorm some more, contact me.

- Ted

 

Rick you can have my full support on any new event, I would have come to Trop, But at time assumed i was going to Barona and 2 trips in 1 month was a bit to much for my schedule.
I can not promise to make it every month but hope to make it to most,
Ted is quite right, I am here to help anything TBJ .
Hope to meet you one day soon.
Richard
(BJMACE)

 

Great feedback...

I love the feedback Ted, very positive. I actually have a few more ideas in play that you haven't covered and will be helpful to the players as well.

Now if I can just get the casino, I can start the ball rolling!

 

Great Feedback...

Some great feedback from Ted!

I would just add one more thing at this point, and it's something you and I have talked about Rick. My hat is off to you for landing a Casino on the Strip here in Vegas for your last tournament. Well done! In the future, make sure that you have the Host Casino, wherever it is, keep their end of the bargain as far as guaranteeing a certain number of players for the Event, etc. It's incumbent upon them to do a certain amount of promoting, marketing and advertising in order to make it a "Win Win" situation for both parties.

Put everything in writing and get a committment from them to do what they say they're going to do. It's to their advantage as well as yours...

The FUTURE is bright my friend!

Skipper

 

Oh My GOD! Ted provided some well-meant constructive criticisms and suggestions about blackjack tournaments -
and he didn't get his head ripped off for it!

Excuse me while I go write this on my calendar to commemorate the date. :laugh:

Seriously, it's great to see this kind of exchange going on.
Good luck, Rick, and someday soon I'll be able to help in more ways than simply spouting off here. :cheers:

 

comments

Rick -

One thought - one of the things that makes the World Series of Poker successful - is that it is a number of events, held over several weeks - and offers different games and buyins -

while a big, "Championship/Main Event" is needed - how about doing a week of tourneys, including smaller buy-ins and some EBJ tourneys - all events would not need to be guaranteed - with the Main Event being the big attractor - some raked tourneys before the main event might work quite well - if more affordable - and create a little excitement - as the tourneys build up to the big final

ok - second thought - poker tourneys tend to pay off the top 10% - if you look at their pay outs - they are just way larger in number of participants - so top 100 get paid - but there are 1,000 people in event - for most bj tourneys - the final table - or the final table plus semi-finalists - probably come out to 10% of participants - I think it is fine if top 10% get paid - but poker tourneys also pay a more even payout schedule - win the WSOP Main Event and you get about 25%???? of the prize pool - not 50% or even 35% -

 

Week long multiple events?

Already thought about that as well RKuczek, the end of the year Championship would offer multiple events similar to all the satellite qualifying events offered by the WSOB at the Las Vegas Hilton in January just before the actual WSOB.

I think three days of satellite events would be more then enough, prior to the multiple days of the first, re-buy, and second rounds of the championship event.

Then the Quarterfinals (9 tables), Semifinals (3 tables), and Finals (1 table) would all be filmed which would take at least three - four more days.

Once again, I have the complete layout and plan, I just need the willing casino.

With my concept, I believe the championship event could actually be over a million dollars in prize money, without that much trouble, again we just need the casino.

 

Cherokee tried something similar

I noticed a very similar success with poker events, so I tried a similar concept at Cherokee. It turned out to be very successful and the players loved the variety of tournaments. I am sure that if Cherokee was on the strip in Vegas or in Tunica, the weeklong tournament series would have been even better. Maybe Rick can add a variety of tournaments to his proposal. It would be interesting to have several proposals out there for casinos to choose from. Probably would be a great business barganing tool?

 

not satelites

Rick - I wasn't suggesting satelites - though they are good - but completely separate tourneys - with their own prize pools - some EBJ - some TBJ - variety of buy-ins - make it like the WSOP - the other tourneys stand on their own - not just ways to get money/seat for main event - get away from ONE TOURNEY with satelites and look at A WEEK OF TOURNEYS of different types and buy-ins - make it a TBJ extravaganza - that can attract and keep all levels of players for several days -

combining EBJ and TBJPA tourneys within the same series of events would would be great

 

I like the idea, but...

I'm just not sure how many players we would or could get for that many events.

Two of the biggest reasons we don't get that big of turnouts at blackjack tournaments are:

1. Financial - the cost factors can really add up in these events. Any earlier events would have to be in the $50 - $100 entry range, which is okay, but it won't draw in the many of the out of Towner’s, not knowing the bigger events are still about a week off.
2. Getting away - this covers work, leaving the wife and or family, pets, and any other obligations players may have back home.

The Tulsa events are fun, but even there most of the players come in just for the main event. Now if we could offer a "Player of the Week" award, that would help some, but it would have to be at least $5,000 for the winner.

Now as far as regular Elimination, Hybrid, Accumulative, Jack & Jill, Bounty, we could try those, but the EBJ has the rights to that format, so I doubt we could offer that format.

 

more comments

Rick

entry fees would not need to be that low - if you are looking at $600-$1,000 or up for the big main event - try $250-$500 for the others - declare these The World Championships of Blackjack - give out 'bracelets' or equivalents for the winners - have accumulation, hybrid, jack&jill, regular tbj at different entry levels, and ebj at different buy-in levels - also offer 'side tourneys' for $50-$250 range - no 'bracelets' for these - make all the tourneys except the guaranteed main event (and maybe the biggest EBJ one - which you might also want a guarateed prize pool on) raked tourneys - this is some of your 'side action' for the casinos -

maybe I wouldn't want to pay out the $600 or $1,000 for the main event - but would go $250 for one of the 'lesser' events - the people coming for the main event might very well schedule in a couple of days earlier to get in on the other events - especially if they were fairly sizable - make the whole thing one big attraction - ramp up the entry fees and the prize pools as you approach the Main Event -

and it just may be possible to cooperate with the UBT people -

 

Has to be lower...

The draw for local players is a must for something like this and the Vegas locals will only go about $50 to $100 at the most (as been proven by several of the pass events this year).

Now this is not a knock by any means, but tournament players on fixed budgets can't afford very high entries and if I was to do something like this, I would only do it so it where it would be affordible for all.

Now of course we still could add some extra events with a medium size entry of $250 - $300 prior to the main event.

This sure sounds good, now if we can just get a casino to host it for us...LOL