Hi Friends Just noticed this one afraid is a No USA site is running this week 25 February 2008 Littlewoods Online Casino is running a Blackjack Tournament this week. You could win £500 if you play. Here's how it works. You need to go to Littlewoods and download the casino software. Then go to Tournaments and pay a £5 entry fee. You'll be given £1,000 to play blackjack with for an hour. If you get the most you will get £500. The odds are good as at the time of writing only 117 participants had shown up! Blackjack Mania Tournamnet 117 participant(s) End Date: Feb 29 2008 6:59PM EST Duration of Play: 1 hours Entry Fee: £5.00 Starting Balance: £1000.00 Maximum Bet: £100.00 1st prize: £500 1 winner(s) 2nd prize: £100 1 winner(s) 3rd prize: £50 8 winner(s) Current Leaders: 1st: cantoria £5760.00 2nd: Animal £5750.00 3rd: apacino £5400.00 4 OmahaKing £4532.50 5 dennix £4000.00 6 stotty231 £3450.00 7 Zapman23 £3297.50 8 RuthM £3150.00 9 Aatos £3050.00
What would be the best strategy to approach a tournament like this? You don't play at the same table, it all just about who wins the most. My thoughts were wait until the end of the day, so that you can see the highest results and play half bankroll bets until you either go bust or land first place? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. RJT.
This post was from February, and the event has long since ended. However, these casinos may still be holding these events. I won quite a few of these several years ago. Strategy: Wait until a couple of hours before the ending time. Pay the small entry fee and bet the max until you overtake the highest score on the leader board. If you bust out, enter again. Continue until you succeed. Then, the important part. DON'T exit the table with your score. It won't be posted to the leaderboard until you exit the table, so you're in stealth mode while at the table. Then, with only seconds left to go, exit the table and clinch the win. unfortunately, several players eventually learned this trick, so there was always the chance that another stealthed player would beat you. Still, it was a powerful strategy.
Thanks for the reply Ken - think i'm very much taking a peek into your area of expertise on this one so i'll take all the advice i can get. They are running similar tournaments right now, however there are a few important differences. You can now only enter once. I don't imagine this changes much, but thought it would be worth mentioning. Also there is a time restirction. You now have 15min to get your total as high as possible then the server kicks you off, so there's no stealthing right up to the bell. My thoughts would be to wait until shortly before the end of the tournament so that you can get an accurate read on the leader board then take your shot. Are you suggesting full bankroll bets rather than half where possible? They are also running tournaments for several other games, but the rules are the same. What are your thoughts on these? Thanks again. RJT.
Ah, sounds like the abuses of the past caused some format changes. I guess that's for the best. Yes, under the new rules you should wait until late to get a good idea of what total will win it. Once you have a target, I do suggest making max bets until you reach the target or bust out trying. Limiting your bets to half your bank preserves the ability to split or double, but the lower overall variance is a hindrance when you are trying to win several multiples of the max bet.
Makes sense. If the goal then is to achieve a high degree of variance, should you stick to BS, or are there some plays you should deviate on? Thanks again. RJT.
Just noticed that the starting balance is £1000 and the max bet's £100. Would it be worth playing multiple hands if possible? RJT.
If multiple hands are allowed, play as many spots as possible. Since your hands are highly correlated, in many situations you'll want to stand on 15s and 16s against a dealer ten. I would also recommend doubling more aggressively than BS says. Another angle: Let's say you have bet most of your bank on multiple spots. If the dealer has a small card, and some of your hands are stiffs, you should probably split and/or double any non-busting total you have on the other hands. The idea is that if your tournament fate is already wrapped up in the dealer busting, you might as well be rewarded if it happens. If you had a limited number of hands to play, these ideas become more important. If your limit is just however many hands you can play in 15 minutes, I suppose you can afford to be more conventional in playing strategy.
