Pioneer/Golden Nugget

J

Joep2

Banned User
There were two tournaments this weekend in Laughlin one is which the casino paid back over 7400 more than they took in and they other one that charged a 20 fee per player on a 200 entry fee .

Interesting difference in the two tournaments

I will have the last 5 hands of the GN Tournament to Kenny in a day or two to post up and the last hand of the other tournament in the next post.

I was only able to provide the last hand of that tournament because I was in the finals which were well represented by 3 members of this board and in addition a player from Global-Player made up 4 of the 6 finalist

The BJT members finished 1-2-3 :D
 
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Laughlin

I played in three tournaments this weekend in Laughlin. This was my first test in what I would call real tournaments as the only other try was at Riverside during first of May where I placed second. I am a student of Blackjack and the math/odds that control it and have been studying tournaments from sidelines for several months.

To start I entered the Edgewater mini where I won my prelim and semi tables but busted out on last hand trying to catch leaders during finals.

Pioneer, I was a little nervous but confident. I played well and made some good bets winning the table prelim. During the semis I felt I was playing well and holding near the seats 1-2-3 who were getting a little better cards, I was in seat 4 and seats 5 and 6 got bad cards busting out. Near the end I won an advantage bet placing me just above seats 2 and 3 and a bit below seat 1 the money leader. All of us were in the running. Unfortunate for me I had the button and had to bet first. Because the dealer was running warm and my spot was erratic with three advancing decided to take low side and bet minimum. The other three made perfect bets of course, and congrats to you. I would appreciate it if any of my opponents or anyone else would critic my last bet.

As for the Golden Nugget I played OK in prelim but placed third. Rebuy round was right after semi loss at Pioneer and I was a little tilted and couldnt make a comeback near end. I even accidently hit a breaking hand against a dealer breaking card on second or third hand losing $30....

Thanks for any replies...

Barney

BTW, all above is from what I remember. I was a little nervous, so...
 
Joep?

Joep you posted three players made the finals from this site and one other from Global-Player, but you didn't say who they were or what place ya'll finished in. :confused:

Don't leave us hanging...LOL :eek:

Post who the finalist were and how ya'll finished.

And congratulations to you and all the other finalist in both events.
 
Played both.....Made the semifinals at the Pioneer then hit a bad run of cards and was eliminated...... at the Nugget, could not get any good cards.... dealing with 13 & 14's most of the way.

Did better outside the tourney playing single deck at the Nugget
 
Caught In The Middle

You know I like leaving Mr. Tex hanging :laugh: its good for his back you know kind of stretching it out.

Before I give the last hand away and the players let me tell you a little of what went on in Laughlin with these 2 tournaments .

The Pioneer
registration took place on Friday evening you had a choice of what times you played 9-10-11 ( First Round)

The Nugget registration took place on Saturday morning at 8 am you had no choice of your playing time in was already pre-selected for you

So some players had a conflict right from the start,and the casino shift manager at the Nugget was not cooperating with the players at all.

His words were "If I switch your time I have to switch everyone time". He was even asked if 2 players agree to switch their times would he allow this ?. He said no.

So players had to go back over to the Pioneer to see if they would work with us in switching times.

The Pioneer was more than accommodating allowing players mutual swaps to attempt to play in both tournaments.Keep in mind the Pioneer collected a $20 fee on their $ 200 entry.

So maybe there is something to allowing casinos to collect a small 10% fee to cover expenses.This seemed to be a case of help the customer out they are paying to play here.

Where at the Nugget the response was just the opposite. But they were paying out over 7,000 more than collected and providing breakfast on Saturday morning and a luncheon on Sunday. I guess I can see their point .

The time problem forced me and a another player into dropping out of the Nugget tournament as the semis and finals at the Pioneer conflicted directly with the Nuggets second chance round on Saturday.

Saturday Round at the Nugget 2:30 or 4 PM
Semis and Finals at the Pioneer 3 & 4


I would be interesting to hear from you guys as to your feeling on the Nuggets behavior .Were they right or wrong ?
 
Poor management, sounds like.

Joep, any good manager would try to accommodate their customers as much as possible I would think.

Both casinos had to of known that they were each hosting tournaments at the same time. Good management would have worked out a format were players could have been able to attend both events.

Sounds like the Golden Nugget either just didn't care about the players or (and probably the case) just didn't know what they were doing.

Could you ever imagine Jimmy Wike or Les Tacker treating players like that? No way in hell, but than again that is why they are so successful and respected by the players.

Yes, it would have been nice if all the players could have played in both, but more important to the casinos it would have been a better business decision to fill up more players into each of their events.

PS. I noticed you still left us hanging about the results...LOL.
 
Final Hand

This tournament was a one deck tournament dealt 2 times around to 7 players.Blackjack payed 2 to 1 and there were 25 hands and 1 person out of 7 advanced out of the round .Not an easy task and every table had at least 3 regular tournament players that I knew of. So as you can see a pretty tough tournament to get out of the first round . The semis were a cake walk compared to the first round .In the semis 3 out of 6 advanced to the Finals

Ok on to the Finals

Seat 1 A regular Tournament Player (Name Unknown)

Seat 2 Global Player (Jerry 123)the female part of that Global Pair

Seat 3 Alex D Las Vegas Tournament Player

Seat 4 Sammy Vaughn ( Million Dollar Winner)

Seat 5 Joep (You know him right ?)

Seat 6 Jimmy D (The Date Guy)

When the button position is determined Jimmy will be betting first on the last hand if all players stay in . I will have last bet and Sammy next to last.

I liked my position, but Sammy said we these two guys to my left I can not sit still and Sammy came out of the gate firing and jumped into the lead from hand 1 to hand around hand 10

I did not become concerned as Sammy lead was never more than 150 which would be 1/2 of a max bet lead.So I just waited to a good situation happened and when it did I bet enough to overtake him .

No you have heard myself and many others say that counting is not important in a tournament but in this situation when I made my move I tried to use the count also.I didn't over bet the situation but enough to pass him when I thought the moment was right.

I won my hand with a solid 20 and took the lead over at that point until about hand 20.At this point Jimmy D who had been playing somewhat aggressive but never able to string a few wins in a row was getting low in chips and moved all in with a Max bet and won it with when the dealer busted.

He now was in the lead over me and I lead Sammy by 45 at the countdown.

By the time we got to the final hand 2 players had busted out

Seat 2 and 3 were gone and it left only 4 of us on the last hand with Jimmy still betting first

Here is how it played out

Jimmy D 590
Seat 1 240
Sammy Vaughn 260
Joep 510

Jimmy bet first and bet 10
Seat 1 bet 240
Sammy Bet 260

I as you can see was a tad bit short of locking Sammy out of 2nd I would have needed 535 and could afford to lose my bet and still have 525 left behind .But then I could not pass Jimmy

So I took the position of first high and second low with a 220 bet.I could not bet enough to cover Sammy Blackjack but I could cover Seat 1 BJ and still not give up the lose/push to Sammy.

If Sammy turned over a blackjack I could attempt to pass him with a Double Down. Isn't this all easy to do in a perfect world :rolleyes:

Face down but here were the hands

Jimmy D 10-10

Seat 1 A-2 hit with a 5 and stood (18)

Sammy 7-2 hit with an Ace and stood (20)

Joep 10-8
Dealers Up Card

A

The dealer had an 8 in the hole for 19 Sammy swung me for 2nd place and Jimmy D took home the top prize

But BJT finished 1-2-3 and it was a good day for tournament players as there were 2 tournaments within 100 feet of each other on the same day.For me that is something that almost never happens :laugh:


Joep2
 
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I dunno if the Pioneer would've permitted substitution just for the semis or not, . . . but here's Rule #4 from their Tournament Flyer:

"4. Players have the right to designate a substitute if unable to participate."
 
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