Hello all, I now would like to submit a kind of poll to you, regarding your idea of an "excellent tourney" : - For what kind of tournaments (with what rules, what payouts etc.) would you be ready to take a plane from the US/Canada to Europe in order to participate ? Thanks again for sharing ! KF
Just to get the ball rolling: Prize fund guaranteed to be at least $100K US, no more than 40% of total prize fund to winner. Making semifinal round pays back at least the entry fee. No carnival rules (no 2:1 naturals comes to mind), play it like the game on the casino floor. Max bet of no more than half of the starting bankroll. Minimum of two advance from every round. I'm sure I'll think of more but that's right off the top of my head.
By prize fund, do you mean all cash or at least a cash equivalent (cash plus casino play chips) of $100K? Would you fly from the west coast of the US, the Midwest or the east coast? Thanks.
From the continental european point of view, I'm quite sure that the first casino who would pay winners in (non negotiable, play-till-you-lose or win) chips would do as good as shoot itself in the foot, as we say here... Thus, every North American entrant may expect pure cash prizes when playing tourneys here. As for the cost of flights, I didn't notice that much fare differences between western, midwestern and eastern US destinations when starting from, say, Paris or Brussels. Isn't it so when flying the other way round ? For info, a friend of mine got a Brussels - Vegas (& back) for not more than 400 USD...
I just noticed that this poll is also being replied to in the 'introduce yourself' thread I started... Sorry for the crossover / overlapping
Cash prizes would be best, of course. Play-until-you-lose chips would be a less preferable pain in the butt but not an insurmountable obstacle. They would certainly be shooting themselves in the foot, as you said, if they paid off with the one-play-only chips, most of us wouldn't even think of traveling that far for such a "deal" unless the tournament prize fund was some insanely huge overlay. I'm sure the majority of us analyze a tournament's worth by taking into account all likely expenses and this would include airfare, lodging, etc. To give an example, if I had to spend $1,000 total on entry fee and other expenses for a BJT with a $30K total prize fund, there's no way I'd be at all interested. That example is a bit extreme but hopefully you'll get the idea.
.... even if there were only, say, 28 players (among which 14 newbies and/or aggressive dimwits) allowed ? ^^ (As is most times the case in Europe : many monthly tourneys, small-to-medium attendance (24 to 42 players), with very fair rules, but seldom more than 10 K$ in prizes)
Speaking only for myself, of course, I wouldn't make such an arduous journey for an event of the size you mentioned. We would have to have the ability to be guaranteed a seat in any tournament, perhaps prepaying online or some similar arrangement.
If you ever happened to spot an interesting/attractive (according to your criteria) tournament somewhere in continental Europe, feel free to contact me, as I could arrange seat and accomodation for you, ok ?
How many of these are available in a single week? If willing to chop $90K / 6, how many $10K events would you need to equal the ev? It would take a lot of them, more work, more time, more expense....chasing a number you can't reach.
That's precisely our issue here... Europe never experienced the "second wave / Golden age of blackjack tournaments" like the US / Canada did from roughly 2002 to 2008... We are still waiting for such a wave to land here... To promote the concept, I do organize events on a regular basis myself, but I'm still wondering what factors would help BJTs to get the critical momentum they need... With that said, I've heard about major events being set up in Germany / Austria / Czech Republic for this coming winter... I'll keep you informed.
