setting up a big tourny

hi all I am new to this site it looks great
I am a tournament director for the st.croix casino in turtle lake wi
what i am trying to do is get ideas of how to put a big tourny together that would bring you big guns to the tourny
our structure is 2deck pitch 4 qualifing rounds 8 tables one advance from each table 6 semi final tables all 6 in finals get monies garenteed $5000 purse weekly
I keep getting told not to change anything that we have the best tourny in the area but the numbers keep going down
thanks schultzy and mn.rn for the weekly encouragement

 

tournyman42

I know it would add to overhead and length of tournament. But.....for a mega big event wanting to attract big guns, ONE thang you might consider is TWO advance from preliminary rounds.

And many of the super tourneys in the past did have provisions for wild cards. Keep people around. Whether they play or not, well that's been discussed.

Hope it works out. Great Lakes is a big market.

 

yes we have 4 high chip players advance to semi
limits are 5 to 200 no insurance split 3times split aces 3times bj pays 2to1

 

I Concure with Noman....

Mr Tourny Man42,

Having only one shot at moving on makes it tough to travel very far a tourney.

Do you have any rebuys available?

A multiday (2 day) event with lodging and food would also help.

I'm also not sure $5k divided 6 ways (final table) would be enough to get anyone to drive any real distance to play. Sounds great for a weekly, "locals" tourny, but again, to get someone to spend the travel time, not enough $$.

I'm sure Schultzy and MN-RN have talked about our get together at St. Ignace? Why do they drive so far to attend it? (other than being able to hang out with such great people ) If you had something on the magnitude of the St. Ignace tourny, my wife and I would probably come a few times per year.

St. Ignace Tourny in June

Thanks for asking and keep us posted.
Dan

 

yes what we have is reg starts at 2pm then qualifing rounds are 4,5,6,&7 semis at 8 finals at 9pm
and i agree it has to be a bigger tourny that is more what i am looking for the help and opinions on
it would be nice if some bigger players would come for our weekly but not expected

 

Improving Blackjack Tournaments

Hi
I just want to agree with what has been said: Make it two advance from each table, not just the high chip counts against the room advancing, and, have re-buys available. Also, all of the re-buy money should go into the prize pool.

There is a chance I might make it to some of your Blackjack tournaments.

 

Dan Mayo is right

Set your tourney up just like St. Ignace and you are guaranteed good participation. NO doubt about it!

Billy C

 

Big Tourneys

Rick Jensen, who posts here as TxTourPlayer, put on a few very nice tournaments in Laughlin and Seattle - and does a tournament cruise once or twice a year - unfortunately - his tournaments in Laughlin and Seattle didn't attract many players - but - he would be a very good source of advice for format and rules and such - I played in four of his tournaments, and they were well run with very good format and rules -

reason he didn't get the player numbers had to do with a lack of guaranteed prize pool and the rake on the tourneys -

if you want players to travel - you need to offer big money - and to guarantee it - think $50,000 and up - and you need to pay, even if only two persons show up - think risk vs reward here - if money isn't guaranteed, no one will travel for it - and the money needs to be big enough to justify the buy-in, rebuys and travel costs - also - its ok if you make money off the tournament - but - if the rake is too high - players will see it is not a good deal - if you take in $100,000 and pay out $50,000 - players won't come, or won't come back - you have to give better than scratch-off ticket value - that means gaurantee a reasonable prize pool, plus, if the entry and rebuy fees exceed that - add the extra to the pool - keep your rake under 10% of the buy-ins -

also -as said by others - you need to offer rebuys - at least two - and - you need multiple advance tables - two or three advance every round -

this will put you into a two day tournament format - and - some opportunity for players to wild card to advance - a benefit -

and publicize the tournament well -

then pray it all works -

 

As always alot of great responses from the BJ tourney vets. As for the weekly tourney at St. Croix Casino (Turtle Lake, WI) It is the best weekly mini in the Upper Midwest. The numbers might be down because of the economy. Turtle Lake isn't the only casino seeing a slowdown.
To pull off a two-day event you will need alot of rooms. I know the hotel there is small and that could be a major problem. Jackpot Junction (Morton, MN) had a 25K guaranteed event in April. The tournament director told me that over 80% of the players traveled at least 100 miles to the one-day event.
As for the format, the more rounds the better. FYI, Grand Casino Hinckley has SIX rounds on day one of their two-day tourney. They also use the two per table advance for their bigger tourney's. I know it was a bit of a problem at Turtle Lake in April when some players traveled over four hours and only got to play one round.
From what I have heard both Grand Casinos (Hinckley and Mille Lacs) and Treasure Island (MN) have hosted 50K events, but it's been over ten years. I would love to hear some input from members who attended those in the past.

 

yes I know it has to be a two day event with guaranteed monies and with the way the econemy is going will be more diffecult to do
I am going to get one shot at proposing this so I want to have the best proposel that we can put together for both the players and the casino to make this a win win situation for both that is the hard part now with the times ahead
but all I can do is try

 

The 15K guaranteed tourney's at Turtle Lake have been a big success. If St. Ignace (30K) and Grand Casino Hinckley (25K) can host a two-day tourney, so can Turtle Lake. Are we to assume that this would be a late summer or fall event? I know the other casino's in the Upper Midwest are cautious about trying to pull off a major event in the Winter. I don't think the economy will stop players from going to a bigger event, the tougher challenge is trying to get the locals to play in a weekly with the soft economy.

 

im not sure when it will be held im thinking spring or summer when we have more lake people around to play i dont think time matters as much as format and monies in tourny do

 

May a ploppy-rookie butt in here?

Very good ideas above. You have got to get rid of that one-advance-per-table stuff, and you've got to have (hopefully cheap) rebuys available. We aren't very likely to travel to an event where we only get one shot at it, and must be the single highest chip stack to advance. If I take time off to play and run into only one psycho-lucky opponent at the first table, I'm done and going home? Gas is expensive, taking time off work or away from a business is a consideration, too.
"No rebuys" and "one advance" severely increase the Dumb Luck factor and the players you wish to attract won't play.

Good luck with your proposal! There's such a dearth of really good tournaments in this part of the country, so we'll all be rooting for you

 

Economic conditions will not keep tourney players away if there's enough $$$. The best way to get a large turnout is a large guaranteed payout. Tourney players like $$$. No $$$, no reason to travel and spend the time. How Much? At least $50,000 prize pool with 1st paying $25,000 GUARANTEED. Also, the prize pool must be equal to, or greater than, the total of entry fees and re-buy fees. In other words, all player fees must be returned or else many players will refuse to attend.

Kewadin in St. Ignace can get away with a smaller prize pool ($30,000) because of it's scenic location and the fact that they have built up a following. Turtle Lake has neither going for it, no major airport nearby, and not near a major metropolitan area. So you need $$$ to attract players.

The purpose of holding a tournament is to get side action. Without that, why bother. If you hold a tournament of this size ($50,000 or more), offer partial or fully comped entry into a future tournament with rooms if a given player gives sufficient side action - works for the Las Vegas casinos, it can work for you. Better yet, offer this type of comp for the current tournament if a player gives sufficient side action during the 2 days of the tournament.

In closing, did I mention that it's all about the $$$.

PS: Extensive advertising is also critical to a Blackjack Tournament's success. Many a tournament has flopped because nobody knew about it.

 

well this is what i have so far talking with my director 30-50000 tourny special rate on rooms 2 day event with rebuys yes your play on the regular tables get comp play for food and hotel
this area does have some great golf coarses fishing and in the fall the seanery is great thanks to all for your ideas and please keep them coming every detail does help and i am looking at them all
again thank you

 

tournyman

Gettin there!

NOW! (And I don't know why txtournyplayer doesn't weigh-in, ((Ha ha)), but.....) As good a source as there is for runnin a tourney, favorable to players and house alike is Txtournyplayer. Why he hasn't contacted you, or you him, I dunno, but there's a source. And I see a BJTPA endorsement and points and status and on and on. Ball's in your court. Your serve for game. Go for it.

 

Following up on noman's replay, TXtourplayer set up the TBJPA (Tournament BlackJack Player's Association) to promote quality tournaments. He spent a lot of time setting up a set of rules that tournament players like and are fair to all. So, tourny man42, there is no reason for you to re-invent the wheel. The rules are in 2 posts since they would not fit in one post. Just click on the URL to go directly to the posts:

http://www.blackjacktournaments.com/bb/showpost.php?p=34090&postcount=12

http://www.blackjacktournaments.com/bb/showpost.php?p=34091&postcount=13​

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys...

I have send a PM to tourneyman42 so not to fill up the thread with the same information toolman just posted above.

It is nice reading posts by the players, that they think the TBJPA format and rules are good and fair for all the players.

I'd love to see more locations start hosting tournaments with the TBJPA format and rules and more then willing to help them anyway I can.

My goal has always been to try and create a national to world wide format and rules for blackjack tournaments simular to that of TX Hold'em. Then and only then will new players start taking blackjack tournament serious. Now you can play four different casinos and get four different formats and sets of rules.

Once we can get more players involved the prize pools will start growing as well. Back in the early 80's it was common place to have well over 500 to 600 players in each tournament.

 

ok been trying to figure out what you the players want
taking 2 from each round makes sence but now we have to go from 64 players to 6 and my math tells me 12
the format i was going to use is
4 rounds 48players take 2 off each table gives us 64 now we have 2 rounds of 36 32 qualifers 4 draws to each round for 72 total from that we get 12 now how do we get final 6 is the question