1. This chapter covers everything you need to know to play wisely in a blackjack tournament either in a land-based or online casino. You’ll learn what the basic rules are for tournaments, the different kinds of tournaments, and some strategy tips to improve your chances of finishing in the money.
2. Always read the blackjack tournament rules before starting playing; Know which rules if broken could get you disqualified from the tournament; You can improve your chances of winning a tournament by learning tournament playing and betting strategies; Learning chip counting is a must; Betting last in a round is always more advantageous than.
3. Blackjack, craps and poker tournaments are becoming extremely popular and it’s where you’ll win the “jack-pot” money. It is a matter of conforming your play to the rules of the tournament. If you use this blackjack strategy I’d appreciate hearing from you. Please let me know how it works for you and if you like the results.

• Betting Strategy For Blackjack Tournament
• Betting Strategy For Blackjack Tournaments

Have you ever seen an experienced Blackjack player split a pair of fives facing a dealer’s face-up 8, or double down on hard 15 against a 10 showing, or cheer when the dealer drew a 3 or 4 to a soft 17? If so, you were probably watching a Blackjack tournament, because only in tournament Blackjack do such “crazy” things happen.

Oscar’s System – Blackjack Betting Strategies Oscar’s System was proposed in the 1960’s in a book by mathematician Dr. It is a fairly decent system. The goal of the strategy is to win exactly one unit per series.

Playing in Blackjack tournaments requires a strategy quite different from the Basic Strategy recommended at “normal” Blackjack tables. That’s because the objective of the game is different. Instead of trying to beat the dealer, the goal in a tournament is to beat the other players at the table. You can do so only by ending up with more chips than your opponents have, so the size of their chip stacks becomes more important to your strategy than what card the dealer shows or how many 10’s remain in the deck.

Another big difference is that no matter how wildly you bet or play, your losses are limited. You cannot lose more than the entry fee you paid to join the tournament. On the other hand, you can win a huge amount, relative to the amount paid for entry, if you play your cards right. That explains why risk-taking is such a key element in tournament play. There is a limited downside and an incredibly high upside to aggressive play.

To develop a winning strategy for tournament Blackjack, the player must first know what is required to win. Most multi-table tournaments have two, three or four rounds of elimination or qualification. Small cash prizes may be paid to the winner of each table in the early rounds, but the big money is won only at the last table, where the bulk of the prize pool is divided among the finalists according to their chip rankings.

In a typical tournament with 54 players and three rounds of play, the chip leader and runner up at each table continue to the next round of play. Since chips cannot be carried over from one round to the next, there is no advantage to piling up huge stacks of chips. The only goal is to finish in the top two each time and eliminate four other players.

Players at the table face the same dealer. Statistically, over the course of 30 hands, each player can expect to win 13, lose 14~15, and push 2~3. The dealer can be expected to catch at least one natural Blackjack during that time, as will each player. It all comes down to how much is wagered and when.

The 30 hands can be thought of in three stages—opening, middle, and final. In each stage, the player must decide whether to be aggressive or conservative, both in amount wagered and willingness to take risks in play. This will depend on how far ahead or behind he/she is in chip count.

The opening 5~7 hands reveal who the players are. A few “go for broke” in the early rounds, while some opt to stick with the smallest wagers possible. This stage can be used to identify threats, leaders, and followers, those who play well and anyone who plays poorly.

The middle 18~20 hands are all about positioning, building a stack of chips or protecting it from erosion. Many players opt to use card counting as their guide to betting; they wager heavily into a deck rich in 10’s and back off to the minimum when it is lean. Others consider betting position as part of their strategy, taking fewer chances when on “first base” and playing more aggressively when on “third.”

The final five hands of the round determine the winner. A player in or near the lead in chip count can dominate wagering, forcing others to play catch up. By the final hand, it should be evident how much to bet and how to play the cards. Some players will find that betting the maximum and doubling down on whatever shows, is the only way to gain the lead. This is when the “craziness” occurs—frantic attempts to get as many chips as possible on the table. But remember, it is the player who has the most remaining that wins. Play accordingly.

Blackjack is rarely thought of as a competitive game although blackjack tournaments have been around for quite some time now at brick-and-mortar casinos. They are also becoming increasingly popular among online players in recent years. The main reason for this growing interest is that the tournament version of 21 gives the average player the opportunity to snag a sizable prize for a tolerably small entry fee.

There are different types of blackjack tournaments, with some competitions taking place within a single day while others last two to three days. Tournament play requires skill, discipline, and above all, sufficient knowledge of tournament strategy. Blackjack tournaments have a different structure than the standard casino-banked version of 21 and respectively, call for an entirely different strategic approach.

In the following article, we present the nuts and bolts of blackjack tournament play and introduce you to the main tournament types. Also featured are several common tournament strategies and tips on how to improve your chances of beating your opponents.

1. Bonus
   ⋆80 Free Spins
2. Bonus
   $300
3. $500
   $600

How Tournament Play Works in Blackjack

In their base form, blackjack tournaments are played in nearly the same way as the standard version of the game. Players still aim to beat the dealer to earn chips from each hand but with one major difference – they are competing against each other rather than against the house.

The principal objective of each participant is to collect more chips from the dealer than their opponents do. The house still derives benefit from the tournament because each player must pay a modest fee to enter the tournament. The casino pockets a small cut from each entry fee while the rest is used for building the prize pool. In some cases, the casino also contributes to the pool as a means of increasing its size and attracting more players.

Once everyone pays their way in, each contender receives the same starting stack of chips as the other participants, with the chips themselves being devoid of monetary value in most cases. They are merely used to keep track of how each player is progressing through the tournament.

A tournament can last one or several rounds, with each of them being played over a fixed number of hands (usually between 15 and 30) or a fixed period. When the starting hands are dealt, the opponents face the same playing decisions as those in standard blackjack, i.e. they can hit, stand, double down, split, take insurance, and so on.

Like in poker tournaments, the first player to act changes during each hand because being the first person to make a decision puts you at a significant disadvantage. Also, decisions are made based on how the other players are doing but more on this later when we discuss tournament play and basic strategy.

What happens once everyone has finished playing their hand depends on the rules of the respective tournament. In single-round blackjack tournaments, the chips of each participant are counted up individually. The positions of players are then determined depending on how many chips each person has at this stage.

The overall prize pool is then divided among the participants depending on how they have ranked chip-count-wise. Sometimes the person with the most chips collects the entire pool but in other cases, the pool may be split among the top finishers. It all depends on the specific rules of the tournament.

In competitions where multiple rounds are involved, the person with the smallest chip stack at the end of the round gets eliminated. Eliminations continue this way each round until a single person remains and they are declared the winner.

Differences between Standard Blackjack Games and Tournaments

These are the basic principles behind any blackjack tournament, regardless of whether it is played online or in a brick-and-mortar casino. Let’s now review the main differences that distinguish blackjack tournaments from the regular casino-banked game we all have grown accustomed to. The table below offers you a concise comparison between the two formats of blackjack play.

All players compete against a house representative, i.e. the dealer.

All tournament participants try to beat the dealer but compete against each other.

Main Tournament Types in Blackjack

Similarly to poker tournaments, competitive play in blackjack is not restricted to a single format. There are several notable types of blackjack tournaments, namely elimination, accumulation, mini, major, sit ’n’ go, and live-money tourneys. Let’s have a look at what each type is all about.

Elimination Tournaments

The most popular blackjack tourney type is the elimination tournament. Here you compete against other participants in the tourney and advance depending on the size of your chip stack. The player with the smallest stack gets disqualified at the end of the round. Sometimes eliminated participants are permitted to re-enter after they pay the entry fee again, although re-buying is not an option in all tournaments that use the elimination format.

Accumulation Tournaments

Accumulation tournaments are also known as non-elimination tournaments. You again compete against other participating players. The difference here is in the objective, i.e. you strive to earn the highest number of chips throughout the tourney’s course.

There is normally a leaderboard showing the chip count of all participants. The leaderboard enables each player to track how many chips they must earn to prevail over their opponents. Accumulation tournaments are not recommended for novices who lack previous experience with blackjack tourneys.

Mini and Major Tournaments

The names of these formats are pretty much suggestive of what you should expect in terms of structure. Mini tournaments take place each week in brick-and-mortar casinos or each day if you play at certain online gambling sites. The entry fees are usually nominal, i.e. no more than $25 or so, with prize pools rarely exceeding the amount of $2,000. More often than not, such mini competitions require less than one day to complete.

In contrast, major tournaments last more than a day. It makes sense players have to pay higher entry fees to buy their way in, which also translates into larger prize pools, often running into hundreds of thousands. Large landbased casinos prefer to host major blackjack tournaments over the weekends because this format is more time-consuming when compared to mini tournaments.

Sit ’n’ Gos

The most distinctive feature of sit ‘n’ go tournaments is that they commence once six participants have joined the table. This format is commonly preferred by online casinos that host blackjack tourneys.

Online casinos sometimes run scheduled tournaments that begin at predetermined date and time. You need to register in advance and have a limited time to do so. By contrast, sit ‘n’ gos have no fixed starting time. They commence as soon as enough players have registered.

Tournaments with Live-Money Chips

As is the case in poker, the chips used in most blackjack tournaments have no intrinsic monetary value. Participants merely use them to play. This is not the case in tourneys where live-money chips are in play, which means you can exchange them for actual money once the competition ends.

Respectively, if you choose to go all-in with a maximum wager, you essentially risk losing your own money rather than losing your entry fee only. If you are new to tournament play, you better refrain from competitions that rely on this format until you gain sufficient experience.

Blackjack Tournament Basics – Prepping Up for Your First Tourney

Participating in a blackjack tournament calls for some preparation, even more so if you are a first-timer. It does not come down solely to paying the entry fee. The first thing you need to do is to sufficiently acquaint yourself with the rules because no two tourneys share exactly the same rules. This would prevent you from making unnecessary mistakes and disrupting the tournament’s flow.

Players are normally presented with copies of the rules after paying their entry fees. If the tournament takes place online, make sure you go through the respective terms and conditions the web-based casino has attached to the tourney.

This would give you valuable information about the betting limits, the prize pool, how many hands are played per round, whether surrendering a hand is permitted, and so forth. If you still have any questions, be sure to ask the support staff or the tournament director before you take your seat at the table.

Perhaps more importantly, remember that rules are there for players to follow. Breaking important rules can even lead to disqualification in certain cases. One of the main things to avoid is the so-called string betting where you grab several chips from your stack and drop them one after another in your betting circle.

This is considered a serious violation. Tournament etiquette requires you to post all the chips you intend to bet with one motion. It would be best if you prepare the stack you want to bet beforehand and then only slide it inside your betting circle.

Even if they do not kick you out for breaching the rules and table etiquette, string betting can still cost you. Tournament managers often punish string bettors for their misbehavior by counting only the first chip that fell on the felt while returning the rest to the violator.

Another mistake you must avoid is conversing with standersby while the last round of the tournament is in progress. This is strictly prohibited in some tournaments and can again lead to immediate disqualification.

The Skills of a Good Blackjack Tournament Player

Since tournament blackjack differs in many aspects from the standard casino-banked version of 21, it makes sense it also requires a slightly different set of skills. A successful tournament player is not necessarily good at casino-banked 21 and vice versa. The latter is more of a grind and as such, requires patience along with a firm belief in the math of the game.

It is necessary to prepare yourself by purchasing a set of casino chips to practice with. Practice is important because a tournament player must be able to accurately keep track of their opponents’ chip count, which helps him or her determine how much to wager. This would be impossible if you have no idea how big your opponents’ stacks are.

Also important is to know when to wager enough chips so that you still end up a chip leader even if all opponents win their hands. The opposite is also true – you should know when to bet small so that if everybody at the table loses, you still end up leading them in chips. Respectively, you should also nourish the ability to quickly determine the potential outcomes of your opponents’ wagers, i.e. what their chip count will be if their hand wins, loses, or pushes.

This leads us to the last two essential skills of a good blackjack tournament player, understanding the importance of your betting position and the ability to identify when and how you should deviate from basic strategy.

The betting position is just as important in tournament blackjack as it is in tournament poker. The first player to bet and make a playing decision is at a disadvantage. And vice versa, the last player to bet has a significant advantage because they have already seen what wagers all of their opponents have made.

Similarly to poker, they have a small plastic disk, called a button, in front of them to indicate they are the first person during this hand. This button rotates around the table to make the game equally fair for all participants. Once a hand is over, the dealer would move the button and place it in front of the player to the left, a process that continues throughout the entire game.

A random draw decides who bets and acts first. Sometimes a dice roll is used for this purpose, i.e. the player seated in spot number 4 acts first if the roll results in a 4 and so forth. The important thing is for you to determine your position during the final round as soon as it becomes clear who acts first after the random draw.

Betting Strategy For Blackjack Tournament

If you end up being the last one to bet during the last hand, you should play more aggressively throughout the tournament in an attempt to accumulate as many chips as possible before the elimination hand, i.e. the final hand.

Basic strategy is of great importance in regular casino-banked blackjack if you do not count cards. It tells you exactly what you need to do with a specific hand total against a certain dealer upcard based on a neutral deck.

With that in mind, we should also remember that all tournament participants are competing against the same dealer, which is to say they can share similar outcomes on any given round. For example, the entire table will lose if the dealer hits a blackjack at the very start of a round (unless a player also has a natural, in which case they push with the dealer). Because of this peculiarity of the game, how you bet is of utmost importance and so is playing a hand differently than your opponents.

While learning correct basic strategy is an absolute must if you want to be a successful tournament player, the strategy itself does not play such an essential role during the majority of your hands. Tournament play calls for deviations from basic strategy due to the additional dimension of picking what amount to bet. Betting small can decrease or even entirely eliminate a smart player’s risk of ruin during a tournament even with strategy deviations.

Basic strategy mistakes will not cost you as much because small wagers reduce your volatility. The opposite is far more catastrophic for a tournament blackjack player. Playing the hands you have backed up with large bets incorrectly will quickly cause your bankroll to dwindle down.

Tournament Tips and Common Strategies

1Adjust Your Bets

Betting Strategy For Blackjack Tournaments

Make several larger bets rather than betting small or medium-size if you are trying to catch up to a significant chip leader. However, you should refrain from betting big if you are in the button position because this puts you at a disadvantage. Increase your bets significantly when the button has already moved past you. Make certain you have sufficient chips in case you need to split pairs or double down on a hand, though.

2Contrary Bets

Apart from betting large, you can catch up to the chip leader by betting contrary to them, i.e. you post a large wager when the leader bets small and decrease your wager when they bet large. However, if you fall behind significantly consider a further increase in your bets. This could enable you to catch up or at least decrease the difference in your chip stack and that of the leader.

3Final Hands

When the final few hands in the tournament approach, you should again bet large. Some tournament experts recommend betting half of your chip stack toward the very end of a tournament. Assuming you get dealt a pair, you will have enough money left to split.This would also enable you to double down if you receive a two-card total that justifies this move. Doubling down for less is sometimes a good move in tournament play. However, splitting for less is not possible hence the recommendation to bet half of your bankroll. This way, you will have enough chips left to double down or split a pair if necessary.

Provided that most of your opponents go all-in during the final hand of a round, you should do the same but keep one of your chips. This way, if the dealer ends up winning, you could advance while most of the opponents will lose their entire stacks.