Blackjack Tournaments
Blackjack tournaments are a great way to play a lot of blackjack and potentially win a lot of money with limited risk. In a blackjack tournament, every player pays a flat buyin fee and then receives a set number of chips in return. The goal from that point on is to play blackjack and earn more chips than the other players.
Most blackjack tournaments are set up in rounds that last for a set duration of hands or period of time. At the end of each round, the players with the most chips are bumped up to the next round. The player who don’t fare as well are knocked out of the tournament.
Play continues in this manner until there is only one blackjack player standing. Awards are then given out to all the top finishers. Blackjack tournaments can be found at both live casinos and online casinos.
Advantages of Blackjack Tournaments
The greatest advantage of blackjack tournaments is the fact that there is little or zero house advantage. In normal blackjack, you play for real money against the dealer and are at a slight disadvantage. In blackjack tournaments, you still play against the dealer, but you are actually competing against the other players.
The only time the house has an advantage in blackjack tournaments is if the house charges a fee that it gets to keep. In many cases, the house does not take a fee and there is zero house advantage. This means that skilled blackjack players have an advantage over unskilled blackjack players.
The next advantage of blackjack tournaments is the limited risk. With blackjack tournaments, you get to play a lot of blackjack without risking a lot of money. Once you pay your entry fee, you are done risking real money. The other upside is that you get a lot of real-money practice with minimal expense.
Finally, blackjack tournaments are more interesting than straight-up blackjack. The tournament aspect introduces new strategic implications that aren’t found in regular blackjack. For example, players always struggle with the need to place small bets (to avoid going bust) and the need to place large bets to acquire chips.
Blackjack Tournament Prizes
The prizes for blackjack tournaments vary based on the entry fee and number of entrants. Blackjack tournaments typically assign a percentage of the price pool to each place. For example, a tournament might give first place 20% of the prize pool, second place 10% of the prize pool and so on down.
Some of the biggest blackjack tournaments have million dollar prize pools and give players significant prizes for taking a high place. Other tournaments may cost just a few bucks and provide a prize pool of several hundred dollars. It all depends on how many players join and how much it costs to play.
Blackjack Tournament Rules
The rules for blackjack tournaments may vary from one casino to the next. Most blackjack tournaments are set up so that players are eliminated every round. Other blackjack tournaments just have the entrants play for a set amount of time or number of hands. At the end of that period, the players are ranked according to how many chips they have.
Most blackjack tournaments use tournament chips that don’t have any actual cash value. This format is preferred by the majority of blackjack tournament players because it limits the risk to the initial buyin. The players just pay a flat fee and receive tournament chips to play with.
Some blackjack tournaments collect a buyin for each player but then make the players wager their own money at the tables. The tournament specifies how much money each player can start with, and then the players are ranked according to how much money they have at the end. These tournaments are best avoided because the house advantage is introduced to the tournament.
Outside of the basic setup, the rules for blackjack tournaments change from one casino to the next. The basics will all be the same, but you will find small differences here and there. Smart blackjack tournament players always read the rules prior to buying in to any tournament.