Is there any more opportunity or leniency for card counting in a blackjack
tournament compared to live blackjack play for house money? Or do casinos
generally run their blackjack tournaments the same way they run their live
blackjack tables?
--
Jay Fenster
Open Road Publishing
* * *
Author, "Open Road's Best of Las Vegas"
(in stores early December 2006)
Visit Open Road's Best of Las Vegas Blog
http://www.thebestoflasvegas.us
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Jay asked: Is there any more opportunity or leniency for card counting
in a blackjack tournament compared to live blackjack play for house
money? Or do casinos generally run their blackjack tournaments the same
way they run their live blackjack tables?
To answer your question specifically, casinos are not looking for
counters in a tournament. They have already allocated the money to be
given away (often covered by entry fees) and it's a contest between
players, not between the player and the house.
Expanding on this a bit, card counting has limited value in a
tournament, as many plays are determined by how many hands there are
left to play, how much money you have compared to other players at the
table, whether you are playing before or after your relevant
competition, and how many players move on to the next round. On the last
hand, for example, you may well have to double down on a hard 19 or 20,
no matter what the count is. Conversely, depending on the above factors,
it may well be right to stand on a 12 against a dealer-high-card no
matter what the count is.
Tournaments are very different from regular play. For the best
discussion of how to play in these events, see Stanford Wong's "Casino
Tournament Strategy". It's not easy going, and some knowledgeable
players use a "modified-Wong" approach rather than treating Wong's
approach as the absolute gospel, but it's the best place to start.
If I had to predict the success in a tournament between a card counter
with no tournament experience and an experienced tournament player who
couldn't count cards at all, I'd go with the experienced basic strategy
player.
Bob Dancer
For a 3-day free trial of Video Poker for Winners, the best video poker
computer trainer ever invented, go to //www.videopokerforwinners.com
Bob's dead on there.
Here's an example of correct tournament thinking.
Years ago, I was in a small private blackjack tournament. Stanford Wong was
at my table. He said later that there was a hand where the count indicated
that taking insurance was correct (the count I used wasn't very good for
insurance, but I seem to remember him saying he kept a precise side count.)
He didn't take it. His reasoning was that if he took it, everyone else at
the table would (we knew who he was.) Since he had the smallest bet out,
everone else would get more advantage from it. So he passed.
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