Venetian Blackjack Tournament Rules

  

The concept of tournament blackjack has been around for a long while, and tournaments have taken place in live casinos all over the world for many years.

Towards the end of the 20th century, they had fallen out of favor somewhat, possibly due to the fact that many casinos stopped offering them as they did not want to encourage the use of card counting skills.

However, blackjack tournaments have become increasingly popular in recent years. This could be at least partly attributable to the growth in popularity of poker tournaments.

Blackjack Tournament Rules Before participating in any Blackjack tournament, it is important to know the risks and benefits. If an entry fee is charged, which is usually the case, the higher it is the bigger the prizes, but the stronger the field of competitors will likely be. Look for opportunities you can afford at your level of play. Casino Details - Venetian - Las Vegas, Nevada - United States. Blackjack Tournaments 2020 - Find Tournaments and Events in your area. Home Tournaments Casinos Venetian Home; Forums. Terms and Rules; Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2017 XenForo Ltd. Venetian Blackjack Tournament Rules, standard blackjack payouts, sas radisson casino copenhagen, 1 pound casino bonus.

Casino bosses have seen how many people they can attract, and offer blackjack tournaments hoping for the same effect. Online casinos have also had an impact. Many of them offer blackjack tournaments on a regular basis, making them far more accessible to players.

On this page we explain what blackjack tournaments are all about, and also look at the different types.

Blackjack Tournament Basics

The basics of blackjack tournaments are quite straightforward. The game is still played in essentially the same way, with players trying to beat the dealer on each hand to win chips, but the players are also competing against each other.

The objective in a tournament is to win more chips from the dealer than all the other players do.

When entering a blackjack tournament, players must pay an entry fee. This fee goes into the prize pool, usually with the casino taking a small cut. Entrants then receive a number of chips, known as the starting stack, which have no real monetary value but are otherwise used in the same way as chips normally are when playing blackjack.

A tournament can take place over one single round, or several rounds. Each round is played over either a fixed number of hands or a fixed period of time. Participants play blackjack as normal during a round, winning or losing chips against the dealer on the outcome of each hand.

Venetian blackjack tournament rules 2019

The order of play changes during each hand, so that it’s not the same player acting first every time. This makes things fair, as players do need to make decisions based on how their opponents are doing.

What happens at the end of each round depends on the exact rules of the tournament. If just a single round is to be played, then the chips are counted up and player positions are determined based on how many chips they have at this point.

The prize pool is then distributed according to the payout structure. In some tournaments, the winner will take the entire prize pool, while in others it will be split among those in the top few positions.

Venetian Blackjack Tournament Rules How To Play

If multiple rounds are to be played, usually some players are eliminated when each round ends. These eliminations are based on the number of chips held, and the remaining players all progress into the next round. The cycle then continues until a winner is determined.

Venetian blackjack tournament rules card game
These basics largely apply to all blackjack tournaments, whether they are played live or online.

There are, however, a few different types of blackjack tournaments where certain rules vary.

Blackjack tournaments can be categorized in a number of different ways, with most tournaments falling into one or more category. Below is a list of the most common types of tournaments, along with explanations of each.

  • Elimination
  • Non-Elimination
  • Single Table
  • Multi Table
  • Sit and Go
  • Scheduled
  • Freeroll
  • Guaranteed
  • Rebuy
  • Satellite

With an elimination format, a number of players are eliminated after each round. It might be a case of a single player with the least chips, or everyone except the two players with the most chips. The exact rules of elimination can vary, but this is the basic idea.

With a non-elimination format, there is usually just one single round. The player with the most chips at the end of the round is the winner, with other positions determined by the number of chips players have at this point.

Venetian Blackjack Tournament Rules

Players can still be eliminated during the round if they lose all of their chips however.

Single Table & Multi Table Tournaments

The difference between these two formats is both simple and, given their names, fairly obvious. Single table tournaments are played on just a single table, while multi-table tournaments are played over multiple tables.

Multi-table tournaments are often played with elimination rules, and the number of tables used then decreases as players are eliminated. The tournament ends up being played on a single table with the last few players.

These differ purely in the way they start. A sit and go has no fixed start time, and will begin as soon as enough players have entered.

A scheduled tournament will start at a fixed time, with registration opening some time in advance.

Venetian blackjack tournament rules card game

Freerolls

Freerolls don’t cost any money to enter, but they still offer some prize money. They are typically held by casinos either as a reward for regular players, or as a way to attract new players.

The amount of prize money on offer is usually fairly low.

These have a minimum prize pool regardless of the number of entrants. The prize pool will be paid out even if the entry fees paid by players do not cover it.

When a casino puts a guarantee in place, it is usually to make a tournament particularly attractive to players, which means that very often the guarantee will end up being covered by the entry fees in any case.

Rebuy Tournaments

In a rebuy, players can purchase more chips if they lose their starting stack. This enables them to take more risks without the fear of being eliminated.

There is a charge for rebuying, however, which is usually similar to the original entry fee. Rebuy fees are generally added straight into the prize pool.

Satellites do not offer cash prizes to winners, but rather entry into other, higher value tournaments.

Table Of Contents

It took almost 16 hours on Sunday at the 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Venetian $1,100 Main Event for a champion to be crowned and the first-place prize of $201,529 awarded. That champion was young up-and-comer Landon Tice, who did so for his first career score in the live realm of poker and in what was only his third live poker tournament. Tice outlasted a field of 1,123 entries in doing so, a figure that generated a total prize pool of more than $1 million.

Prior to this tournament, the 21-year-old from Boca Raton, Florida had just three online tournament cashes on his resume from this past summer: Tice got his start in poker by playing micro-stakes cash games online and has worked his way up, a journey highlighted by a mentor of sorts in Joey Ingram. Tice can now add an MSPT championship to his list of accomplishments.

'It feels good, you know,' said Tice after the tournament was over. 'It feels so good!'

Venetian blackjack tournament rules 2019

Tice won after a hard-fought heads-up battle against Brandon Lombardo that capped off a four-hour-long final table. Lombardo entered the match as a three-to-one underdog and held his ground, ultimately finding a double and taking the chip lead for a short time. However, nearly-even stacks went in when Tice made two pair on the river and he doubled to shorted Lombardo, who called Tice's shove with top pair.

MSPT Venetian Final Table Results

PlacePlayerPrize
1Landon Tice$201,529
2Brandon Lombardo$135,074
3Jesse Vilchez$91,502
4Sara Stohler$62,091
5Abraham Hichman$40,304
6Byung Shin$30,501
7David Larson$22,876
8Andrew Rodgers$17,429

Day 2 Action

Of the 1,123 entries logged across two starting flights, 145 players returned Sunday morning for the start of Day 2. Seventeen eliminations occurred within the first level of play, leaving the 128 that remained all set to make it into the money. From there, the pace of eliminations remained steady and the field rapidly saw itself shrink. Just 45 players remained by the second break of the day, and two hours later, the final three tables had been reached with 24 left in contention.

Plenty of notables were still in at that time, including Nick Pupillo, Frank Funaro, Jason Seitz, and Sean Yu. Also still in was 2019 MSPT Player of the Year Mike Shin, and all of them fell short of reaching the final table with Shin being eliminated in ninth place to burst the final table bubble.

Several short stacks were just hanging on at that time, including the likes of David Larson, who had been below one big blind with 15 players remaining. Andrew Rodgers became the first casualty of the final table, and Larson followed in his steps after being unable to improve with king-ten against the pocket queens of Byung Shin. One hand later, Shin found his newly-padded stack all in with pocket nines against the ace-king of Tice, who hit a king on the flop to send Shin packing in sixth.

Fifteen minutes later, Tice knocked out Abraham Hichman in fifth, and play slowed from there. Two full levels of four-handed play passed and eventually Sara Stohler was the next one to find the rail, also falling to Tice. Tice's work was not done, as he also knocked out Jesse Vilchez in third place to take an aforementioned three-to-one chip lead into his heads-up match with eventual runner-up Lombardo.

Venetian Blackjack Tournament Rules 2019

Lombardo gave Tice a run for his money, staying afloat and trading pots for nearly a full level before finding a double after out-kicking Tice with a pair of eights. A brief talk of chopping arose, but proposed figures worked for neither party and play resumed. A handful of minutes later, it was all over after Tice got a double of his own and finished the job from there.

Tice is not looking at letting up on the grind anytime soon, and is expected to be seen back at the Venetian for next weekend's $1,600 Main Event.

'I'm just going to keep playing,' Tice added after the tournament.

A $1,600 buy-in, $400K GTD MSPT Main Event will take place at Venetian from November 19-23. Once again PokerNews will offer live updates straight from the tournament floor.

That tournament will start players with 30,000 in chips and play 60-minute levels. There will also be three starting flights instead of two starting with Day 1a at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday, November 19. Days 1b and 1c will take place at the same time on Friday, November 20, and Saturday, November 21 respectively. Late registration will remain open until 1:15 p.m. on Day 2, which will play out on Sunday, November 22.

Venetian Blackjack Tournament Rules Card Game

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    Joey IngramLandon Tice