Blackjack tournaments introduction

A little blackjack tournaments introduction: basic rules and history.

Blackjack tournaments usually last several rounds of play where about 6 players compete against each other in a single round. After each round, only 1 or 2 players at a table advance to the next round. There are a set number of hands and players in each round. Each round starts with equal amount of chips and the player with the highest bankroll at the end advances to the next round. Rounds usually last about 15 to 30 hands where some tournaments use actual money chips and others, non-negotiable chips that have no cash value.

The tournament starts where each player receives one card from a standard deck(s) of 52 cards.

The player who holds an Ace will start the hand. If no one received an Ace card then the player with the highest card will begin. A button is placed on the table in front of a player who is to be first base for that hand. From the first base, the button moves consecutively around the table with the passing hand. This is the most important part of the tournament as betting and playing here rotates with the button. It is the player who has to bet and act early that is considered to be at a disadvantage in the tournament.

Tournaments usually consist of 3 to 20 rounds where at the last round, 6 players reach the final table. The player who accumulates the maximum amount of chips at the last hand of the final table, is the tournament winner.

Like tournaments for other sports, blackjack tournaments are to be played for the prize it offers. This prize is usually 100% of the entry fees of all the players; and the casino has no advantage over the players of the tournament. Of course, the player with maximum skill has an advantage over other weaker players of the tournament. There are some casinos that promise to make payments even if the entries to the tournament are not filled.

If you intend to play offline blackjack tournaments, it is better to go to casinos during blackjack tournaments. This is because during large tournaments, hotels offer special room rents and free food; this means a saving for you! So schedule your trip to play blackjack to coincide with a tournament so that you can save money while playing for a big prize at a minimal risk. Small tournaments may charge entry fees of $10 and pay $500 or $1000 as first place. The larger ones have an entry fee of $300 to $500; so correspondingly, larger prizes. There are even the largest events with $1000 entry fees and prizes over a million dollars. Most tournaments offer prizes till the 6th place.

There are many tournaments taking place on the internet. All that you have to do is to look for tournaments through the home page of this site.

The writing of the history of blackjack tournaments is just getting started

It is generally believed that blackjack got its start in French in the 18th century. The game was very popular in the United States in the 19th century, but it was mostly played by women. In the early 20th century the game grew in popularity, against mostly among the ladies because they were not allowed to play other casino games with the men.

Blackjack began to gain popularity among the male population when Dr. Edward O. Thorp published Beat the Dealer in 1962. Since then, blackjack has become ever more popular, among men and women.

Donald Catlin claims he played in the first blackjack tournament ever in 1979. Whether that is true or not we’ll leave to the judgment of the discerning blackjack aficionado, but there is no doubt that the history of blackjack tournaments can be traced at least to the early 1980’s.

Once land-based casinos figured out that people will pay to play blackjack, they started making new developments in the game. Many of those developments occurred in the 1970’s when Ken Uston and Al Francesco made their millions. But many more have occurred since then. You can find a blackjack tournament in just about any casino, land-based and online, today with very little effort.

Stanford Wong, known as the Godfather of Blackjack, began playing in tournaments in 1985, but it is likely that blackjack tournaments existed before then. Wong wrote his book Tournament Blackjack in 1987. In 1992, he updated the book and changed its title to Casino Tournament Strategy.

While casinos popularized blackjack tournaments in the 1980’s with huge cash prizes, it was not until the 1990’s that blackjack tournament play really took off. The history of blackjack tournaments has not been the same since the advent of the Internet revolutionized the gaming industry. Online casinos began popping up in 1994 and online blackjack took off like a spaceship. This new development took the history of blackjack tournaments to a new level. Online BJT became an instant phenomenon.

In the early 21st century, blackjack hit US national TV. Suddenly, everyone was playing in blackjack tournaments, competing for big prizes, and the events were televised. Three such huge tournaments are The World Series of Blackjack, the Las Vegas Hilton Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament, and the Ultimate Blackjack Tournament at UltimateBet. These televised tournaments continue to draw new competitors as previous winners return to compete again and again.