I recently participated in a blackjack tournament held twice a year at the Meskwaki Casino in Tama, Iowa. This tournament is a good value. A couple of years ago they downgraded the package they had offered players, but it is still a good value for those who live within a reasonable driving distance. This event attracts players from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, and of course Iowa.

The Meskwaki hotel is nice with smoking and no-smoking rooms. There is also a pool, a small store, a nightclub, a food court, a spa, and of course a buffet. The service is good. A couple of years ago they had a weird rule forbidding guests from carrying any kind of beverage from the hotel to the casino (or vice versa). They must have dropped that rule because on this trip I carried drinks in both directions right in front of the former "drink Nazis" (aka security) the entire weekend. There are still restrictions on how many drinks a single guest can purchase and take away from the bar.

The tournament area is not in the main casino; it is held in the convention center. This is nice because there are fewer distractions than in tournaments held in the main casino. No smoking is allowed in the tournament area.

You can register online, through computer software that resembles that of Ticketmaster or Stub Hub. The $350 package includes one entry, two nights in the hotel, $20 in food coupons, and complimentary catering in the tournament area.

The latter includes a Friday evening reception and brunch on Saturday and Sunday morning. The tournament entry alone is $200. Rebuys are $50, and you have the option to buy additional chips for $5 at the table before each preliminary and rebuy round. All of this money is fed into the prize pool. The first place prize is a guaranteed $15,000. In the October event, the prizes were as follows:

1^st place; $15,000

2^nd place; $5,930

3^rd place; $4,448

4^th place; $2,965

5^th place; $2,076

6^th place; $890

15 Non-Advancing Semifinalists; $200

The game rules are fairly typical. Ordinary blackjack rules apply, except that blackjacks pay 2:1. In addition, you can insure for up to the full amount of your bet instead of the usual half of your bet. The cards are hand shuffled and dealt from six-deck shoes. In the preliminary and rebuy rounds, each player starts with 1000 chips and can pay $5 at the table for an additional 500 chips. The chips are issued in denominations of 25, 100, 500, and 1000 (if needed). Twenty-five hands are played, with the starting button randomly drawn at the tournament director’s table and rotating thereafter. The betting limits in the first 20 hands are a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 1000, in increments of 25. However, in the last five hands the maximum bet increases to 2000.

The quarterfinals and semifinals are similar to the preliminaries and rebuys, except that the starting bankroll is now 2500 and the maximum bet in the first 20 hands is 2500. In the last five hands, the maximum bet increases to 5000. There is no opportunity to pay for additional chips in the quarterfinals, semifinals, or the final round.

In the final round, the number of hands is 30. The starting bankroll is 5000. The betting limits in the first 25 hands are a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 5000 in increments of 25. In the last five hands, the maximum bet increases to 10,000.

There was a reception on Friday night, starting at 6:00 p.m., held in the tournament area. When players arrive at the reception, they are given their tournament package and they schedule their preliminary round seating assignment. Players are asked what time they want to play and what seat and table they want. I arrived at about 6:30 p.m. and was offered a playing time of 10:00 a.m. or later. The 9:00 a.m. session was already filled. I chose 11:00 a.m., so that I could sleep in a bit more. The catered food is in the tournament area, along with plenty of tables and chairs to sit down at.

There were four hourly sessions in the preliminary rounds, starting at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. They offered rebuy sessions in the afternoon starting at 2:00 p.m. and continued to offer them every 45 minutes until about 6:30 p.m. In the preliminary rounds, two players advanced from tables of five or six players. Almost every table in the preliminary rounds was set up with five players. In the rebuy rounds, one player advanced from tables of five players.

On Sunday morning, there were two sessions for the quarterfinals, at 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. One player advanced from tables of five players. Right before play commenced at 10:00 a.m., there was a wild-card draw from player tickets in a rotating drum. Six players who did not advance into the quarterfinals were drawn in. One player I talked with played rebuy sessions all afternoon Saturday without advancing; however, he lucked out and was selected to play in the quarterfinal round.

The semifinal round was held at approximately 1:00 p.m. Sixteen players advanced into this round from the quarterfinals (I was one of them.) Then they drew four wild cards into this round to fill out five tables of four players each. One player advanced to the final table from each of these semifinal tables (this was where I was eliminated.) Immediately after players were eliminated from the semifinals, they could walk over to the tournament director’s table and receive their $200 prize. Then shortly after the last semifinal table finished, there was a wild card draw for one lucky player to win a seat at the final table. It was possible for a semifinalist to collect their $200 prize for advancing to the semifinals and then be drawn into the final table for some more prize money. The player who was drawn into the final table is well known among Wisconsin players for being drawn into final tables A LOT.

On the final hand of the final table, Lady Luck did some rearranging of the final rankings and prize winnings (as she often does). The player who finished in third place set himself up skillfully and would’ve finished in first place if the dealer busted or drew out to any hand total other than 21. However, the dealer drew out to 21, and one lucky player got a $15,000 payday.