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Blackjack Insider Newsletter, Sept. 2003, #44

Henry Tamburin is the editor of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter and author of the best-selling book Blackjack: Take The Money & Run. He is a finalist in the Las Vegas Hilton's Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament II. Henry currently is promoting all of his books at 30% off for BJI readers: click here.

Mr. Jimmy Wike is the man behind the Las Vegas Hilton Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament. This is the first time ever that a casino is giving away one million dollars in cash for first place in a blackjack tournament. Their first Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament was launched in March 2003 and consisted of 12 qualifying monthly tournaments. The final round was held in April 2003 and Mr. Edward Rhodes finished first and won the million dollars. Their Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament II was launched in May 2003 and consists of 12 consecutive monthly qualifying tournaments with the finals scheduled for May 2004 when another player will win one million dollars. Mr. Wike was kind enough to take time away from his busy schedule to be interviewed for this exclusive report.

JW: I’ve been at the LVH since January 2000 or about 3 ½ years. I transferred from Bally’s where I held the position of Casino Manager.

JW: I’m responsible for table games, slots, race & sports book, casino hosts, and player development.

BJI: What made you come up with the idea for a blackjack tournament with a one million dollar first prize?

JW: I had been doing blackjack tournaments in the past when someone approached me with an idea for a million dollar tournament. However, the structure and the format weren’t suitable. I reformatted the concept then took it to our Marketing and Executive Committees where it was approved.

JW: I wanted the "biggest bang" and an "instant life changer" for the winner of our tournament, and what better way to accomplish this then to hand someone one million dollars in cash.

JW: How could I proclaim our tournament to be the world’s best blackjack tournament if I excluded a number of skilled players. I wanted to give everyone, no matter what his or her skill level was, a chance to win the tournament.

JW: We had 1,613 players.

JW: I would say our wild card drawings. Every participant that is eliminated has a chance to get back in to the tournament through the wild card drawings. These are held prior to round 2, round 3, the semi-final and the final round. It adds excitement and players stick around till the end of the tournament.

JW: More than just a few anxious moments. We were a half million bucks in the hole after the first six months. We finally figured out what was happening. After the tournament was launched we had a large number of players sign up to play that were not eligible to play blackjack in our casino (e.g. card counters). So our side play didn’t generate much revenue. Plus there were a lot of questions in regular player’s minds if we would fulfill our obligation and give away the million dollars. I let everyone know that we were committed to completing the tournament. Then our participation level in the tournament with regular players picked up and also our revenue from side play.

JW: At the start of the tournament I didn’t know many of the veteran tournament players. Now that I know them, I’d say that about 60% of our players are novice tournament players and about 40% are seasoned tournament players. We’ve also had several novice players new to blackjack win our monthly qualifying rounds. So with a little luck it’s possible that anyone can win our tournament.

JW: To be honest, I remember very little of the final round probably because I was so pumped up and excited. I’m looking forward to watching the finals on TV with millions of viewers.

JW. When we started the tournament we had time limit restrictions on a player’s betting and playing decisions. However, we realized it became difficult to uniformly enforce that rule so we abandoned it in favor of encouraging players to make their bets and playing decisions in a timely manner. Our original betting maximum of $5,000 was also too high resulting in many rounds being decided in the last one or two hands so in our second Million Dollar Tournament we lowered the maximum betting limit to $2,500. By the way, we are also considering lowering the maximum betting limit further for Million Dollar Tournament III.

JW: I’m surprised we haven’t sold out every month especially since we had the maximum capacity of players in the last two monthlies of our first tournament and, in fact, turned away some 35 players in March. However, our second tournament is considerably ahead in the number of participants compared to the same time last year (66 ahead through the first 4 months).

JW: Yes I do because demographically there are a lot more blackjack players than poker players.

JW: Yes, the planning for the third tournament is underway and we already have dates selected in 2004 /2005 for the monthly preliminary rounds. We are also planning to hold the first monthly round on the Sunday/Monday/Tuesday (May 16/17/18) following the finals of Tournament II, which will be held Thursday/Friday/Saturday (May 13/14/15). We offer our tournament players three comped room nights so players who are participating in the finals of Tournament II and stay to play in the first monthly round of Tournament III will get 6 consecutive comped room nights.

JW: Get some tournament experience in low limit mini-tournaments. Most blackjack players are comfortable playing against a dealer but unfamiliar with the concept of playing against the dealer and other players.

To read Henry's first article about the Hilton Tournament, click here.

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