BLACKJACK TOURNAMENT E-BOOKS BY BJI AUTHOR KEN SMITH! How to Win EVEN MORE Blackjack Tournaments - Volume II... only $14.95. Ken Smith's second e-book on tournament blackjack contains more of his winning strategies that have made him one of the best tournament blackjack players in the world. Or, purchase both Volume I and Volume II together for $24.95... over 15% off! NEW! Read how Ken used skill to win a recent blackjack tournament. Get his books and you could too!

At a party following the taping of last year’s "World Series of Blackjack II", Henry Tamburin, Kevin Blackwood, and I were talking about the blackjack tournaments that I host in my home state of Texas. After bouncing around different ideas for me to try, Kevin suggested I should consider hosting a blackjack tournament on a cruise ship. Since I had never been on a cruise, I found his suggestion very interesting.

I know that several cruise lines host poker tournaments cruises, and even heard about the small blackjack tournaments that they host during the poker tournaments, but I have never heard of a full blackjack tournament. However, after listening to both Kevin and Henry’s suggestion I decided to look into hosting a full fledge blackjack tournament cruise.

After a nightmare start with a horrible travel agent, I discovered Jim Thomas with "Point Loma Travel" out of San Diego. Thanks to Jim we were able to get the blackjack tournament cruise organized that included a wonderful 8 night Mexican Riviera cruise leaving from San Diego on Oct. 31, 2005.

Although I was hoping for a larger turnout for our first blackjack cruise, I wound up with a group of 44 in which 33 played in the tournament. I was still able to give away over $45,000 in cash prizes. The prize money was based on the number of entry fees and re-buys with 100% paid back as prize money. A small fee was charged to cover expenses ($80 per player for all four which amounts to $20 per tournament). I also offered an extra 100 tournament chips for $5 at the start of each session that went towards the cost of the tournament dealers’ cabins and taxes.

The first cruise tournament was named "The Harvey Bader Memorial Tournament," dedicated to a good friend and tournament player that we lost last year. After speaking with Harvey, I actually changed the cruise dates to accommodate him less then a week before his passing.

I tried to make the tournaments "very player friendly". Only 6 players per table, two advanced from each round, surrender was allowed, double count down at five hands and then one hand remaining in the round, $500 in "No Cash Value Chips" ($600 if you get the extra 100 chips for $5), betting limits of $5 to $200, and the freedom to talk at the tables. The latter was a big hit with novice players since the more experienced players could help them after each hand.

Another hit was the distribution of cash prizes. Unlike most casinos and their top-heavy prizes, I tried to pay out cash prizes similar to poker tournaments and paid the top 18 players (in most blackjack tournaments only the 6 or 7 players on the final table win the prizes). I also allowed the final table to chop (i.e. split) the pot rather than play the final round, which was also very popular amongst players.

I noticed that all the married couples really enjoyed the cruise tournaments because it wasn’t all gambling (we all took breaks from the tables when we hit the exotic ports of call).

We had several first time winners, which is always a thrill to see. Once a newbie wins their first blackjack tournament, they are hooked on tournament play.

The smaller tournaments also ended up working out okay. We were able to start around noon and finish around 6 pm (earlier if they chopped the final table).

At the request of players that went on last years cruise, I’ve already planned a 2^nd blackjack tournament cruise on August 12, 2006. It will be a 5-night, mid-August cruise to the Bahamas out of Jacksonville, Fl. with three major tournaments and as many sit and go events as time permits.

Entries for each of the main tournaments will be $300 with $150 re-buys and 100% of the entry fees paid back in prize money. A small tournament fee will be charged to cover expenses (around $80-$100 for all the tournaments). This fee covers the expense of the tables, cards, chips, etc. including shipping, dealer’s cabins, taxes, and more.

If you like to cruise and want to try your skills at a fun and relatively inexpensive blackjack tournament I guarantee you’ll love the upcoming blackjack cruise tournament.

I hope many BJI subscribers join us on this years cruise.

For more information on the August 12, 2006 cruise you can call Jim Thomas with Point Loma World Travel at 1-800-783-8646 or 619-421-3992 or go to http://www.blackjacktournaments.com/ and look in the forum pages under cruise tournaments.

Note:

Global-Player and Texas Tournaments will start hosting satellite events twice a month on the first and third Sundays starting on Feb 5^th. If you’re not a member of Global-Player, you can go to their site at http://www.global-player.com/ to sign up. Everybody is invited to come play and no one is barred from these tournaments. These are the only elimination style blackjack tournament offered online. The entry fees will be $40 with $20 re-buys and all prizes will be paid in cash (for those not able to go on the cruise they may still play and win). The prize structure will remain the same as Global uses in their weekly tournaments. The format will be the same, but the betting limits were changed from the normal amounts they run on their weekly tournaments. The format and betting limits will match the cruise tournaments used by Texas Tournaments. Betting changes are $5 minimum to $200 maximum bet. Other rules such as: Surrender, DD after splits, Splits up to 3 times, Dealer stands on all 17, button rotates from dealers left to right, will all remain the same.

Texas Tournaments