Are Tourneys Counter Traps?

I am interested in entering a local bj tourney, but am afraid this will just expose me as a "skilled" player. Any thoughts?

Counting usually has very little to do with what makes you beat the other players.

Counting is a habit, I can not help it, but in a tournament it has very limited use. Your goal is not to win money over time. Your goal is to finish with more chips than the other players at the table.
If the count is negative but a big bet is your chance, you bet big. If the count is highly positive it might indicate a time to take a shot at a lead, but people take these shots all the time.
Only if you are a great tournament player and then go to the regular tables you might have someone curious about your play and evaluate you, but the same thing happens if you just walk in off the street and appear knowledgable.

if you play at a casino you play often. My friend was barred from Goldn Nugget because he played tournament there alerting casino manager of his counting.

of card counting at a certain casino, he then won a VIP BJ tournament and was backed off from blackjack on his very next trip. I think if you win a VIP tournament and you are already on the fence with Mgmt regarding your skills, the tournament win might be enough to push you over the edge to a backoff. He wasn't sorry, as his tournament win was a lot of extra EV that he didn't have to play tons of hours to get.

Other than that, since counting is not part of tournament play I don't see how playing in a tournament can hurt you unless you're already about toast at that casino to begin with.

A skilled tourney player is much more likely to be a counter, even though the strategies are very different. A good pit boss will know that. Anything that smacks of intelligence is generally bad publicity for you.
As BP's story indicates, it is better to go for big money tournaments. The size of the payoff in some of those tourneys will compensate you for any barring. If you don't win, you are less likely to be noticed, and the pit may even think you are an unsophisticated player if you bust out betting aggressively in an early round.

I play almost everyday and they do look at me from time to time.

When they are constantly sticking new fresh decks in your face and not doing it on other tables you know it's their 'omen or tactic'.

When they blatantly change the 'limit sign' on you(upping the maximum and minimum) twice a day you hear the change in their musical attitude.

I have always avoided tournaments as I do not want the temperature to rise when I'm getting enough heat from certain pit bosses.