If you participate in a blackjack tournament
and play well, won't the casino soon identify
you as an advantage player?
So is it a bad thing to participate in
blackjack tournaments?
based on my personal tournament experience. Aside from most tourneys I have seen being single deck shuffle each round, actions such as splitting 10s is common amongst most players in tourneys. I have seen 2,3 vs 6 being doubled, etc. I even go so far as to double 12s w/max bet early on in short session tournaments. You can gain an awesome lead early on by doubling the breakers. Oh the fun you can have when it is just those phony chips on the table. Believe me, TBJ is no holds barred. TBJ is usually a short term (1 session)game so you can throw out some of the long term strategies employed while traditionally counting. So, in that sense, it would be hard to gauge what kind of advantage, if any, a player has in a "beat the house" game by watching how they play in a "beat the other players" game.
Duane is right. Correct tournament strategy has very little to do with card counting. Most players do not bother trying to count cards when playing in tournaments. Your bets will be dictated primarily by the relative BR totals of the competitors, not by the count. This is especially true towards the end of each round. On the last hand, you frequently will need to employ some crazy strategies like splitting tens, doubling hard 19, etc.
SW's book, "Casino Tournament Strategy" is a must read if you are going to play tournaments.
Last time I saw that Golden Nugget held a live money
tournament (I didn't participate though). My understanding
is, in this case, being bold is not as recommended as in
non-value-chip tournaments.
Real money tournaments are different from "fake" money tournaments. Both are different from playing non-tournament BJ. "Casino Tournament Strategy" is an excellent guide for both real and fake money tourneys.
