On WSOBJ last night

The players did some weird stuff.

1) Bobby doubles for less on a 9 vs. 6 while still early in the round.

2) Micky splits 10's vs. 10 while shoe was at negative C., then splits off another 10. Plays with stiffs. D gets 3 card 21.

3) The young guy on 3B stands on hard 14 v. 10. I don�t think the C was high enough to warrant this as being a proper decision. I had stopped counting though by this time so I�m not sure. But I doubt the C got very high after it went so negative earlier.

4) On the last hand; Brad is guaranteed to advance as long as he doesn't bet so much as to let Bobby have a chance back in, but he does anyway with a hand shake as if to say, "Here you go I'm decent enough to give you one last chance at beating me." Big mistake, Bobby gets BJ with 5K out and takes 2nd behind Micky while Brad loses his 5K bet. Only person Brad was competing with could have been Micky. Why did he let Bobby back in!? Bobby, you need to thank Brad again for his gift to you.

I also noticed the announcers pretend to know BJ but don't. But that's okay. I just think it would be more exciting to the viewers if they had a great tourney player helping with the announcing.

Check out http://www.blackjacktournaments.com/bb/. Some of the participants of the tournament are posting there, including Bradley Peterson. Matt Vagasil and Melanoma Skanklon know little about Blackjack, but Max Rubin is another story. According to Hollywood Dave, there was a directive from the host casino not to discuss card counting, so Max's commentary was hamstrung by that edict, and it may have also suffered from some bad editing. As for the play of hands, remember that we are not seeing the entire tournament- many rounds are skipped, so it is difficult to tell if the players are reacting to the count, the shuffle, or some action by the dealer. The field of players included some incredible talent, but the results did not always relect their expertise. Luck plays a big factor in only 30 hands.

I enjoyed the series (despite its many flaws) and am looking forward to more televised tournaments in the future.

the dealer had a 10 up and was stiff...they caught the hole card.

I think what you're saying is what I believed all along. There is no reason a quality player like Mickey (MIT guy) would split his 10's and then split again if he didn't know the hole card was small. In this case it was a 2. So, how did he know it? Did he catch a flash of the hole card or did someone else see it and give him a signal?

I agree - boring commentary. Could have been livlier.

instead of counting if I want to win in Tournaments??

If it wasn't early in the round, then it was just a tourney play. Tourney players often go overboard with ten-splitting even in the early rounds. It maximizes variance. The count is irrelevant for most purposes. While it would be a negative expectation bet in a normal game to split tens in a negative count, if you do get lucky, which happens a significant % of the time, you are going to get a significant edge over any other counters at the table.

I don't see any need for fanciful explanations for this play.

around hand 12 or so out of 30. I believe that Brad Peterson who was sitting in the seat next to Micky Rosa also made a play on the same hand that would assume a low dealer hole card with the 10 up.

Get Stanford Wong's book on Tournament strategy.

While it is all (mostly) about money management and proper betting strategy [read Wong's book], and while I think card counting does have some limited value, there are other things you can do.

First, lose the card counter mentality. Plays like John May touched on above (splitting tens early and often) can have value.

Second, play in a lot of tournaments. Tournament play is some like poker play. You need to develope a sense of what others are doing and how they play and react to what's going on.

Third, practice. Buy a decent simulator and practice.

Below you'll find a link to Kenneth Smith's site where this episode is thoroughly ananlyzed.
Bradley Peterson and Micky Rosa both chime in on the puzzling play of their hands.

You are not playing against the house. You are playing against other players. The count could be very high. But if the player you are trying to catch makes a huge bet, your best bet to catch him may be to bet small and hope he loses. Play strategy also varies depending on your opponents. There is an opponent who you do not want to fall behind, and you both made the same bet. He just stood on 16 v 10. You now have to play and have a hard 13. You might choose to stand which will guaruntee that you both get the same result. Counting just means next to nothing. On average, you'd have to make 100 bets with an average advantage of 1% to expect to come out just one unit ahead. What good does this do you in a bj tournament of 25 or 30 rounds?