Blackjack tournaments were out of favour from the late 1980's until the early 21st century, partly because casinos did not want to encourage the development of card counting skills. The tournament idea was revived in 2002 by the Las Vegas Hilton with its Million Dollar tournament. According to the American Casino Guide 2015 and looking at articles, the Harrah’s Casino has been out of Business since June 2014. Too bad, it was one of the best places to play blackjack in the Tunica, MS area.
Designated Saratoga Casino representatives are final. Inclusion of the standard house rules for play of the specific blackjack game, or in the alternative, a statement to read: “except as changed by these tournament rules, tournament play shall follow the house rules of casino name.” 54. These are the basic blackjack tournament rules we’ve found: Generally, the top two players will progress to the next round There will be between 20-30 hands dealt.
TOURNAMENT/ELIMINATION BLACKJACK
Invented by Russ Hamilton, Elimination Blackjack is Blackjack formatted for a tournament. This is also the form of Blackjack played on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour. The rules in Tournament Blackjack are slightly different than those of regular Casino BlackJack and are discussed in greater detail below.
RULES
Buy-Ins
Tournament Blackjack always has a buy-in, either as an entry fee that goes to the house when they have established prizes OR as money that is put into the prize pool directly. Paying the entry fee gives a player a certain number of chips to bet with throughout the tournament. If a player runs out of chips in the first round they are not permitted to buy back in.
Players typically start with an equal number of chips at the beginning of each round. However, some casinos mandate your chips move with you from round to round, this is called the keep bankroll rule. The player with the most chips at the end of the 30 hands is the winner.
Fairness
Adjustments are made to traditional Blackjack rules in order to make tournament play more fair.
- Rotate Deal – The dealer starts the deal with a new/different player each hand.
- Rotate First Bet – The first bet placed in a hand is a different player each time.
- Secret Bet – A less common rule, some casinos allow a single bet each round may be made which other players do not know its value.
Miscellaneous Rules
- House is required to hit on a soft 17 and stay on a hard 17 (and above).
- Pairs may be split up to four times, except aces.
- Six decks are used
- Bets must remain between the minimum and maximum bets.
- Players can buy insurance if the House has an ace up-card.
- Player’s hands can be surrendered for half their initial bet.
- 7 players maximum at the table.
- Players are given 45 seconds to make a decision
Eliminations
Casino Blackjack Tournament Rules 2019
- Losing all your chips
- Not having chips equal to the minimum bet
- Having the least amount of chips after a certain number of hands have been played
REFERENCES:
Blackjack Ace Rules
http://www.bjtournaments.com/rules/
Las Vegas Casino Blackjack Rules
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_Blackjack