blackjack tournament diary

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Ever wanted to quit yourday job and tour the country playing casino tournaments? This accountof my latest tour may change your mind.

16 Feb 2002 8.30am: Arrivein Brisbane after leaving Perth at 12pm the night before. Jump on the poorlynamed 'Airtrain' that stayed firmly on the ground all the way to the GoldCoast.

16 Feb 2002 10.00am:Arrive at the Gold Coast and wonder where I am going to stay. Luckilythe bus from the train station passed by Conrad Jupiters. Alightedon Pacific Highway Broadbeach, just across from the casino and took a roomat the barely inhabitable Montago Motel. At least it has air conditioning. Tried to get some sleep before the tournament that night.

16 Feb 2002 3.00pm:Walk over to the casino early as I realise that I am too worried aboutoversleeping and missing my heat at 6pm. Take a mental note to bringa travel alarm clock next time if this is the kind of accommodation I willbe using. I walk under a monorail heading to the casino and wonderwhy I didn't take that instead of walking as the casino is still quitea walk from Pacific Highway.

JUPITERS CASINO 'CONQUEST OF STEEL'ROULETTE TOURNAMENT

16 Feb 2002 3.30pm:I watch a couple of the heats in the 'Conquest of Steel' roulette tournamentto get a feel for the local tournament rules and to work out my strategy. Its hard to concentrate when you haven't slept for 36 hours, but I feelthat I have a pretty good strategy worked out for the $36,000 prize poolevent.

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16 Feb 2002 6.00pm:My heat is under way and things are going as planned. I am not leadingthroughout most of the heat but as expected, 2 others have lost everythingand are out of the running. Coming into what could potentially bethe last spin, I calculate that all I need to do is to bet $50 on a 5/8split, as well as similar bets on a few other numbers and I am assureda place in the next round of the tournament. My lack of sleep hasfinally caught up to me as I realise that instead of 5/8, I have put my$50 on 8/11. The dealer has already called 'no more bets' so I reassuremyself that as long as number 5 does not come in this spin I am still inthe running. Of course, number 5 is spun, I lose, and the heat isover. To add insult to injury, I get an earful from one of the othertournament players who says my style of play is not 'in the spirit of thegame.' This just reconfirms that I had the right strategy, and Idecide that I will definitely be back next year. Next year thoughI will fly in a couple of days early so that I can get some sleep beforemy heat and hopefully avoid making stupid mistakes.

18 Feb 2002 4pm: After spending the next couple of days wallowing in my self pity on theGold Coast, I set my sights on the Mini Baccarat tournament at Star City. Start to feel a little less sorry for myself and begin to enjoy the beachesand relaxed lifestyle.

19 Feb 2002 8.00am:Arrive in Sydney after spending a surprisingly enjoyable overnight busride from the Gold Coast. Walk to Oxford street and check into the budgetKoala Oxford Hotel on Oxford street. I catch up on a few hours sleep(I have learnt my lesson) and then do a bit of site seeing, taking in theHarbour Bridge, Opera House and Art Gallery.

STAR CITY MINI-BACARAT TOURNAMENT

19 Feb 2002 6.00pm:Walk down to Star City via Darling Harbour and realise (again!) that Ishould have taken the monorail. This tournament is a $61,000 prizepool event with a $50,000 first prize, making it the richest tournamenton my tour. I get to the tournament desk where they inform me thatI will need a $200 buy in of my own money. A mad panic ensued asI tried to find an ATM that would let me withdraw cash from a credit cardaccount. These are as rare as hens' teeth around casinos becauseof regulations that attempt to discourage people from to gambling on credit. Finally found an ATM back at Darling Harbour and made it back to the casinojust in time.

19 Feb 2002 7.00pm:My heat begins, and although I've never actually played mini baccarat beforeI have no trouble in figuring it out. (Bet on banker, player or adraw - one of the simplest casino table games). My strategy of alwaysbetting the minimum bet on banker seems to be working well as two otherplayers lose all their money and drop out of the running. I am comingsecond leading into the last few hands, but only the highest money winnerfrom each table goes into the semi final.

With a $100 maximum bet,I realise that as long as I am no more than $100 behind the highest moneywinner when the last hand comes around then I am still in with a chanceof beating him. Unfortunately, a chip count before the last handrevealed that he had $250 and I had $137.50. This meant that, unlesshe did something stupid and bet more than the minimum bet of $10, I hadno chance of winning. I made my 'secret' bet (not revealed to otherplayers) of $100 on 'player' and hoped that he would bet more than $10on 'banker'. He was sensible and bet $10 on banker. The outcomewas good in that 'player' won, I won $100 and ended up with $237.50, helost his $10 and ended up the winner with $240.

I was not too disappointedas I felt I had done my best under the circumstances. This is a greattournament and if I lived in Sydney I would enter into all 6 heats to givemyself the best chance of getting through to the final.

20 Feb 2002 5.00pm: Head back to Brisbane via a Greyhound Coach and wonder why I had plannedthis trip so poorly. Take another mental note that the distance betweenSydney and Brisbane is quite vast. Hopefully for the next tour Iwill be over my fear of flying.

TREASURY CASINO BLACKJACK TOURNAMENT

23 Feb 2002 3.30pm: Enjoyed the last couple of days looking around Brisbane. It helpswhen I stay in better accommodation - this time the Albert on the ParkHotel. The day of my last scheduled tournament has arrived. This is the $20,000 prize pool Blackjack Tournament at Treasury, and thetournament to which I have been looking forward to the most.

My heat was quite uneventfuluntil the last couple of hands. By this time a couple of playershad been eliminated and I was coming a close second place. The frontrunner was a couple of thousand dollars ahead so I was focussed on retainingmy second place, as this was all that was needed to make it through tothe next round.

I was in the unenviable positionof being the first to bet for the second last hand. As I was in front,I went for the minimum bet of $5. The player who was in third positionat this stage made his move and bet $500. Unfortunately for me, hewon and jumped ahead of me by a couple of hundred dollars. As usualin blackjack tournaments, it was going to come down to the last hand.

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I was in a better positionfor the last hand as I was the last player to make my betting decision. As the third place player had bet the minimum bet, I went put down a $500chip.

I drew a 16 versus a dealer10 (cant get much worse than that) and decided not to take a card and hopefor the dealer to bust. The next card out of the shoe was an 8 soI'm glad I didn't hit. The second card on the dealer's hand was a2. Not too bad - all I needed was the third card to be a picturecard or 10 and I was through. Alas - my bad luck continued and thedealer drew a 9 to get 21. My tournament tour was over, and as Ileft the casino my only thoughts were on how I was going to get home toPerth.

23 Feb 2002 7.00pm: The only flight I can get out of Brisbane that night is to Melbourne. Not quite what I was looking for but at least it is on the way home.

23 Feb 2002 10.00pm: Arrive in Melbourne where I take the shuttle bus to Spencer street stationand walk three blocks to Crown Casino. I decide that it is too lateto organise accommodation so resign myself to the fact that I will haveto spend the night at Crown. Maybe a chance to make some money atcard counting, as Crown has some of the best conditions in Australia. After 6 hours at the blackjack tables I am only $30 ahead as I only cameacross a couple of really positive true counts. If I hadn't wasted$1 on every hand on the 'Magnificent 7's' sidebet I would at least havebeen a couple of hundred ahead. I was hoping to jag three sevensand gain entry into the $250,000 tournament, but this was not to be.

24 Feb 2002 6.00am:Hungry and very tired I stumble back to the Spencer street station andboard the bus back to the airport to catch the 8.00am flight backto Perth.

24 Feb 2002 10.00am: Reflect back on an unsuccessful tournament tour as the plane descends intoPerth. It was, however, a fantastic holiday and I look forward tomaking a similar trip later on in the year.

Check on the link to thetournaments page below to plan your own tournament tour. Hopefullyyou will have better luck than I did.

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