If you are a good blackjack player (or can read English), you might want to dig up $5 and have a go at the $5000 Blackjack tournaments at Miami Club each month. As of this posting, with a little over a week remaining, the cash prizes are very much within reach!
Top winner in this tournament will win $3500 cash. The guy in the top spot right now has a pretty sizable balance, unfortunately, but the # 2 spot is sitting on $600 and change in chips. That spot is paying $500 cash, so a nice prize to shoot for.
I Gave it a Shot…(My Strategy)
I have a balance on Miami Club from previous tournaments, so I bought in for my $5 and took a swing. I use a simple coin flip strategy when sizing my bets in blackjack tournaments. In a nutshell, I use our blackjack strategy chart so my decisions are sound from hand to hand, and I bet my whole chip and look to double up several times in a row. Similar to a coin flip game where you hope to flip heads a certain number of times in a row.
This tournament starts you with $50 in chips. I bet the whole $50 and doubled to $100. I bet the whole $100 and doubled to $200! That balance put me in the # 5 spot, on pace to win $50, for my original $5 buy in.
I took one more swing at it, betting half my stack and lost. I am currently sitting on a $100 balance (7th place) and on pace to win $20 for my original $5 buy in. Not bad return on investment, but I will probably take a shot at doubling up a couple of times before the end of the month.
If You Want to Give it a Shot…
1. You need an account at Miami Club and at least the minimum deposit.
2. Navigate to Tournaments and click the Halloween Blackjack tourney.
3. If you use the same strategy as me (bet the whole $50 and use a good hit/stand chart), then you have a 50/50 chance of doubling up to the $20 winner range on your first go.
Feeling Lucky?
If you use the bet it all, coin flip strategy, you might see the following results:
Win two “bet it all” hands in a row and you will be sitting on a $200 balance on pace to win $50 cash.
Win three “bet it all” hands in a row and you will have a $400 balance and that will currently have you in 3rd place where the winner gets a $125 payout!
The maximum blackjack bet on Miami Club is $200, so if you win 3 hands in a row to get to $400 tournament chips, and then bet another $200 max bet and win, you will be in a fight for 2nd position which pays $500 cash.
Feedback!
If you join this tournament or have some blackjack strategy tips to share, please leave them below. Blackjack, played right, is roughly a coin flip game with a slight edge to the house. However, playing in multi-player blackjack tournaments lets you have a chance to play against other players who might not be playing optimal strategy and thereby creates a positive expected value over the long term.
Why bet the whole chip? Because the blackjack house edge is there, even though its slight. The more wagers we make, the more our balance will trend downward, albeit slowly. So my goal is to make a few BIG bets, and hopefully get myself in contention. From there, I can adjust to smaller bets if I am content with my leaderboard position and want to try to move up a spot or two without risking it all at that point.
That’s my theory on how someone can make money with their blackjack skills, cashing in on large prize pool online blackjack tourneys. Miami Club is one of the sites I always keep in mind because they have weekly $500 blackjack tournaments and are known to spread really nice prize pool blackjack events around holidays. The payouts are cash, not bonus, so if you win $3500, you are in for a nice withdrawal!
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might be a good idea to bet half the chip. Suppose you get an AA or 88.
Very good point Ruth. And when I have used this strategy it has actually happened where I had a chance to split and was kicking myself that my whole stack was already on the table.
If you try it (betting half), let me know how it turns out?
By the way, I’ve been thinking about doing a deal where we stake one of our members in a tournament, blackjack or otherwise, and then cheer them on, for better or worse. It might be more fun than me just entering events and posting about them. I like to cheer on other folks too. It would give members of the community a chance to be in the driver’s seat, so to speak (some of whom may never have tried a buy in tournament before!)…
Would you be interested in guinea pig testing the idea?
Well if Ruth doesn’t want to try it, I would volunteer! Lol. But seriously, I used to play blackjack in Vegas, and did pretty good. It was back when they had 1 dollar minimum bet tables, which I am not sure still exists. I could’nt afford to lose a whole lot, but usually would walk away with profit. I look forward to hearing if you may stake a member or not. It does sound like a lot of fun, even if it were to just sit in the
cheering section!
Blackjack in Vegas sounds fun Beverly. :) – I’ll email you and Ruth both on this. We still have a week left on this blackjack tourney.
if, by guinea pig, you mean staking me to this BJ tournament, YES!! I am always ready to be staked, lol. I gather there is a $5 entry fee? any rebuys? Or re-enter?
Aye, using pig in any sentence when referring to a lady is probably not good manners. My bad. :)
Yes, its not a freeroll, but that tends to cut down on the entrants, so not a bad thing if you plan to rebuy a few times and make a run at the bigger money.
I’m emailing you about staking! Keep an eye on your inbox.
LeanAndMean emailed me back her results. I wanted to share them here, so I’ll cut and paste. No cash, but a worthwhile experiment as our first time staking a member. More to come! Her words below:
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Well the Black Jack Gods were not with me!! I have never had such bad luck at a Black Jack game! The first four buy ins I used the half my money system. I won very few of the games. Then I tried several buy ins at full balance bet. I actually got up to $250 at one time. That was my high for the entire experiment. I ended up using the entire $35 on the Blackjack tournament buy ins. It was gone in no time flat!!
Some observations:
# I was not allowed to double down on A4 against a 4. it seems like the only double down allowed is with 10 or 11. I am not positive about that, but there were several times I wanted to double and could not do so.
#There was no way to tell how much real money I had left when in the tournament or the tournament lobby. I would have had to go to the main lobby for that I guess. A bit annoying, but I just kept entering until I was told I was out of money.
# The dealer never seems to bust with bad cards up.
# When I went broke and hit re enter at the table, it gave me $50, but when I placed a bet I was told I had no money! I had to go back to the tournament lobby and return. A bit annoying.
I entered seven times, always went bust within four hands. I DO know how to play. And I kept my basic strategy card in front of me at all times. I want to thank Keith, and No Deposit Bonus, for staking me to this tournament. It was fun. It would not have been fun had it been MY money!!
LeanAndMean