Blackjack: Tournament Tips
As the popularity of blackjack continues to rise, there are more and more casinos offering mini- and major-blackjack tournaments than ever. If you know the basics of blackjack, you are already well on your way, but knowing some of the basics of tournaments just might help get you to that final seat! This column offers you a guide to follow to make you competitive in your next blackjack tournament.
1. Read the tournament rules.
When you arrive at the tournament and get your seat assignment, ask for a copy of the tournament playing rules. Carefully read them before the tournament begins.
Craps has a cornucopia of bets, ranging from the truly awful to the quite good in terms of the house edges. There are any number of ways you can bet the 11 numbers at the game (those 11 numbers being 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12). Some of these ways have low house edges and some — you guessed it! — have high house edges and some — you probably guessed it — have everything in between.The best bets at the game are Pass and Come or Don’t Pass and Don’t Come. All of these bets come in with a house edge of about 1.4 percent (with the “don’t” bets coming in a fraction of a percentage point less).
Known to many as either; bac-ca-rat or bah-ca-rah, the pronunciation has little effect on mastering this card game. Developed by French aristocrats in the 1500s, mastering baccarat is no easy feat. This no-strategy, luck-only game is most commonly housed in casino’s “high-limit” areas, due to its minimum betting of usually $20 a hand. To entice more modest wagering clientele, casinos down scaled the baccarat game and created the mini-baccarat. This altered game has a cheaper minimum betting ($5 per hand) and maintains the same game that everyone loves; only cheaper.
Casino games are full of judgment calls with what plays you should make sometimes.
