Blackjack Tournaments

The following are general principles that underlie any casino tournament play. A good understanding of these principles helps in learning tournament strategies, and also will aid you in developing an appropriate strategy for any tournament situation you might encounter.

Succeed or Bust

A large part of your edge comes from applying a simple money-management strategy: either advance to the next round or bust out trying.

The succeed-or-bust strategy is easiest to understand in tournaments where you know what bankroll total will allow you to advance to the next round. Suppose you buy in with £5 and know for certain that finishing with £50 or more will put you in the next round. You maximize your chance of advancing to the next round by maximizing your chance of turning your initial £5 into £50.

Single Round Tournament

If the tournament is a straight winner takes all then you must have a slightly different approach. Your problem here is that you don't how many chips you need to amass to win the tournament. There are however a couple of steps that can help you.

1. Enter the tournament as late as possible. If you start playing an hour before the tournament ends you will have a better idea of how many chips you need to win as every tournament will have a leaderboard so you know what the top scores to beat are. By acting last you have more realistic targets to aim at than someone who played as soon as the tournament opens. However make sure you start early enough to give yourself all your allotted time.
2. Keep a record of previous tournaments' winning scores, this will give you an idea of what level of chips you need to win to ensure yourself of a prize. If you know that 3 of the last 10 tournaments would have been won with a total of 100+ then you know that once you get over 100 chips you have approximately a 3/10 chance of winning. If your expected payoffs from these 10 games are greater than you entrance fees then you have made a profitable play.
3. Do not enter a tournament if you cannot afford to lose the whole buy-in. For example, if a tournament requires you to buy in with £15 and keep what you win (which really means parting with what you lose), then you should not enter that tournament if you are not willing to lose the whole £15. You've got a big edge over anyone who buys in with £15 because he has to but is willing to risk only £5 of it, and is not willing to make a bet from his final £10.

When to Bet Big

You are better off betting small until you know for certain that your present bankroll will not be enough to accomplish your goal. Once you decide that you need to bet big, do it at the first good opportunity, which means picking a spot where if you win you gain on the people you need to catch.

When Behind, Get a Swing; When Ahead, Go With the Flow

If you are behind, try to make a bet that gives you a chance to win while the people you are trying to catch are losing. An obvious example is baccarat; if you are not chip leader and everyone with more money than you is betting on bank, you should bet on player. If you are chip leader, try to make your bets correlate with those of your most serious competitors so that if they win, you win too.

If Losing a Bet Will Leave You in a Hopeless Position, Bet the Max

Try to avoid getting into the position of having chips left but too few to have a chance. You should have a large enough bankroll to have a chance to advance to the next round (or win), or you should bust out; try to avoid the middle between those two extremes.

For example, suppose only two opportunities to bet remain in the session, you have 180, and the people you are trying to catch have 260 or more. Bet the whole 180. Do not consider betting 90, which is half of your bankroll, because if you lose the 90 your remaining bankroll is helpless against 260. Losing 90 is as bad as losing 180 in that you have no chance to advance either way, but winning 180 can give you a better chance to advance than winning 90.

Flexibility

When you make a big bet, try to make a bet that gives you maximum flexibility. You want to give the casino the smallest percentage possible of course, but if there is a conflict between casino edge and flexibility go with flexibility.

Give Your Opponent a Chance to Make an Error

If the only way you can win is for an opponent to make a mistake, give him the opportunity. Just because an opponent can beat you doesn't mean he will beat you.