If you love the game of blackjack but wish there was a way to win big money with a small upfront investment, you should check out blackjack tournaments!
When you are playing blackjack, it can be tough to win a boatload of cash all at once, as you are only winning single bets. But when you play a blackjack tournament, you can win huge amounts of money, with a small buy-in!
Blackjack tournaments are starting to gain traction, as we are seeing them pop up all over the place, as players love getting a shot at life-changing money by playing a classic game that they already know and love. With blackjack tournaments becoming more and more popular, now is the perfect time to learn how to play them at a high level and get in on the action.
The best place to find a blackjack tournament to participate in nowadays is online, where you won’t ever have to look too hard to find a tournament to enter, as online casinos and blackjack apps are known for their epic game offerings.
In this article, we are going to bring you TheSportsGeek’s best online blackjack tournament tips. Playing online blackjack tournaments can be a lot of fun, but we all know that winning is even more fun, so you are going to want to pay attention to these top online blackjack tournament tips. That way, when you do get into a blackjack tournament, you have a real shot at walking away a winner.
Online Blackjack Tournament Tips
In this section, I will bring you my Top 5 online blackjack tournament tips which are built on more than a decade of experience managing casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. If you follow these tips, you could be ready to win on your first buy-in!
Focus on Beating the Other Players, Not the Dealer
When you play at a standard blackjack table, your focus is to beat the casino. You want to win as many bets for as much money as you can. And while that is still somewhat true when it comes to online blackjack tournaments, when you are playing a blackjack tournament, your focus needs to be on beating the other players, not just the casino.
I have played in online blackjack tournaments where the winner walked away with fewer chips than they started with. That is because the way you win a blackjack tournament is by beating the other players. Sometimes that will mean that all you need is a single chip left at the end of the tournament if the rest of the players all went broke.
We are going to go into more detail about this concept here in a minute, but there are going to be times when you are playing an online blackjack tournament when you actually want to lose your hand!
For instance, if you make the minimum bet, and the rest of the players are betting big, you will be rooting for the dealer to scoop the table with a big hand, as losing less, is the same thing as winning more, when it comes to winning the event. Pay attention to your competition, not the casino, as that is who you are trying to beat when playing in online blackjack tournaments.
Understand the Format of the Tournament Prior to Playing
The vast majority of online blackjack tournaments will be played in rounds, where you compete against the other players at your table, and after a set number of hands, the player with the most chips advances to the next round.
That being said, I have also played in online blackjack tournaments where there are several tables competing against each other, and the players with the top chip stacks, no matter which table they started at, advance to the next round.
In some online blackjack tournaments, everyone starts the next round with the same starting stack, and in others, it is best stack forward, where if you have a big round, you can bring all of those chips with you when advancing.
We could talk all day about different online blackjack tournament formats, but the key takeaway here is that you need a full understanding of the structure of the event, prior to the cards going in in the air. In many formats, 2nd place is worth nothing, and if that is the case, you must play to win as there are no consolation prizes.
There will be plenty of times when you will play your hand in a way that isn’t the best possible strategy, as you are forced to move up the leaderboard in order to have a shot at advancing. Let’s take a look at an example of this concept below.
When is the Wrong Strategy, Right?
Let’s say that you are ahead of the player to your left, going into the final hand of the tournament by just a single chip. You bet the max, and so does your opponent. You are dealt a 20, and your opponent is dealt a blackjack, which pays them out 3-2, instead of even money.
At this point, if you stand and win, the blackjack will pay your opponent enough to overtake your lead and steal the win away. In a situation like this one, the correct play would be to double down on your 20 and hope for the miracle ace, that will give you a large enough payout to win the tournament.
You would never want to double down a 20 when playing standard blackjack, but there is no prize for 2nd place, so you must make unconventional moves based on the current situation. Now, this is an extreme example, but similar scenarios are going to come up in every online blackjack tournament and you must be willing to do the “wrong” thing, if it is the right time.
Pay Close Attention to Bet Sizing
There isn’t a more important concept when playing an online blackjack tournament than bet sizing. The way to win a blackjack tournament is to separate yourself from the rest of the players at your table, and the best way to do that is to do the opposite of what everywhen else is doing.
If the first couple of players all bet big, you should bet small and hope that the dealer makes a big hand and beats the entire table.
And on the flip side, if they are all betting the minimum, it would be a great time to bet the max, and hope to take a lead over your opponents.
Now, this is a risky way to play, as things can go bad in a hurry, but they can also go really well.
And, with how online blackjack tournaments are structured, you have to be focused on winning, not losing close. From the very first hand, until the very last hand, your entire focus and strategy needs to be focused on taking first place, and setting your bet sizes opposite of the rest of the table is a really good way to make that happen.
Position is Powerful
We just talked about bet sizing being very important when it comes to strategy, but what happens when you are the first player to make your bet?
The way that all blackjack tournaments work is that a player is selected to bet first, and then the next hand, the player to their left bets first. This same process is followed until all of the hands are played, with the position moving clockwise around the table.
If you have ever played in online poker tournaments, the concept of position changing each hand is something you are likely already very familiar with. But if not, you must pay close attention to position, as the player that gets to act last is at a major advantage.
The last hand of any blackjack tournament is always going to be the most important, so you should always be looking ahead and counting hands to see where you are going to be when that final hand comes up. If you are going to have bad position on that final hand, you will be forced to make a move early to compensate for it.
If you are acting last on that final hand, make sure you stay close enough in chip total so that you have a shot to win it all with the correct play.
One thing to keep in mind when you are counting hands to project future position is that if a player busts out prior to that final hand, they won’t be counted, and the position will change. There isn’t anything you can do to account for that, but you need to make sure that your plans don’t fundamentally change, as players are absolutely going to go broke and throw a wrench into your plans.
When Losing is Winning
This final online blackjack tournament tip is a high-level concept that some of you are going to struggle to fully understand until you actually play an event.
There are going to be times when you actually want to lose your hand. If the rest of the table has large bets made, and you decide to go the other way and bet small, you are actually hoping that the dealer makes a big hand, and everyone loses.
There is never a set amount of chips that you need to win, it is always just 1 more chip than your opponents, and that means if they are going big and you aren’t, you are rooting for the dealer to make a blackjack.
Once you play a couple of rounds of a blackjack tournament, this will be something that is easy to grasp, but there isn’t a concept that new players struggle with more than rooting to lose a hand as it is so foreign to standard blackjack play.
When you are playing an online blackjack tournament, it is never about winning or losing. It is always about beating your opponents and you can’t forget that when you make your decisions.
