Elimination Blackjack Tournament: Rules

Elimination blackjack tournament combines some concepts of tournament poker with blackjack game rule. Elimination blackjack tournament was the baby of Russ Hamilton, a poker champ who wanted to bring channel the excitement of poker into blackjack. Elimination blackjack is played on the Ultimate Blackjack Tournament, a show founded also by Russ Hamilton.

One can get a seat at the tournament by paying the $2,500 buy-in. They can also qualify by winning online tournaments where buy-in cost from $0 (freerolls) to just a little more than two hundred dollars.

All players then get the same number of starting chips. The amount is $25,000 and the minimum bet is $500. The maximum bet is $25,000. During the final round, the starting bankroll is $100,000 and the minimum bet is a thousand dollars.

Elimination blackjack tournament is doubly exciting because a player does not only play against the dealer, but against other players as well. In elimination blackjack, the player's objective is to stay uneliminated by winning the most number of chips.

There are three grounds for elimination in elimination blackjack tournament. One, you have no chips left. Two, your remaining chips are not enough to make the minimum bet. Say the minimum bet is $500 and you only have $485 worth of chips remaining. Three, if the player has the least amount of chips 8, 16, and 25 hands have been played.

Elimination blackjack tournament is usually played with 30 hands. After the 30th hand has been played, the player with the highest amount or number of chips accumulated wins the tournament.

At the player's disposal are the following bets: hit, stand, late surrender, insurance, double down, split (up to three times except Aces), and Secret Bet. Secret Bet is like bluffing in poker, except that in elimination blackjack, a player can use this option only once in a tournament round. A Secret Bet is an undisclosed wager. When placing a Secret Bet, the player does not reveal the amount of one's bet to the other players at the table.

Each player is entitled to act within 25 seconds when playing a normal hand, and within 45 seconds when player is on elimination hand. As there are only 7 players per table, each player has to best 6 other tournament players.

In, elimination blackjack tournament, each table has seven Beating the dealer is just part of the challenge. The other half of the challenge is beating other players. As such, you need to play aggressively. Remember, the only way to remain in the game is to have the most number of chips stacked after the 8th, 16th, and 25th hands played.