Quick two-hour blackjack tournament party (2 Viewers)

[dennis63]

TWO-HOUR BLACKJACK TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE (and story)​

I spent Saturday evening dealing blackjack "tournament style" at a surprise birthday party in Doylestown, PA. It was a fancy dinner party for around 50 people. There were to be only two blackjack tables and dealers. On the drive up from Delaware, I was wondering how we were going to deal blackjack to 50 people with only two tables.

The dining room

Starting Stacks per Player

HOW IT WORKED:​

There were around 50 guests. Not everyone who attended wanted to play blackjack. Not everyone who wanted to play blackjack actually knew how to play blackjack.

People who didn't know how to play sat at the tables and got pointers from the dealers for about a half hour of casual play during the cocktail hour. Dinner was served. (The dealers got to eat, too.)

Before the event, the host made up three signs (one for each round of play) listing 14 players 7 players at each table. As a guest, you would find your name and see when you were playing (round 1, round 2 or round 3) and at which table you were sitting. When they weren't playing, guests were eating, drinking, socializing or watching players at one of the tables.

Every player was issued $500 in chips at the start of their round. (above)

Round 1: Seven players at each table. We played for 20 minutes, then a break to count up the chips and shuffle the cards. The player with the highest chip total at each table would go to a "final table" later.

Round 2: Seven (7) new players at each table for 20 minutes. Chips were counted. Table winners declared.

Round 3: Seven (7) new players at each table for 20 minutes. Chips counted, etc.

Final table: The six table winners sat at one table to play. The second table remained open for people who wanted to keep playing for fun.

The whole thing was neatly done in just under two hours with a reasonable number of chips. It was a blast, and fun to deal. There was a lot of cheering, laughing, cursing. Some veteran players busted. Some first-time players ended with over $1,000. Every table started with seven players, but after 20 minutes of play, some tables had only 4 or 5 players who still had chips. Somebody still won that table.

In the end, the guest of honor (whose birthday it was) won the whole thing and the prize -- a little plastic trophy with some gift cards in it. But it wasn't really fair.

The host couple met (years before) while playing blackjack at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

 

[croatan]

That sounds like a fun birthday party! And good job on figuring out to make that run smoothly with so many people. Will definitely steal your idea if I'm lucky enough to find myself in a similar situation.

 

[Bronson]

Great! Sounds like very enjoyable evening even as a dealer. Personally wouldn’t mind to attend event like that!

 

[dennis63]

That sounds like a fun birthday party! And good job on figuring out to make that run smoothly with so many people. Will definitely steal your idea if I'm lucky enough to find myself in a similar situation.

Definitely go ahead. Steal and use this setup.

The basic setup is also very flexible. Depending on your total number of players and your chip bank, you could increase the number of chips. If you don't have lots of chips, you could just decrease the number of players at each table and have an extra round. The number of rounds, length of time in each round and break times can be mapped out so you'll know what time everything starts and ends.

As a dealer, I prefer dealing to a table that's not packed with seven players. There's a lot of reaching involved with first and third base, and each player waits longer while other players make their decisions. (New players sometimes take forever to decide.) It's also more cramped for the players and the layout gets completely covered with cards and can look messy if there are splits. (There's a reason the casinos always put five chairs at a blackjack table.)

If you went with six players per table for each round -- or even five players -- there's more room for each player, the games start and end faster and your players would get to play more hands per round. You could adjust the time of the rounds, but 20 minutes was good in that we were dealing from one six-deck shoe the whole time and didn't have to stop the action to shuffle. (We shuffled cards during the breaks between rounds.)

We were using written vouchers to record player chip totals at the end of each round. The dealers would write the player's chip total on the voucher, then ask the player to write their name on it and give it back. This ate up time during the breaks. Pens wouldn't write. There can be some confusion if people only write their first name on the voucher. There will always be two people with the same first name. I'd recommend making a voucher for each player ahead of the event and putting their name on it, or just putting totals up on a chart or white board.

And at a big party, make nametags. Your dealers and the players can call one another by name.

 

[dennis63]

Great! Sounds like very enjoyable evening even as a dealer. Personally wouldn’t mind to attend event like that!

If you host, I'll come over and deal. Always wanted to go across the pond.