I receive offers for these, but in my 20 years of gambling, I have never actually signed up. My host tells me I am missing some free opportunities, so I am looking into it. So here a few questions for some vets:

- Do you schedule trips around these tournaments? Am I missing out by ignoring them?

- Are slot tournaments really just "mash a button" contests? No strategy?

- Is strategy for a BJ or Bacc tournament common sense? Or is it something a first time player should practice for, and how?

TIA

 

I don't suggest you go too far out of your way to plan a trip specifically for these things as they tend not to last all that long. For example, I booked my last before they established a VP tourney and I joined after the fact. The tourney consisted of two 10 minute sessions with the top 3-500 placing in the money. Yes, their is strategy to a VP Tourney when the game is DDBP. Slot Tourneys are exactly "mash button" gigs.
In fact all tourneys require aggressive strategy if you wish to play in the money. I have played in BJ, VP, Slot, and Poker tourneys. Best bang for the buck is the poker tourney but even then they put the blinds up so fast to get you back onto the casino floor that you really push hard in those as well.

So I while I personally would not plan a trip around the little tourney's they offer me (they usually throw in a little free play to) I would keep my eye on/around dates I was going and make slight adjustments on the dates of my trip if I could to take advantage of one of them.

Now tourney's for some of the big dogs around this board with the throw ins they get may be an entirely different story.....

 

I do plan my trips around the slot tournaments. (MBay, Bellagio, the odd Cosmo). I prefer the $500 buy ins (like coming up this week), but this one includes 5 casinos MB, B, Mirage, Aria, MGM. As a rule you get 4 sessions to play. 10 or 15 minutes twice a day, dropping your worst score. This one is a little different. Each 30 person tournament (4 tournaments per hotel) so 120 players total, gets a chance at 5 prizes per session ($10,000 fp, $5000 fp, $500 fp, $500 fp, $250 fp. for the top 5. The top 3 get an entry to advance to the final at Mirage, where you could win $100,000 cash etc. (think the top two prizes are cash, and the rest in fp for the finale). Two wild cards for each session, also advance to the final. Plus an extra drawing on Saturday based on play, but each person gets one free tik for the drawing. I've been going to the tourneys since 03? and for the most part travel solo, but I have built up such a group of "friends" from the same tournament crowd..I enjoy it. I don't do the Mandalay Millions anymore as too many people and prize structure is smaller (no buy in), plus I figured I couldn't fly down for 8 or 10 tournaments a year, so just concentrated on the higher end ones. Just a regular tourney weekend, you collect extra points by your play, to get drawings in the barrel for extra prizes. Lets say the MMillions 5 part tourney, at finale in January, if you attended all 5 tourneys and your name was picked for first of the extra ten drawings, you'd get $100,000 fp. If you only attended 1, and your name was picked out of the barrel,,it goes down...as I had the (knowingly) unfortunate instance couple Januarys ago..I had only attended one of the 5 MM's, and my name got picked for 2nd place (extra drawings)..I only got $18,750 in fp. Had I attended all 5 (as I had done in previous years) it would've been $92,500 in fp)..They are fun. No skill involved. Looking forward to next weekend's tourney. If you've been to one or so at the B, eg: February, and watched that little girl dance when she won the $100,000 CASH..(it had to be somebody)...and back in May, a gf of mine won the President's at MB, winning $100,000 in fp......Oh...one day.

 

Slot tournaments are fun. Only have been to Bellagio tourneys and they have good food and drinks. The most I won was 500 in freeplay and yes it is just mashing the button.

 

The strategy for BJ and bacc tourneys are very different from normal play. It's not quite as skill oriented as poker, but it's close. There's still a lot of luck involved but you will often see the same people at the final table in these tourneys time and time again.

There are many articles out there about tourney strategies.