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Blackjack Tournaments on Carnival

jbanana1

By jbanana1,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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sunshine002

sunshine002

Posted
Posted
How are the bj tournaments done on Carnival that is how many hands per round, how many rounds, how many advance in each round and are there any "elimination" hands prior to the final hand in each round?

 

 

I have watched many times and finally played in one now that I am platinum. I don;t remember how many hands per round (a guess would be about 15). There is a leader board put up and those with the most amount of chips play in the final. The number of rounds depends on how many are playing the tourney.

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Colorado Beach Bum

Colorado Beach Bum

Posted
Posted

They have qualifying rounds going for a couple of hours. It costs $20 to play and you get seven hands. You start with $1000 and they keep top six (I think) on the leader boards throughout the qualifying rounds. Spot number seven is a wild card drawn by raffle for all that played. Rules are standard except BJ pays double. Final table is also seven hands with alternate starting bets.

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Frank12

Frank12

Posted
Posted
So what do you win if you win the tournament?

 

$500.00 in chips plus a Carnival T-shirt.

 

Back in the day, all of the qualifiers got a nice collared Carnival players club polo-type shirt. I got 2 of those. Then they reduced it into t-shirts for all qualifiers.

 

The final budget cutting axe was a T-shirt for the winner only. The rest of us got a plastic Carnival pen!

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tomngerri

tomngerri

Posted
Posted
Back in the day my son won $1500 for the bj tournament but that was on rccl.. Times have changed.

 

We've only cruised Carnival for the past 5 years or so, but I seem to remember rccl used a split pot formula where the winner got a big chunk and second place also got some $$$. This was nice as the more people that played, the more money got paid out. Carnival has been capped at $500 for as long as I remember, regardless of whether 30, 50 or 100+ people pay $20 bucks to enter. They could do a little better IMO.

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jetskier

jetskier

Posted
Posted

Another major rule difference between NCL and CCL is that on CCL "anyone at the table" who beats the leader board gets on it. On NCL, only the top person at the buy-in table gets on the leader board even though others at the table may have a better chip count than the leader board.

 

Also on CCL, after a couple of hours, you will have the final table. On NCL, buy-in tables are played throughout the cruise with the final on the last day.

 

On the last couple of CCL cruises, the chip leader on the board got a collared shirt in addition each person who made the table got a t-shirt.

 

Dave

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tomngerri

tomngerri

Posted
Posted
How are the bj tournaments done on Carnival that is how many hands per round, how many rounds, how many advance in each round and are there any "elimination" hands prior to the final hand in each round?

 

On our Dec. cruise there were 2 rounds...qualifying and final. The top six players qualified for the finals, plus they drew 1 wildcard. There were 7 hands in each round, and no elimination hands. Top qualifier got a nice polo shirt and everybody else got a T-shirt.

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richstowe Great Review Rare

richstowe

Posted
Posted (edited)

It may be fun but odds wise it's a HUGE ripoff !

 

Watched Carnival push their blackjack tournament . Since you can enter multiple times (for an additional $20)

there were many many entrants all looking for a seat in the finals.

There were 3 separate qualifying periods.

Honestly with free entrance for platinum cruisers, I wouldn't be suprised if there were well over 250 entrants.

 

Again could be fun but a horrible bet !:(

Edited by richstowe
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  • 8 months later...
Uncle Doug

Uncle Doug

Posted
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On the Carnival Conquest last week they had a few changes on the Blackjack tournament. First was that all players started out with $1,500 in play money instead of the past $1,000. This did not seem to raise the qualifying levels as many players still busted out. The tournament was played on a BJ table with the Match Pair side bet which was in play during the tournament. I saw a few players hit the 5x on the Match Pair. Mostly it was a long shot try if you got too far behind. Lastly what I liked was the elimination of the wild card player in the final table. I have seen the wild card player win before and I think all seats at the final table should be earned.

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gogetter

gogetter

Posted
Posted
So you could win at your qualifying table but not make it to the finals if your total is not one of the top 6 from all qualifying tables?

 

Correct......they have the leaderboard behind the dealer when you are playing or at least they did when i played. so here would be the example....

 

Player A..........10000

Player B...........9000

Player C...........8000

Player D ..........7000

Player D............6000

Player E............5000 these totals are only an example

 

So when you are playing and you get to the last 2-3 hands analyze your chips to see where you stand and make the appropriate bets to beat the lowest if not better score to move into the top 6.

 

Lets say you win your qualifying table with 4900 chips you would not make it to the final round in this example. Lets say you get to 5500 and move to #6, someone could still come along and beat your score and bump you out. Good luck

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zgwortz

zgwortz

Posted
Posted

I'm told we had something similar to what Uncle Doug reported, when I cruised on the Carnival Destiny a couple of weeks ago, although I missed the tournament myself. Match Play was definitely used, and there was no wild card anymore. (There wasn't a wild card in the Slot tournament, either.)

 

Three years ago or so, I got a collared shirt, hat, and keychain for making the finals in the tournament there. Earlier this year, I only got a T-shirt for the finals. Never actually won a Blackjack tournament, although I've had it come down to the final hand and a single card... :D

 

If you're in one of the early qualifiers, then you need to maximize your score or you'll be knocked off the leader board - you almost have to bet it all in the last hand unless you did ridiculously well in the first 6 hands. If you're in one of the last qualifiers, then all you need to do is target a score that will get you on the leader board - although you want to target something like 4th or 5th place because if you go for 7th, you could still be knocked off too easily. In the middle, it varies. And it's not uncommon for the whole table to be wiped out. :D

 

I'm Platinum on my next trip, so you can be sure I'll be using that perk... :D

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  • 2 years later...
cruzincat50

cruzincat50

Posted
Posted (edited)

We just got off the Pride on Sunday, where I played in the tournament.

 

Qualifying still works the same, where the top 7 scores get seats. In the final the top score gets to select which seat they want and so on down to the 7th. If you know the strategy here, then there is an advantage to have the highest score.

 

Qualifying rounds cost $25 for the first attempt and $15 for each retry, even if you retry in a later session.

 

Winner gets $500 and a certificate to enter a BJ tournament in November (this year) on The Breeze. The walk on entry fee is $500, with a rebuy of $400. With the prize structure I don't see anyone paying cash for a seat on the Breeze's big tourney. First pays 50K, second pays 15K. third pays 10K, and the next 50 get $150. The certificate is transferable, so I suppose you could sell it, but who would pay more than $100 for it, given the payouts? This is the second year for this tournament.

 

They use the Fun21 tables, and you can use the pairs bonus bets for up to 5 chips. You get 20 $100 chips to start with. My first attempt got me on the board with 3800, but that didn't last. on a later attempt I got 6300 and it held, but there were not a lot of players trying, so 6300 may not be a good number.

 

In my finals I got to the final hand with $2900 against two players, each with $1500 in chips. They bet all of them (no limit) and I bet $200. One of them got a blackjack and I was toast, but I held on against the other for second.

 

Much to my surprise, they also gave a certificate to second place. So we are considering going on the cruise. For that reason, I won't give away any strategies at this time! :cool:

Edited by cruzincat50
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