Elimination Blackjack
Elimination blackjack is a method of playing tournament blackjack that is very popular. As the name describes, players are eliminated until there is only one table of players left.
Players Against Players and the House
In Elimination Blackjack tournaments, players play against each other, and against the house at the same time. This makes the game much more exciting for players, as does the process of eliminating players from the tournament.
Duration of the Game
The duration of the rounds in the Elimination Blackjack tournament is either set by time or by the number of hands. Usually, there is a set number of hands that is played. Each round is normally 30 hands long when playing by a specified number of hands, although the casino can choose a different number of hands to be played per round.
Chips and Elimination
Sometimes players use cash to place their bets, but more often players are given casino chips to use. Each player is given a set amount of chips, so that everyone begins play from the same vantage point.
Players will be eliminated from the blackjack tournament if they have less than the necessary amount of chips to make the minimum bet on a hand. When players have lost all their chips, they are also eliminated from the game.
Generally, in Elimination Blackjack, there are three rounds of play in which players are eliminated until the final table remains. The elimination of players in each round is done after a specified number of hands. Even when a player has been eliminated because of lack of chips just before the elimination round, a player is always eliminated in the elimination round. This elimination process usually takes place on hands 8, 16, and 25.
In rounds in which players are not eliminated, there is usually a set time limit, which players have to make their decisions. This time limit is usually 25 seconds. In rounds in which the elimination of one player takes place, there is a little more leeway, where players are given 45 seconds in which to make up their minds about their next move.
At the end of each round one player at each table who is left with the most chips stays in the game, and all others are eliminated, except when the player with the second highest number of chips also stays in the game and moves on to the next round with the player that had the greatest number of chips. Usually, in the second round, only one player will move up to the final table. The final table consists of all the players who had the greatest value of chips at the end of each set of blackjack games.
The winner of Elimination Blackjack is the player who has the most chips at the end of the last round, or the player who is the last one who is still sitting at the blackjack table if the others have all lost their chips before the end of the allocated number of hands.
Elimination Blackjack Rules
These rules are the basic rules that are followed by most casinos, however, each casino has the right to vary these rules. Even when the tournament rules differ, the basic rules are usually the same.
- A shoe with six packs of cards is usually used to play the game.
- Rules for the house are that the house must stand on a hard 17 or higher. The house also has to hit on a soft 17 or lower.
- Players may only double down when they have two cards.
- The Insurance bet may be used when the up card of a dealer is an Ace.
- Players may split pairs up as many as four times, except for when the pairs are made up of Aces.
- In Elimination Blackjack tournaments, players are usually allowed to surrender their hands at a cost of half the bet they had placed on that hand.
- There are minimum and maximum bets that are allowed at blackjack tables, and these guidelines must be adhered to.
- Each table usually has a maximum of seven players who can play in a round in an Elimination Blackjack tournament.
