Blackjack Strategy - Position For Advancement

One thing I love about multi-table and multi-round blackjack tournaments, other than the obvious higher payout for finishing first, is that you generally only have to win the final table for the big moolah. In the preceding rounds, you only need to finish in the top two or three to advance through the event to the final table, which has a big impact on your strategy.

This should greatly affect how you play the round so make sure you know how many from your table will advance to the next round. This number is not constant from tournament to tournament, or even round to round, and can change based on the number of entrants.

I would advocate a more conservative strategy than in a single-table blackjack tournament, especially if three will advance. If you're playing on a winner-take-all table and one player's strategy is to bet big and is pulling away from the field then in order to advance you may have to take action early, but when multiple players advance you don't have to concern yourself with the big chip leader. You only need to play for second or third.

What often happens in these rounds where two advance out of five or six players is that one or two players will flame out relatively early. The end then comes down to maybe four or five players vying for the two spots to advance to the next table, giving you as much as a 50-50 shot by playing a conservative strategy throughout the blackjack tournament.

Once it gets down to the final few hands, your strategy should be to worry about finishing in the second or third spot so tailor your betting accordingly. Continue to bet conservatively when you are out of position and then open up and fire away when the button passes you, but only enough to put you in position for advancement. Let the other jokers worry about the "pride" of being the table winner. The only table you want to win is the final one.

If you're going to be betting first or second on the last hand then make bets in earlier hands that will put you first or second in chips to combat your positional disadvantage. Try this strategy; put a mid-range bet out on the last hand to put your opponents to some tough decisions. If the chip counts are $1,750 for you, and $1,200, $1,600 and $2,100 for your opponents with a max bet of $500 and two players advancing, I'd recommend a bet in the neighborhood of $360. The last-place player can't catch you without a swing (win for him, loss for you) and the player with $1,600 would need a swing or a double/split/blackjack to catch you and advance.

Considering the nature of this discussion, let's add a new qualifier to that popular phrase. Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades AND blackjack tournaments.