This is Michael Shackleford, the "Wizard of Odds," on assignment for LCB. The topic of this article is a very interesting tournament they are running at Codeta. Here are the primary rules:
The tournament runs May 8 to May 20, 2018. All live dealer games evidently qualify. This would include blackjack, single-zero roulette, baccarat, Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, Caribbean Stud Poker, and Casino Hold 'Em. There is €2,500 in prize money, to be distributed to the top ten spots. The rules say, "The score starts counting after at least 30 rounds and at least one win." I am not sure how to interpret this. Do the first 30 rounds count, assuming at least one win? My interpretation of this rule is that they don't bother to calculate a score until you've played at least 30 rounds, with at least one win. So, I do think the first 30 rounds count, they just don't start counting until hand 30. I asked support for clarification, but the agent didn't know. The player's score is a function of the ratio of hands he wins and the winning odds he got on those wins. Below is a screenshot of the exact formula.
The strategy in typical live casino tournaments is to go big or go bust trying. The greater the number of competing players, the more you should seek variance. Don't be afraid to take some big chances. If you lose, then lose with nothing. Your chips are your ammunition. Don't lose with ammunition in your pocket.
However, this tournament is a lot different. The only commonality with conventional tournament strategy is to seek variance. Achieving a certain winning goal is not important in this one.
In this particular tournament the prize money is rather small so I would keep your bets small and fun. It isn't important how much you win, but the frequency of wins and the winning odds. For purposes of this tournament, it is better to win $35 on a $1 bet in roulette than $100 on a $100 bet. That 35 to 1 win will help your average payout ratio.
Another important factor to this tournament is it rewards quantity of wins. Note that the numbers of wins are taken to the power of 1.5, but the number of losses aren't.
To analyze strategy I put various scenarios through Excel to calculate the score of someone with average luck. Based on this, my advice is to make only $1 single-number bets in roulette, one spin at a time. Then do that as much as you conveniently can. Keep in mind the prize pool is not that big so I wouldn't devote your entire week to this. You may lose more to the house edge in roulette than you win in the tournament. As always in any casino, keep it fun and in moderation.
In closing, I'd like to commend Codeta on this interesting and unique tournament format. Hopefully we'll see more such tournaments in the future. I'd happily play along if they didn't prohibit US players.
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