Blackjack Tournament

In this day and age when poker is the king of tournaments - online and live, it is easy to forget about the other table games that can provide great tournament play and atmospheres.

Blackjack is the closest rival to poker when it comes to casino games. Both are card games, involving strategic planning and thinking. So one might expect that as poker tournament thrive and increase in popularity, so will blackjack tournaments. However, the picture is not so bright for the latter. It seems that blackjack tournaments, even the bigger, more successful don't last for long. All live for a few years, last for a few seasons, only to expire later on.

Here are some of the most famous blackjack tournaments that have been around, but did not survive:

Ultimate Blackjack Tour

It began in 2006 and was hosted in a variety of cities around the world including Las Vegas, Paris and Atlantic City. A high number of famous poker players including Phil Hellmuth and Phil Laak played on the tour which is an interesting, and relatively unknown, fact. The tour gained its immense popularity from the basis that anyone could enter provided they could pay the entrance fee. It also attracted a number of high profile Blackjack professionals including Anthony Curtis and Monica Reeves. The tour lasted two seasons before it folded.

World Series of Blackjack (WSOB)

Just as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the grand daddy of the poker world, this is the main event of the blackjack world. It was an event that was by invite only or players could qualify via satellites online. The top prize has started off at $100,000 but by the fourth series it had risen to $1,000,000. It was held in Las Vegas and rang from 2004 until 2007. Interestingly, the winner of the debut event was MIT cards counting team member Mike Aponte. Famous players such as Caroline Rhea and Penn Jillette got involved in it during its life span.

Celebrity Blackjack

This was a tournament aired on GSN where celebrities would compete against each other in an effort to win money for their selected charities. Celebrities that played a part in the two seasons of the show included Dean Cain, Lance Bass, Shannon Elizabeth and Jason Alexander, who are also known for their passion to poker. Caroline Rhea and Jason Alexander won the first and second seasons respectively in what was a short lived event.

King of Vegas

As a very unique televised show, this pit six experienced professionals blackjack players against six amateur or inexperienced players to decide who could prevail as the winner. It lasted for 10 episodes and the professional players involved included David Williams, 'Hollywood Dave' Stan and Ken Einiger. It was shown in 2006.

Those are the biggest blackjack tournaments that have been around. Sadly, they are now all in a status of hiatus. There are rumors that a couple might return but for now the world of blackjack is worse off without them.