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My World Series Round One - Some Key Plays

Hopefully you had a chance to catch the broadcast of my first round play in the World Series of Blackjack on GSN. I'd like to take a closer look at a few interesting decisions that arose during the round, and give you some insight into the thought process behind them.

First we'll need to outline the basic rules. Each World Series table starts with five players, each staked with $100,000 in chips. The minimum bet starts at $1,000, with the maximum bet set at $50,000. Late surrender is allowed, and the players also get a Burger King Power Chip, which can be used once during the round to replace a single card in a player's hand.

The shoe includes two Knock-Out cards. When a Knock-Out card appears, the following round is designated a Knock-Out round, and after that round, the player with the lowest chip total is eliminated from the match. If a player has already dropped out, the Knock-Out round doesn't apply.

The minimum bet increases to $2,500 after the first Knock-Out card, and to $5,000 after the second Knock-Out card. After the second Knock-Out card appears, there will be just five more hands until the end of the match.

Of the five players at each first round table, the winner goes straight into the semifinal round, while the second place finisher goes into a wild-card round for a second chance. The other three players are eliminated, although they do have the later possibility of being placed back into the wild-card round via a random drawing.

I've picked out three particular hands to examine here, because I think each of these illustrates an interesting decision...

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