The World Series of Blackjack is a televised blackjack tournament created and produced by the cable network GSN. It is a closed tournament; players are either invited to play or attempt to win a spot via a satellite tournament. Rounds are edited into 1-hour episodes and broadcast on GSN. Matt Vasgersian and Max Rubin provided commentary for the first two seasons. Tiki Arsenault was the dealer for Season 1 as Deanna Bacon was the dealer for Seasons 2 and 3 while Jessica Knight was the dealer for Season 4.
Season 1 premiered weekly from March 15, 2004 to April 26, 2004 with a co-host, Melana Scantlin.
Season 2 premiered weekly from January 21, 2005 to April 22, 2005 with a new co-host, Megan Riordan.
Season 3 premiered weekly from June 5, 2006 to September 4, 2006 as part of GSN's Casino Night (retooled, with High Stakes Poker , as Vegas Night) programming block, with new hosts John Fugelsang and Ben Mezrich.
Season 4 premiered on GSN from June 4, 2007 to August 27, 2007. A field of 40 players, including Celebrity Blackjack champion Caroline Rhea, baseball star Orel Hershiser and magician Penn Jillette competed for a $1 million prize pool. Vasgersian returned as a commentator.
The rules (as of season 4) are as follows:
The World Series of Blackjack Tournament was held at Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort in Connecticut. First place will win $10,000 and move on to the Final table while Second place will win $5,000 and move on to the Wild Card table. The winner of the Wild Card table will move on to the final table. First place at the final table will win $100,000 USD grand prize.
Round | Winner | Runner-Up | Other Players |
---|---|---|---|
Round 1 | Regina Guzior | Michael Konik |
|
Round 2 | "MIT Mike" Aponte | "Hollywood" Dave Stann |
|
Round 3 | Micky Rosa | Bobby J. |
|
Round 4 | Jimmy Pine | Previn Mankodi |
|
Round 5 | Ken Smith | Richard Munchkin |
|
Wild Card Round | "Hollywood" Dave Stann | Bobby J. |
|
Finals | "MIT Mike" Aponte | "Hollywood" Dave Stann |
|
Mike Aponte, a former member of the MIT Blackjack Team, won the Season 1 championship and $100,000.
The World Series of Blackjack Tournament was held at Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The first place will move on to the Semi-Final table while the Second place will move on to the Wild Card table. The winner of the Wild Card table will move on to the Semi-Final table. The top two finishers in the Semi-Final table will move on to the final table for a chance at winning a $250,000 USD grand prize. First place at the final table will win a $250,000 USD grand prize.
Round | Winner | Runner-Up | Other Players |
---|---|---|---|
Round 1 | Kevin Blackwood | "Hollywood" Dave Stann |
|
Round 2 | Leann Moell | Charlene Ono |
|
Round 3 | Stanford Wong | Robert Blechman |
|
Round 4 | Kami Lis | Nancy Kubasek |
|
Wild Card Round 1 | Charlene Ono |
| |
Round 6 | Anthony Curtis | Erica Schoenberg |
|
Round 7 | Rick Jensen | Ken Einiger |
|
Round 8 | Viktor Nacht | Micky Rosa |
|
Round 9 | Jason Geraci | Michelle Richards |
|
Wild Card Round 2 | Ken Einiger |
| |
Semi-Final | Rick Jensen | Ken Einiger |
|
Semi-Final | Stanford Wong | Kami Lis |
|
Finals | Ken Einiger | Kami Lis |
|
Ken Einiger claimed the Season 2 championship, winning $250,000.
The World Series of Blackjack Tournament was held at Hilton Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The first place will move on to the Semi-Final table while the Second place will move on to the Wild Card table. The winner of the Wild Card table will move on to the Semi-Final table. The top two finishers in the Semi-Final table will move on to the Final Table for a chance at winning a $500,000 USD grand prize. First place at the final table will win a $500,000 USD grand prize.
Round | Winner | Runner-Up | Other Players |
---|---|---|---|
Round 1 | Paul Haas | Tommy Dyer |
|
Round 2 | Charlie Montoya | Kami Lis |
|
Round 3 | Jeff Bernstein | Angie "Moneytaker" Hardy |
|
Round 4 | Henry Tran | Randy Driggers |
|
Round 5 | Tony Duong | John Payne |
|
Round 6 | Dominick Haven | Ken Smith |
|
Round 7 | Pat Nicholas | Henry Fletcher |
|
Round 8 | "Razor" Rob Boisvert | Erica Schoenberg |
|
Wild Card Round 1 | Kami Lis |
| |
Wild Card Round 2 | John Payne |
| |
Semi-Final 1 | Jeff Bernstein | John Payne |
|
Semi-Final 2 | Kami Lis | Charlie Montoya |
|
Finals | Jeff Bernstein | Tony Duong2 |
|
Dr. Jeff Bernstein claimed the Season 3 championship, winning the $500,000 grand prize.
1Qualified for Wild Card Round through random drawing among all 3rd-5th place preliminary finishers.
2Qualified for Final Table through random drawing among all 3rd-5th place semi-final finishers.
The World Series of Blackjack Tournament was held at Hilton Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The first place will move on to the Semi-Final table while the Second place will move on to the Wild Card table. The winner of the Wild Card table will move on to the Semi-Final table. The top two finishers in the Semi-Final table will move on to the final table for a chance at winning a $500,000 USD grand prize. First place at the final table will win a $500,000 USD grand prize.
Round | Winner | Runner-Up | Other Players |
---|---|---|---|
Round 1 | George Mandilaras | Phil Dunaway |
|
Round 2 | Jeff Swenson | Kami Lis |
|
Round 3 | Alice Walker | Norm Sheridan |
|
Round 4 | Salomon Cohen-Botbol | Rick Jensen |
|
Round 5 | Jarek Markowiak | Darrell Arnold |
|
Round 6 | T. J. Boros | Marlin Horseman |
|
Round 7 | Kristine Johnson | Rick Fortin |
|
Round 8 | Marvin Ornstein | Dannye Long |
|
Wild Card Round 1 | Rick Fortin |
| |
Wild Card Round 2 | Marlin Horseman |
| |
Semi-Final 1 | Rick Fortin | Kristine Johnson |
|
Semi-Final 2 | Alice Walker | Marlin Horseman |
|
Finals | Alice Walker | Marlin Horseman |
|
Alice Walker (who had previously won GSN's million-dollar Three card poker championship) took first place and $500,000.
1Qualified for Wild Card Round through random drawing among all 3rd-5th place preliminary finishers.
2Qualified for final table through random drawing among all 3rd-5th places semi-final finishers
Blackjack is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This family of card games also includes the British game of Pontoon and the European game, Vingt-et-Un. Blackjack players do not compete against each other. The game is a comparing card game where each player competes against the dealer.
Texas hold 'em is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in three stages. The stages consist of a series of three cards, later an additional single card, and a final card. Each player seeks the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards; the five community cards and their two hole cards. Players have betting options to check, call, raise, or fold. Rounds of betting take place before the flop is dealt and after each subsequent deal. The player who has the best hand and has not folded by the end of all betting rounds wins all of the money bet for the hand, known as the pot. In certain situations, a "split-pot" or "tie" can occur when two players have hands of equivalent value. This is also called a "chop-pot".
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table, and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables. The winner of the tournament is usually the person who wins every poker chip in the game and the others are awarded places based on the time of their elimination. To facilitate this, in most tournaments, blinds rise over the duration of the tournament. Unlike in a ring game, a player's chips in a tournament cannot be cashed out for money and serve only to determine the player's placing.
Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and he is a 2007 inductee of the WSOP's Poker Hall of Fame.
Johnny Chan is a Chinese-American professional poker player. He has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, including the 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker main events consecutively.
James Gary Bechtel is an American cotton farmer and poker player, now based in Gilbert, Arizona. He is best known for winning the 1993 Main Event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). At the time of his WSOP win, he lived in Coolidge, Arizona.
Andrew Elliot Bloch is a professional poker player. He holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Joseph Hachem is a Lebanese Australian professional poker player known for being the first Australian to win the World Series of Poker main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for all-time biggest tournament prize.
The Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament was a series of no limit Texas hold 'em poker tournaments. The first season is available on NTSC DVD. It airs on Fox Sports Net in the United States, Rogers Sportsnet in Canada and Ftn in the United Kingdom.
Poker Royale is a television series on the Game Show Network (GSN), which featured No Limit Texas hold 'em Poker. The first series began on December 7, 2004. The eighth and final series, Poker Royale: Young Bloods II, began airing on December 9, 2005. The series host at its conclusion was John Ahlers, with commentary by Robert Williamson III and sideline reporting by Lisa Dergan.
James Gibson Van Alstyne is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani a former professional poker player and the youngest member of The Hendon Mob, a group of professional poker players. He resides in Finchley with his wife Jackie and daughter Hollie.
High Stakes Poker is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran from March 1, 2009 to May 21, 2011, and was simulcast in 3DTV on N3D. The eighth season ran from December 16, 2020 to March 17, 2021 on PokerGO. The ninth season premiered on February 21, 2022.
Celebrity Blackjack is an American television show where celebrities played tournament style blackjack for charity. The show, which ran on Game Show Network, was hosted by Matt Vasgersian. Dave Stann was the dealer. Season 1 aired weekly from July 5, 2004, through August 9, 2004. Season 2 premiered October 12, 2004, and ran weekly through January 11, 2005.
The table limit is the minimum and maximum bet that a gambler can make at a gaming table. It is a form of yield management in that the limits can be changed to optimize the profit from a gaming table. Gaming tables have a limited resource to sell: the seats used by the players.
The MANSIONPoker.net Poker Dome Challenge was a 43-week series of speed poker tournaments offering a grand prize of US$1,000,000. The tournament aired in the United States on Fox Sports Network from May 2006 to March 2007. The tournament featured a number of technological gimmicks in an effort to increase viewer interest and excitement. Commentating duties were shared by rotating hosts including Barry Tompkins, Jon Kelley, Michael Konik, Michael Gracz, Joel Meyers and Chris Rose with Leeann Tweeden serving as co-host/exit interviewer. Matt Savage was the tournament director.
Elimination Blackjack is a tournament format of blackjack invented by Russ Hamilton, that was played on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour and in various casinos. It combines the game of blackjack with elements of No Limit Texas Hold'Em. Unlike Texas Hold'Em tournaments, players are still competing against the same dealer that is why the results of most players at the table are likely to be the same. UltimateBet, a sponsor of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour, offered online elimination blackjack tournaments prior to bankruptcy.
Catch 21 is an American game show broadcast by Game Show Network (GSN). Created by Merrill Heatter, the series follows three contestants as they play a card game centered on blackjack and trivia. The show is based on a popular online game from GSN's website and aired for four seasons from 2008 to 2011. It was hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro, with actress Mikki Padilla serving as the card dealer.
The following is a glossary of poker terms used in the card game of poker. It supplements the glossary of card game terms. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker slang terms. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.
Texas Shootout is a casino poker game based on Texas hold 'em developed by Galaxy Gaming. It is available in Las Vegas, and a number of smaller casinos in the U.S.