“I had the least chips at the last hand and I thought the only way to win was to bet on tie. Luckily, the last hand was a tie,” this year’s final Baccarat Challenge winner, Mr. Kanemoto said after a brief awarding ceremony on Saturday night. He went home $80,000 richer.
Kanemoto won against nine other opponents on the final table.
Mr. Kim from South Korea took second place, taking home a $30,000 prize.
Coming in third was Ms. Park, also from Korea, going home with $15,000, while the fourth place went to Ms. Miyazaki of Japan who went home with an $8,000 prize.
Five players won consolation prizes of $1,000 each.
Six males and four females made it to the final table after the second day of qualifying heats for the 139 players from Japan, Korea and Tinian. They were given 10,000 chips to start with, and 40 hands were dealt.
Two female players lost their chance at the championships after one of them left early for Japan on Sunday.
The other lady forfeited her chance when she “forgot to show up” for the game while enjoying at Tinian’s beaches.
The preliminary heats kicked off at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday at five tables with 10 players each. Heat three set off at 10:30 p.m. with three tables having 10 players each and one table with only nine players.
Each player tried their luck with the 5,000 chips they were given at the start of the games. With 30 hands dealt for each heat, the three players who had the most chips at the tables qualified for the semi-finals.
Players who didn’t qualify at the completion of the third heat still got a chance as they became eligible for the drawing of a wildcard where three names were randomly selected from a barrel to make up the 45 players for the semi-finals.
Tournament director Tony Jackson said the tournament was a great success.
“It was a great finish for this year’s bacarrat tournaments. We had five this year and we are looking forward to have more tournaments,” Jackson said.
He added that the weekend tournament also brought in a bigger number of female participants compared to the past tournaments this year.
“It was fun. The players, especially the women came out strong and without reservations especially in their money management at the final table,” he said.
He added that this is also one way of showcasing what Tinian and the CNMI can offer to tourists.
For casino marketing & promotions coordinator Kiri Jackson, the tournament was excellent.
“This is a positive year. We usually had only two or three Bacarrat Challenge tournaments in the past but this year we had the most,” Kiri Jackson said.
She said she is looking forward to the next event at the Tinian Dynasty which is the final Blackjack Championship for 2008 which is scheduled for Dec. 13-14, 2008.
