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In this issue:
1. Global Player tournament starts this weekend
2. I'm playing for a million bucks next year!
3. Good games alive and well in Vegas
4. Results of the HTML vs Text responses

1. Global Player tournament starts this weekend

You may recall that I missed out on a chance to play in the last Blackjack tournament at Global Player casino. I wasn't paying attention, and let the qualification dates pass me by. Not so for their current event. The qualifying period for this event runs from Saturday August 24th at midnight to Tuesday August 27th at 10PM Eastern time. There's no entry fee, but you'll need $50 in chips to play. If you're a new player, you can use their buy $30 / get $30 free offer to fund your account.

The cool part of this tournament is the finals. It's like a regular land-based casino tournament, where you compete against other players sitting at the same table. The top four ranked players in the qualifying rounds advance to the final table, August 30th at 8PM Eastern. There they'll compete for 30 hands against each other, and the GameMaster. There's a $1000 first place prize at stake, and of course, bragging rights. Players are ranked during the qualification rounds by percentage of winnings as a proportion of deposits, and there's a real-time leaderboard so you can decide how best to bet and play.

I'll be competing this time, and I hope to see you there. For more information, click through to Global Player and you'll see the tournament mentioned on the main page.

2. I'm playing for a million bucks next year!

More tournament news to report, and this time I'm grinning from ear to ear. Earlier this month, I made my second attempt at qualifying for next year's big tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton. And this time, I was among the top 16 finishers in the monthly event. That means I get a free invitation to return in April 2003 to compete against 199 other players for the $1 million cash first prize. You can bet I'll be practicing my skills between now and then!

The monthly qualifying events continue through March 2003, and anyone can enter for a $1000 entry fee. I had no luck in my first try back in April, but I'm really glad to have made the cut this time. There were 140 players in the August event, and they actually had to turn away a few players. Starting in September they're switching to a monthly format that can accomodate up to 200 players. Had I not advanced in August, I was prepared to make a trip every month for a while until I made the cut. I'm glad I won't have to come up with any more entry fees now. And, for making the cut, I got my $1000 entry fee back as well. So, I'm in the big event, for a total investment of only $1000.

3. Good games alive and well in Vegas

Despite the continuing spread of the 6:5 blackjack plague, there are still some very good blackjack games available in Las Vegas. I played excellent double-deck games at Mandalay Bay, Bellagio, Treasure Island, and Casino Royale. Playing conditions actually seemed to be better overall than I've seem them in a long while. Despite a 4% decline in profits this year, Vegas seems to have rebounded nicely from the troubles caused by September 11th. The Strip casinos were busy without exception, but the Downtown casinos were pretty empty.

4. Results of the HTML vs Text responses

After last issue's switch to HTML, I got a lot of positive comments. However, I was also made aware that AOL's email reader doesn't handle HTML particularly well, and I had a few subscribers indicate they prefer text messages for that reason. This issue is in HTML, but with a link near the top to allow subscribers to read it on the website if they prefer. I'm hoping that will accomplish the best of both worlds. If not, I'll consider offering each subscriber a choice of format. In either case, I'll begin offering an archive of past newsletter at the site.