What are the odds of tourning 1,000 in too 11,000-12,000?

On Saturday I was playing a blackjack tournament at the Cal-Neva against a whole bunch of other players. The top 10 players for the day get to advance to the semi finals and you are playing against all tables in the tournament not just your own table. Plus there was a wild card drawing for another 5 players as a gimmick to keep the players in the casino. I played the last round and the 10th place player was about 9,000 chips for while the top player had 12,800 chips the middle of the pack had 10,800 for the leader board. The top 10 for all 5 rounds which had about 8 tables of 6 players in each round where the only ones that got to advance so more players could push the minimum advancing bankroll higher in the last round. The rules for the tournament where as follow each player starts with 1,000 chips, blackjacks pay 2 to 1, double any two cards, double after a split, minimum bet 25 chips max bet 1,000 chips, the round is 25 hands of blackjack or until you bust out no rebuys. Prizes where $7,000 for first $2,000 for second and a $1,000 for third 4th place $700 of action chips and 5th place was $500 of action chips. Buy in was $39 I got it comped. My stragedy for the tournament was to bet the max on the first hand and I lost. Was this the right stradgedy mathitically? If I would have won the hand I would have kept on betting the max until I hit 11,000 or 12,000 in chips than I would have bet the 25 chip minimum for the rest of the hands.
I bet the max because finishing the day with 8,975 chips or less was equal to finishing the day with zero chips in my mind.

Yes, your strategy was optimal. Bet the max until you reach your target, then switch to minimum bets.

A useful shortcut in figuring how difficult it is to win a large multiple of your starting bankroll is to assume it is a 1 in x shot to turn 1 into x. Turning 1000 into 11,000 would be approximately a 1 in 11 shot.

And, it's "Strategy" not "stragedy". I would have figured you might have picked up on that over the last year or two. :laugh:

Edited to add: Hmm, I guess you've just been playing with us all along. Your duplicate post over at BlackjackTournaments.com spells strategy perfectly. Mark me fooled.

Got to love that tickly math. I laugh right along with the math.:laugh:

You played it right, as if you need to hear it from me after Ken tells you.