EPISODE 1

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

What follows is a televised-hand-by-televised-hand account.  Obviously, since it's only a one-hour show, most hands are not televised so you're going to see a lot of jumping of the dealer button.

So what do you get when you take celebrities away from the limelight, put $100,000 in chips in front of them and force them to play 21 hands of blackjack for charity?  Why, you get CELEBRITY BLACKJACK!

Much like World Series of Blackjack, Celebrity Blackjack will be contested in five-player single-table matches with the winners getting $25,000 and advancing to the Final Table for a crack at the $100,000 first prize, all for their charities.

Before we begin, though, a brief explanation about the game of blackjack and how this tournament will be contested:

Blackjack is one of the easiest casino games to win at...IF you get the basic idea of strategy.  The object is to get as close to 21 points with your hand without going over and to beat the dealer's hand.

First, you make a bet, then you are dealt two cards face up.  The dealer gets two cards as well, but only ONE of them is face up.  The two basic decisions to make at this point is to hit, meaning you'll take another card, or stand, meaning you'll keep the hand you have.  You may also surrender the hand, meaning you don't think you can win and you'll lose half your bet.  There are also special things you can do before your first hit.  You can double down, meaning you double your bet but only get dealt one more card.  And, if the two cards are of the same value, you can split them, making two separate hands to work with (though you'll have to double your original bet to do it).

Scoring in blackjack is simple.  10s and face-cards are worth 10 points, the other cards are worth what they say (a deuce is 2 points, a 7 is 7 points, etc.).  Aces are special, since they can count as either 1 or 11 points.  The closer you get to 21 points, the better.  But, if you go OVER 21 points, you bust and you lose your bet.

Once all players either stand or bust, the dealer flips his face-down card over.  Unlike the players, the dealer can't decide whether to hit or stand.  If he has 17 points or more, he MUST stand.  If he has 16 points or less, he MUST hit until he HAS 17 points or more.  Once the dealer stands, whoever is still in gets their hand evaluated against the dealer's.  If the player's hand is higher, he wins the amount of his bet.  If the dealer's is higher, the player loses his bet.  If they are the SAME, though, it's a push and the player neither wins nor loses anything.  Of course, if the dealer goes over 21, everyone still in the hand wins.

So what about this "blackjack"?  Well, if a player or the dealer has an Ace and a 10-point card in the first two hands, it is called "blackjack" and is an automatic winner.  Here, any player getting blackjack wins 1.5 times his bet, so a $100 bet would get him $250 back (his original bet and $150 from the dealer).  If the DEALER has blackjack, however, all the players lose!  So when an Ace is the dealer's face-up card, the dealer offers insurance to the players at a cost equal to one-half their initial bets.  If a player takes insurance and the dealer DOES have blackjack, the player loses the bet BUT wins double his insurance back...so he's lost nothing.  If the dealer DOESN'T have blackjack, however, they lose their insurance bets and the hand continues.

Tournament blackjack is played until a set amount of hands are played (in this case, the amount is 21).  If a player runs out of the $100,000 worth of chips he starts with (or has less than the minimum bet), he's out of the game.  The bets for each hand must be between $1000 and $25,000.  After the set amount of hands are played, whoever has the most money will advance to the Final Table.  Tournament blackjack also introduces a "dealer button".  Unlike poker, this shows who can bet and play first, not where the first card is dealt.  In tournament blackjack, betting is VERY important, since you want to have the most chips by the end of the game.  So the player with the dealer button bets first, then everyone else bets in order.  Seeing what your OPPONENTS bet can help you decide on what YOU will bet.  The one with the "button" also plays his/her hand first.

Oh, yeah...and for this special tournament, four JOKERS have been added to the six decks they play with.  A Joker can be substituted for any card on the table still in play.

Lets meet the five celebs competing tonight (and their charities):

Snoop Dog
(Snoop Save A Life Foundation)
Rapper, actor, "fa-shizzler"; recently Huggy Bear in "Starsky & Hutch"; also in video game "True Crime: Streets of L.A."

Shannon Elizabeth
(Animal Avengers)
Actress from first two "American Pie" films; also in video game "James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing" (CPS vet)

Jason Alexander
(Oakwood School Animal Fund)
George Castanza on Seinfeld; will star in new CBS comedy "Listen Up"

Camryn Manheim
(ACLU & Children's Media Fund)
Ellenor Frutt on The Practice; was also Snow White in "The 10th Kingdom" miniseries (WPT Hollywood Home Game vet)

Kevin Nealon
(Farm Sanctuary)
SNL veteran; occasional "crankster" on Crank Yankers; also been in "Daddy Day Care" and "Anger Management"

We have veteran game show host Matt Vasgersian and gaming expert Max Rubin giving us the play-by-play.  Our deal tonight is the "bad boy of Blackjack" (and WSoBJ Finalist) Dave Stann...so let's get it on!  Snoop will always be "first base", where the dealer starts dealing the cards.  But the order shown, left to right, will be the betting and playing order starting with the "button".

Heading into the halfway point, the stakes are raised to no-limit.  The minimum bet is $5000...but there is NO maximum!

With three hands to go, the only one who needs SERIOUS help is Snoop.  He needs to go all-in each hand and WIN in order to even have a CHANCE.  But, of course, with this being no-limit, ANYTHING is possible!

It all comes down to this one hand.  The winner gets $25,000 for his or her charity and a spot in the $100,000 Final Table.  The others get $10,000 for their respective charities.  For the final hand, the players all make blind bets, so nobody knows what the others have bet until its revealed!

So Animal Avengers gets $25,000 thanks to Shannon Elizabeth doing the math on each hand...and a bad hit by Jason Alexander.  Shannon also goes to the Final Table and a shot at $100,000 more!