Blackjack Champ
Blackjack Champ

The Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino is nestled in the lush green hills of the island of Tinian, part of the Mariana Islands chain in the South Pacific.

This last weekend, the casino held their bi-annual Black Jack Championship held over the weekend. The event came to a finish late Sunday, and Japan’s Kohara Naoki walked away with a $68,000 first place prize for winning the blackjack tournament.

The event started early Saturday, with 106 entrants battling through three heats determining who would advance to Sunday’s semifinal rounds. The games were played with two shoes of 8 decks each, making the games tough on anyone hoping to use a card counting system to get ahead.

By the end of the day on Saturday a total of 49 players had made the cut, and each was allotted a $3,000 bankroll to work with when the games started again on Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon, the final table was underway, with six players battling for the win. All finalists, as it turned out, were Japanese.

The final round saw Naoki facing Indo Mitsuaki head to head. Naoki was dealt a 13, and with the dealer showing 5, he opted to double down. He drew a six, giving him 19. The dealer had a 10, then drew a deuce to make for a hand of 17, where he was forced to stand. Mitsuaki drew a 21 on this final hand and also took a win, but at this point Naoki had such a strong chip lead that it made little difference. Mitsuaki took $24,000 runner-up prize in this tropical casino black jack tournament.