Where Is The "Skill"?

This is a good question for prospective tournament players, because of the very nature of tournaments themselves (let's make poker an exception, of course). They are designed so that anyone has the capability of winning. This is the short-run format; overall skill does not have an opportunity to completely take over the way it would if many more rounds were being contested. If two fighters got into a ring, the fighter of lesser pure ability would have a better chance of winning if the fight was scheduled for one round than if it was scheduled for 12 rounds. That's understandable.

In tournament gaming, they have to have entries. That's all there is to it. So you have to construct the rules so that the largest number of people can win. That is a precedent that Ed Fishman, who first conceived of the World Championship of Blackjack at the Sahara(and later gained fame as founder of Player's Club International) set, and he got over a thousand entries.

What this translates to are tables that are full and rounds that are short. They also mean that there are going to be opportunities to re-buy into the tournament. The latter may actually serve to the advantage of a player who may have gotten knocked out of a tournament by "bad luck." You can still use skill, or to put it more accurately, take advantage of the possibility that most of the other players around you are operating at a lower skill level. After all, if someone is unskilled at a game, it's quite likely they are going to do themselves in sooner or later.

Take heart - if you really know how to play the game, you may still have the best chance to win at any given table, at any given time.