Instead of the dealer always starting to deal at the first seat, a button is used on the table to indicate the player who is going to be the "first base" for this hand. The button then keeps rotating consecutively around the table to the next player with each passing hand. This is significant since the betting and the sequence of playing order rotates with the button. With this system in place, players who must bet and start rolling the game on a given hand are at a disadvantage.
Typically there are 5 to 20 rounds in every tournament. A standard format might have 2 players from each table of 6 players moving over to next round. In the next round, again one or two players from each table are advancing to the third round, up until the final round.
The prize money for a tournament is usually 100% of the entry fees paid by the players. This means that the tournament provides a level field to casino and the players in the tournament with no advantage going to casino. The dexterous players have a major advantage over the other inexperienced players who don’t have much of an idea about the tournament strategy. Some tournaments assure the prize money even if the tournament does not have enough number of entries. In such cases, the casino is usually promoting itself by paying the players from its own pockets. It turns out to be a good marketing strategy for the casino, since they are able to attract new players to the tables during the tournament rounds.
Big tournaments in Land Based casinos usually offer special packages, which include discounted room tariffs and free food. It won’t be a bad idea to spend your vacations in Vegas by booking it around a tournament. In another situation, if you are really looking for a casino destination to try your luck then schedule your trip to coincide with a tournament and save your money which will give you an opportunity to play for a big prize with reduced risk.
The prize money varies as per the level of the tournament. For smaller tournaments entry fee may be as low as $10, and prize money might be $500 or $1000 for the ultimate winner. Most tournaments give away prizes for at least 6 places. For bigger tournaments there can be an entry fee of $300-$500, with a proportionately larger payout. Then we have tournaments where entry fees goes up to $1000 or even more and featured prize could be of over a million dollars.
This should be enough as to get you familiar with the blackjack and its related matters and in case you want more information then you can always have same from vast pool available over net or in form of published material.