Pair beats odds to appear on TV blackjack show

The odds were slim that Brian Soper would qualify for a seat at one of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour's televised final tables, but that was just the first of two longshots to come through for the Ypsilanti resident.

The chances someone else from Ypsilanti would also best more than 1,000 online players to qualify for the television show in the same year were remote at best.

And the statistical probability that it would be Soper's girlfriend of 10 years would be mind-boggling.

But a few months after Soper taped his episode of elimination blackjack - the UBT's variation of the casino game where players compete against each other, not the house - Deb Opalewski beat the odds and 1,149 online players to win her own spot on the television show.

"The odds of both of us winning are just astronomical,'' Soper said. "Both of us are absolutely amazed that it happened at all.''

While producers have slotted Opalewski's episode to air on season three, Soper's 15 minutes of fame will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday when CBS airs the second episode of season 2.

Soper never fancied the game of poker, but once he heard about elimination blackjack, he decided to give it a try.

"The only thing that really counts is the chip count of your opponents,'' Soper said. "The dealer is sort of a pawn in the whole thing. You have to pay attention to what your opponents have as far as chip counts because the way the Ultimate Blackjack Tour does it is that about every eighth hand, the low chip count gets booted off the table.''

At the end of 30 hands, the player with the most chips wins.

The UBT offers qualifying tournaments for free at its Web site (www.playubt.com) and both Soper and Opalewski each had to win a single table qualifier of seven people, then a daily qualifer of about 100 people, and finally a monthly qualifer against more than 1,000 people.

It took Deb nearly six hours to complete her final online tournament, but by the time she appeared for her taping at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, she had an advantage.

At each taping, one online qualifier plays with as many as six poker or blackjack professionals, like Annie Duke and "Hollywood'' Dave Stann, both of whom Opalewski played against.

"It was intimidating at first, but I had been lucky enough, through Brian, that I had actually gotten to meet Joe Payne and Hollywood Dave during his taping. To me, it was more relaxed because I knew them as people before I knew them at the table. It was very exciting.''

Although the couple can't divulge any information on who won - each winner earns $40,000 and a seat at the season-ending tournament of champions - they did say they had a great time.

"They put us up at the Universal Hilton in L.A. and it was shot in a Hollywood studio - the whole nine yards,'' Soper said. "I kept thinking this doesn't happen to people like us.''

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