Cruise Ship Casinos

bennyk · #1 08-30-2005, 05:58 AM

Does anyone know if the rules / security on certain major cruise lines is as unfriendly to and aware of advantage play as land-based casinos?

I'm talking about huge cruise liners, not riverboats. I may have the opportunity to be working on one for 5 weeks, could it be worth learning to count?
bk

craig r · #2 08-30-2005, 06:56 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone know if the rules / security on certain major cruise lines is as unfriendly to and aware of advantage play as land-based casinos?

I'm talking about huge cruise liners, not riverboats. I may have the opportunity to be working on one for 5 weeks, could it be worth learning to count?
bk

[/ QUOTE ]

I know my dad went on one (he plays BJ; just basic strategy..no counting) and said the rules were different. I can't exactly remember what they were though. But, I know they were -EV.

craig

p.s. Different cruise companies may have different rules. The cruise line he took was "6-5 Blackjack: Good luck sucker"

SheetWise · #3 08-30-2005, 08:45 AM

"... could it be worth learning to count?"

Learning? It's not exactly like poker -- you probably shouldn't expect to win/pass in your first few months of play. You need to not appear to be counting -- I don't think a closed environment is the best place to learn. In a town with a lot of clubs, you can just get up and leave when you make a stupid mistake or draw attention to yourself.

bennyk · #4 08-31-2005, 05:56 AM

yeah.

ChipWrecked · #5 08-31-2005, 08:03 AM

[ QUOTE ]

I know my dad went on one (he plays BJ; just basic strategy..no counting) and said the rules were different. I can't exactly remember what they were though. But, I know they were -EV.

[/ QUOTE ]

Might have been Euro rules where the dealer doesn't check his hole card until bets are placed.

vox · #6 08-31-2005, 10:29 PM

I just got off a Royal Caribbean boat - they staff the casino with UK, Australian and Canadian dealers, which makes for good times, better than the no-personality Bahamians at Atlantis. All the blackjack tables were 6:5 single deck or auto-shufflers. Good luck counting. Double down on anything, dealer hits soft 17, no surrender on the boat! I played green-chip, they treated me like royalty.

Craps pit more or less just ate $300 of my money. Killed the poker-inspired table games. I placed the $1 sucker bonus bet on Let It Ride for the dealers, and hit a flush. $50 for the dealers! He rang that bell about a billion times.

Father and brother hit a one-number bet on 22, which they bet since "it was due"; I was too drunk to explain the logical fallacies.

Oh, here's an actual useful tidbit - Royal lets you draft up to $2000 a day on your charge account, with NO JUICE. It's not a "marker", because they charge your card for "Entertainment" and you can't "pay it off" at the table. So it amounts to a credit card advance. For free. Show me another casino willing to do that.