Casino Question ... Celebrity Summit. .. Help my mom leaves tomorrow!!!

Not always. I've been very fortunate playing blackjack on Celebrity ships.

I used the word "ultimately". You may have won money in the short term but in the casino always comes out ahead.

DON

not if you're counting cards. I recall that cruise ships often have very favorable blackjack rules. And I suspect the dealers and pit bosses aren't as sophisticated at spotting counting as in Vegas.

not if you're counting cards. I recall that cruise ships often have very favorable blackjack rules. And I suspect the dealers and pit bosses aren't as sophisticated at spotting counting as in Vegas.

huh....what very favorable blackjack rules? It is true that the pit crew is not quite as well trained or skilled as you might find in vegas, but they would catch most card counters...remember there aren't all that many gambling so a winner stands out more than in vegas.

I have watched someone trained in dice rolling do very well at craps on the ship...and they knew he was trained (easy to tell by just watching how someone rolls the dice). They didn't stop him because they don't believe you can control the dice that well. Based on my observation, they were wrong...he walked away with thousands....

Favorable Blackjack rules include a number of things such as: re-splitting Aces, doubling down after splitting pairs, dealer stays on all 17s, etc. I don't remember these on cruise ships. Gambling is entertainment. No method of Card counting, dice practice, lucky rabbit's feet, lucky hand slaps or any other methods will win in the long run, but they sure can "work" for short periods. The only sure ways to win is to own the game or cheat. Gambling is entertainment.

Okay first off are you seriously thinking there are tips on playing slots??? Really ... good luck with that LOL.

I was on Summit couple weeks ago and did okay first few nights, it let me play a bit before I lost my money :) On Wednesday my friend won $500 on a penny machine, Taxi I think, and shortly after I was playing one of the Cash Man machines and had won up to $80 so started betting $5 for a while (I know crazy) and I got Cash Man and it gave me the choice of an unknown free games or unknown money prize. I chose free games and it was 10 games at 2x my bet. So that ended up being 10 games at $10 bet OMG. Well in the end I won over $900. I did not put another penny in the machines for the rest of the trip I was beyond excited.

There is no magic way to win at slots except right machine at right time, hopefully luck is with your mother and she at least enjoys playing.

If Eclipse, as reported, is putting in English style fruit machines in next year these might be what are called AWP Machines (Amusement with Prizes) and are commonly found in the UK in pubs etc.

These are very different to american machines - the machine decides whether it will payout not some random number generator, so theoretically you can play and there will be ZERO chance of winning -which I don't believe is ever the case with US Machines. The other difference is there are often many sub games and built in "cheats" that you can learn which in theory can help give you a small edge.

huh....what very favorable blackjack rules? It is true that the pit crew is not quite as well trained or skilled as you might find in vegas, but they would catch most card counters...remember there aren't all that many gambling so a winner stands out more than in vegas.

 

I have watched someone trained in dice rolling do very well at craps on the ship...and they knew he was trained (easy to tell by just watching how someone rolls the dice). They didn't stop him because they don't believe you can control the dice that well. Based on my observation, they were wrong...he walked away with thousands....

Years ago I was a card counter and could tell you a lot about that for the short story more luck was involved than what card counting contributed to winning.

I then worked as a dealer and I could spot card counters. I would inform the supervisor and pit boss and they were never concerned because they really weren't a threat. Casinos actually like people that are playing with a system because there is no system that will consistently win or break the bank. The only consistent system to make money is to write a book or give a seminar about how to win, that is why casinos will give "free" gaming lessons and teach you the correct system or have people like Bob Dancer giving seminars in their casino.

Casinos are more concerned about cheaters and dealers are taught how to cheat. Counting cards is not cheating it is a system or stategy, just like basic playing but it is taken to a higher level of basic BJ strategy. Dealers are taught method of cheating not to cheat but to be able to catch cheaters and know what to look for. No one trusts anyone. The dealers watch the players, the supervisors watch the dealers and players, the pit boss watches the supervisors, dealers, players and banker. Security watches thru the cameras and they record everyone. Cheating involves marking cards by bending, edging, or greasing and etc, topping bets, pulling back checks, swapping cards, loaded dice, counterfeit checks, stealing other players winnings and checks, dealers making generous payoffs, indicating or tipping off the player, and etc.

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

Disagree completely that correct counting of cards with favorable rules cannot be profitable. This is not a matter of opinion but of math. At the extreme consider a single deck dealt to the bottom where dealer stands on soft 17, and there is infinite splitting and splitting after doubling is permitted. Throw in surrender and the player has the mathematical edge. Of course most rules are not so favorable. Infinite decks are essentially uncountable so that is a great defense, but a 6 deck shoe with a good card counter is beatable. The edge is small so there will be large variations but the edge is there.

I no longer count cards as it takes a lot of work and I make a lot more money at my day job. When I did it I won, but the hourly rate was less than minimum wage so it was more a way to pass the time cheaply than a way to make a lot of money.

Disagree completely that correct counting of cards with favorable rules cannot be profitable. This is not a matter of opinion but of math. At the extreme consider a single deck dealt to the bottom where dealer stands on soft 17, and there is infinite splitting and splitting after doubling is permitted. Throw in surrender and the player has the mathematical edge. Of course most rules are not so favorable. Infinite decks are essentially uncountable so that is a great defense, but a 6 deck shoe with a good card counter is beatable. The edge is small so there will be large variations but the edge is there.

 

I no longer count cards as it takes a lot of work and I make a lot more money at my day job. When I did it I won, but the hourly rate was less than minimum wage so it was more a way to pass the time cheaply than a way to make a lot of money.

1. I've never seen a deck dealt to the bottom on a cruise ship

2. Admittedly I'm not the world's most experienced blackjack player, but how exactly do you split AFTER doubling down?:confused: Or did you mean doubling after splitting?

3. If you always won when counting cards, why not simply bet a larger sum of money larger, so as to make more than minimum wage? I don't get your point here.

sorry, doubling after splitting. see how long it's been? Point is, favorable rules make for favorable odds, but they aren't widely available.

If I made $5 per hour I'd have to be 20 times or more to make it worth my while, so that would be $100 to $400 per hand. Winning at that bet size would definitely attract attention. And frankly, counting cards at blackjack is grueling. It's really not fun at all. I much rather play craps. Even double odds on a cruise ship is only 0.6% house edge, so for an average $20 bet the house is winning about 12 cents per bet. That's worth the price of entertainment, assuming you have the cash flow to stay in.

Slots on a ship sounds like a recipe for losing to me.

I hope your Mom has a great trip, enjoys the cruise and wins a huge payout!

Ignore the "helpers" here and have a wonderful time....:D

sorry, doubling after splitting. see how long it's been? Point is, favorable rules make for favorable odds, but they aren't widely available.

 

If I made $5 per hour I'd have to be 20 times or more to make it worth my while, so that would be $100 to $400 per hand. Winning at that bet size would definitely attract attention. And frankly, counting cards at blackjack is grueling. It's really not fun at all. I much rather play craps. Even double odds on a cruise ship is only 0.6% house edge, so for an average $20 bet the house is winning about 12 cents per bet. That's worth the price of entertainment, assuming you have the cash flow to stay in.

 

Slots on a ship sounds like a recipe for losing to me.[/quote

 

What you just wrote is the big flaw that is to the casinos advantage. People will play and not have the proper bankroll to support their system and it also relies on playing 100% perfect every hand. The casino has more money and can survive the fluctuations whereas the player usually can't. And the model is always based on thousands and thousands if not millions of hands and most players cannot play that long perfectly or again have the bankroll. In the short term if you do win it is more because of a streak of favorable cards and having the larger wager in place that is a combination of luck and skill based on knowing that the cards favor the player but nothing is guaranteed. Again it is short term luck hat the cards happen to be falling your way for many hands.

 

It is easy to do a illustration on paper but very hard to lay thousands of dollars down trying to recoup loses. If you read those that write the books, Edward Thorpe was the one of the first, they will be down thousands and will be playing alone at a table playing all 6 hands with lower bets on the first 3 or 4 hands and heavily bet on the remaining with sometimes $40,000 to $50,000 in play and being down $100,000 to $200,000. They wanted to bleed the deck on the first hands to get it into their favor for hands that had the higher bets. After 10 hours they may hit a big big payoff and now be $800 ahead then claim that $80 per hour isn't a bad hourly rate and that is fine if you quit at that point, problem is people are also greedy and don't know when to quit, and how many of us will be playing those stakes? This was also years ago where the max table limits on a table were a lot higher. Now they have lower max table limits to stop that kind of progressive betting.

 

After the wiz kids the casinos now employ the best statisticians to analyze every game and make sure that the odds favor the house but at the same time make it appear as if the player has a chance to win.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞