Carnival Cruise Blackjack
October 22nd, 2012 at 9:55:03 AM
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Carnival Cruise Blackjack:
Just returned from my Carnival cruise vacation and thought I would give a run down of the gaming, specifically blackjack on the ship.
1.) Games offered:
a.) Blackjack: Automatic Continous Shuffle Machine, Dealer Hits on S17, Double after split, Splitting up to 4x, Blackjack pays 3 to 2 and No Surrender.
b.) Spanish 21 (all Queens removed instead of Tens): 8 Decks, Dealer Hits on S17, Blackjack pays 3 to 2 regardless of the dealer hand, and 21s pay immediately, Surrender allowed (even when dealer has a face card).
c.) Three Card Poker
d.) Craps with 2x odds
e.) Caribbean Stud Poker
f.) Roulette with 00
g.) Face-Up Blackjack: 8 Decks, Dealer Hits on S17, Blackjack pays even money, Player losses on a push.
h.) Poker Pro Machine
i.) Blackjack side bet: Fun Time Bonus Bet: ($1-$25), A Red/Black Pair pays 5-1, A Black Pair or Red Pair pays 10-1, A Suited Pair Pays 25-1, and Suited Kings Pays 50-1. I don't know what the odds on this game are, but I am guessing it isn't that great because table minimums for Blackjack and Spanish 21 were $6. The dealers told me this minimum was to encourage players to bet $5 on the blackjack hand and $1 on the bonus bet.
2.) My experience:
a.) I played about 12 sessions of Blackjack/Spainish 21/Face-up Blackjack: I had 8 losing sessions, 1 winning session, and 3 break even sessions. To say the least, I got crushed. I have never seen so many dealer blackjacks in my life. Almost every time I played the dealer pulled 4 to 5 blackjacks. I sat down once on Spanish 21 and the dealer pulled 4 blackjacks and drew to three 21s in 8 hands. My only winning session came at Face Up Blackjack (aka Double Exposure). Another lady I played with frequently on the trip said she was down about $8,000 stating that she had lost about $2,000 per day.
b.) I witnessed a few things I have never seen before: (1) Casino allowed one player to play at two separate tables at the same time. This considerably slowed down the play for other players. I was at the table once when this occurred and we were waiting on this player to finish his hand at the other table and make his play at our table and out of nowhere the dealer slammed his hand on the table and yelled at the player's waiting to wake-up and pay attention because it was our turn. (2) At the craps table during the middle of a players roll, the pit boss did a fill in the middle of the table requiring the shooter to throw over the chips to the other end of the table. (3) I also witnessed a lady stand on a soft 14 against a dealer Queen.
3.) My only good experience at the casino during the trip was that on the final day I won the slot tournament ($20 entry fee) and $500 prize.
Just returned from my Carnival cruise vacation and thought I would give a run down of the gaming, specifically blackjack on the ship.
1.) Games offered:
a.) Blackjack: Automatic Continous Shuffle Machine, Dealer Hits on S17, Double after split, Splitting up to 4x, Blackjack pays 3 to 2 and No Surrender.
b.) Spanish 21 (all Queens removed instead of Tens): 8 Decks, Dealer Hits on S17, Blackjack pays 3 to 2 regardless of the dealer hand, and 21s pay immediately, Surrender allowed (even when dealer has a face card).
c.) Three Card Poker
d.) Craps with 2x odds
e.) Caribbean Stud Poker
f.) Roulette with 00
g.) Face-Up Blackjack: 8 Decks, Dealer Hits on S17, Blackjack pays even money, Player losses on a push.
h.) Poker Pro Machine
i.) Blackjack side bet: Fun Time Bonus Bet: ($1-$25), A Red/Black Pair pays 5-1, A Black Pair or Red Pair pays 10-1, A Suited Pair Pays 25-1, and Suited Kings Pays 50-1. I don't know what the odds on this game are, but I am guessing it isn't that great because table minimums for Blackjack and Spanish 21 were $6. The dealers told me this minimum was to encourage players to bet $5 on the blackjack hand and $1 on the bonus bet.
2.) My experience:
a.) I played about 12 sessions of Blackjack/Spainish 21/Face-up Blackjack: I had 8 losing sessions, 1 winning session, and 3 break even sessions. To say the least, I got crushed. I have never seen so many dealer blackjacks in my life. Almost every time I played the dealer pulled 4 to 5 blackjacks. I sat down once on Spanish 21 and the dealer pulled 4 blackjacks and drew to three 21s in 8 hands. My only winning session came at Face Up Blackjack (aka Double Exposure). Another lady I played with frequently on the trip said she was down about $8,000 stating that she had lost about $2,000 per day.
b.) I witnessed a few things I have never seen before: (1) Casino allowed one player to play at two separate tables at the same time. This considerably slowed down the play for other players. I was at the table once when this occurred and we were waiting on this player to finish his hand at the other table and make his play at our table and out of nowhere the dealer slammed his hand on the table and yelled at the player's waiting to wake-up and pay attention because it was our turn. (2) At the craps table during the middle of a players roll, the pit boss did a fill in the middle of the table requiring the shooter to throw over the chips to the other end of the table. (3) I also witnessed a lady stand on a soft 14 against a dealer Queen.
3.) My only good experience at the casino during the trip was that on the final day I won the slot tournament ($20 entry fee) and $500 prize.
October 22nd, 2012 at 11:13:00 AM
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Congrats on the tourney win. I've been on a handfull of these weekend Carnival cruises to meheeco. "Paradise" is the only ship I've been on. My experience with the spanish 21 on the cruise has been the opposite; I can never seem to lose...or maybe I'm so drunk I feel like I'm winning. Did your ship have Texas Hold 'Em without dealers? Did you happen to see any VP pay tables?
100% risk of ruin
October 22nd, 2012 at 11:58:04 AM
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The Poker Pro machine was Texas Hold'Em without dealers, so Yes. As for the VP pay tables I only remember that from the games offered no full house paid more than 30 credits so I stayed away. Also, all VP machines contained a progessive, but you had to double your bet, so instead of 5 credits you had to bet 10 credits. The lowest denomination was $0.25.
