Csaino Question....Quick!

[Big Blue Mike]

We are sailing on the Connie this Saturday. Do the Blackjack tables deal from a single deck or from multiple dacks? Not that I gamble or anything, I'm merely curious. Heh, Heh.

[susanhaw]

Don't know about Connie, but on Mercury they are mutliple decks from a shoe--looked like maybe 10 decks? And my husband said they had ONE table with a single deck dealer.

 

4/4/4 Mercury SF to Cabo

Mercury, 4/04

Amsterdam, 10/02

Radiance of the Seas, 5/01

Viking Serenade, 6/96

Azure Seas, 6/82

[DsnysGr8t]

At least on the Mercury all the blackjack tables (including the "Wheel of Madness" table) had 8-deck shoes, these were the $5/minimum tables. The one and only single deck table was $10/minimum and the odds for blackjack weren't quite as good.

 

Susanhaw, did your hubby play a lot? We were in the casino waaay too much. My hubby got addicted to the Caribbean Poker!

 

LGM

 

Carnival 4/00

Disney Wonder 8/00

Disney Wonder 11/01

Disney Wonder 4/02

Celebrity Mercury 4/04

Disney Magic 11/05

[Big Blue Mike]

Thanks a lot, folks. Geez, it's tough to count 8 to 10 decks worth of cards, huh? Guess I'll just watch. Suuuurre!

[mafig]

Single-deck blackjack on the Summit in Oct. was $5. However, bj paid 6:5. The dealer hit on soft 17 on all the tables.

 

Just memorize basic strategy -- you won't loose too much that way.

[rwb]

The normal tables use 8 decks dealt from a shoe. Dealer draws to soft 17. Player can split and resplit without limitation, and can double any two cards, including splits. However, you can draw only one card to a split ace. The house edge, if played properly, is approximately 0.645%. This is comparable to the better tables on land casinos, and is by far the lowest of the games offered on the cruise ship. Some tables are $5 and some are $10, depending on the whim of the casino manager.

 

There is one single-deck table. The odds are actually much worse for the player, as blackjack pays only 6-5 and some other rules change slightly. The house edge is roughly 1.44%, more than twice as high as the 8-deck game. Minimum bet is usually set at $10 on the single-deck table, but is sometimes $5.

 

The single deck is shuffled frequently enough to defeat card counters (after every hand).

 

For reference, the house edge at Caribbean Stud Poker is about 2.55%, at Let it Ride it's about 2.85%, at Roulette about 5.62%. I don't know about Three-Card Poker, the other game offered. Slots are probably around 7 to 10%.

[dedlaw]

On Summit recently they didn't reshuffle single-deck after every hand, but they didn't get close to dealing out the deck, either. They also have a posted rule (didn't notice if they enforced it) which said a player could only join the table after a shuffle. They actually only had one multiple-deck table (I think it was "only" six decks) and the single-deck table going most of the time -- sometimes one extra table with a $25 minimum. Could have filled an extra table most nights.

[rwb]

(1) All Celebrity casinos use 8 decks in the "normal" blackjack shoes.

 

(2) From observation, the single-deck penetration is 50%. If the table is full, so that 8-9 hands are being dealt at one time, there will normally be a shuffle after every hand. If there are fewer players, then it takes more than one hand before half the cards have been dealt.

 

(3) On Infinity, Constellation, and Millennium during the past year, I counted the number of cards dealt before a shuffle. Dealers consistently shuffled after 20 or more cards had been dealt unless there was only a single player at the table. The casino managers confirmed that was a "rule", two of them specifically saying that the dealer was instructed to maintain 50% penetration and not risk going beyond 60%. That, in combination with maximum bets and the close observation of the manager, effectively eliminates any possibility that a card counter could drop the odds lower than about 1%. That is, the 6-to-5 blackjack payoff so dramatically improves the house edge that you can't make up for it with counting strategies. The 8-deck game is superior for the player, given the rules of the casino.

 

(4) In my experience, the casinos will open any vacant table the instant someone sits down at it. Or you can simply ask the manager to open a new table for you. But the vast majority of players don't want to play the dealer one-on-one, so they tend not to do that. Trust me, all you have to do to open a table is ask for it.

[WeBeCruisin']

On the Thanksgiving Summit cruise, there were a group of us which gravitated to the single-deck table each evening and became regulars. I can't say that we all won any more or less than we would have at other tables, but it seemed a little more intimate. With the more frequent shufflings, there was more time for interaction with each other and with the dealers.

It may be coincidence, but out of the five or six "regulars" at the single-deck table, three of us made it to the Blackjack tournament final round, with me winning it, a woman from our table finishing second, and another guy from our group finishing fifth.

It was a $5 table throughout the cruise.

[susanhaw]

DsnysGr8t, our whole family (10) spent time in the casino, although no one really won BIG. My husband likes to play craps, taught my brother-in-law how to play and on the last night they won $300 and $400, respectively. Most of us played in the Blackjack Tournament but were didn't make it to the finals. Had a great time, though!

 

4/4/4 Mercury SF to Cabo

Mercury, 4/04

Amsterdam, 10/02

Radiance of the Seas, 5/01

Viking Serenade, 6/96

Azure Seas, 6/82

[DsnysGr8t]

Susanhaw,

 

My hubby played in the tournament too! Tall blonde guy w/a flat-top, mustache and glasses. He didn't make the final rounds either. We loved playing with the dealer Emma, she was great!

 

LGM

 

Carnival 4/00

Disney Wonder 8/00

Disney Wonder 11/01

Disney Wonder 4/02

Celebrity Mercury 4/04

Disney Magic 11/05