Quick Poll: Do you win at the table games at the RC Casino?

[John&LaLa]

The comment is about Single Deck Blackjack. On RCI if dealt from a 6 or 8 deck shoe then you can double after a split with the exception of ACE's.

Does it have to be pairs to split?

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[aeonix01]

Last cruise I was on, 2011, Explorer of the Seas. Played Blackjack one afternoon, was the only one at the table. Won close to a grand off a $100 starting point, and that's after pocketing the original $100.

 

One other cruise I recall, a LONG time before that was in the 90s playing Blackjack on The Nordic Prince. Started at around $100, won an additional $1300 on the way to Bermuda. On the way back, after spending a bunch of money, began playing Blackjack again. Regained all of the money I'd spent. My brother walked up behind me, said "How ya losin'?" as a joke. Within two hours, I lost everything I'd won, re-won, and the $100 I brought to start with. LOL.

[TYSONBOXER]

I play BJ all the time on land and cruise casinos and I usually win. It’s all money management. The odds are in the casinos favor. The dealer will usually win more hands than you. So if you play $25 a hand all the time, you will lose. You have to vary your bet. It takes time to figure out how to do this, but you will win most of the time. My last cruise I won $8000. I usually don’t win that much but had a good cruise. The cruise before I won $1800.

So you can win in the casinos on cruise ships. Just have to know how to play the game and bet according.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bmorecruiser021]

I personally love Texas Hold’em Ultimate tables. Usually win between a couple hundred and a grand a cruise betting minimums and playing the bonus. The real money is in the bonus since it pays out on any hand better then two pair which is basically the 3rd worst hand or better.

 

I was on the Explorer a few years ago and watched a woman win $25,000. It took her all cruise, and she was down $10,000 at one point but she kept playing $100 on the bonus and caught quads and a straight flush a time or two (I think they pay 250:1 and 500:1) and she made her money back and then some. It just took a large initial investment and money to spend/possibly loose

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[OCSC Mike]

It’s all money management. The odds are in the casinos favor.

 

No form of money management can overcome the house edge. You are at a disadvantage and expected to lose X% of every bet you make (ignoring when the count goes positive and you actually have the edge but I'm trying to keep things simple).

[Rewind]

I'm a craps player. Out of the 9 cruises I've taken, I've been ahead on 8 of them (the other I broke even).

 

Now I only play with $40 a day, and if I lose that I'm done for the day. I normally gain about $70-$80 for the week so I'm nowhere near the big money, but it helps pay for tips and I count it as entertainment.

[proggieus]

I play BJ all the time on land and cruise casinos and I usually win. It’s all money management. The odds are in the casinos favor. The dealer will usually win more hands than you. So if you play $25 a hand all the time, you will lose. You have to vary your bet. It takes time to figure out how to do this, but you will win most of the time. My last cruise I won $8000. I usually don’t win that much but had a good cruise. The cruise before I won $1800.

So you can win in the casinos on cruise ships. Just have to know how to play the game and bet according.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Nope-

 

you may have won last trip but that was luck-

 

there is no betting system or strategy that will overcome the house advantage long term.

 

the only way you could possibly know "how to play the game and bet accordingly" is by card counting

[Xgoldmoon]

I’m a occasional slots player. Limit myself to 20$ a night. Last cruise was unusual, while I still lost some, I won enough to pay for my cruise and go back home with 800$. Now to most that’s not much but to me it was absolutely fantastic! I was sill winning (a little on night 7).

[ramja96]

Does anyone know what the minimum is on roulette for RCI?

[starvenger]

I'm a craps player. Out of the 9 cruises I've taken, I've been ahead on 8 of them (the other I broke even).

 

Now I only play with $40 a day, and if I lose that I'm done for the day. I normally gain about $70-$80 for the week so I'm nowhere near the big money, but it helps pay for tips and I count it as entertainment.

This is pretty much what I do. $50 limit and if it's gone, it's gone. If I go up $50 I walk away. On Harmony, I pretty much just played single deck BJ as the 8-deck table used a shufflemaster, which I'm not a fan of. Did well enough to cover extra gratuities for housekeeping and our waiters.

 

Recently got into 3 card poker, so might play that on Allure.

[Dashofpepper]

This last cruise with Carnival, not RC. I tried something in Roulette called the double down method or Martingale system. I have never been much of a gambler, but I ran some tests at home with an electronic roulette wheel and $100 in starting chips at $5 bets. This method never failed even once in my at home testing.This is how double down works basically.

 

Choose a color to bet on. Say, “red”. Until the end of the game, you will bet only on red.

-Place your initial bet, for example $1, on red.

-If you win, your net win is $1. Stop here.

-If you lose, you have lost $1. Place 2x$1=$2 on red.

-If you win, you win $2. Your net gain is $2-$1=$1. Stop here.

-If you lose, your net loss so far is $1+$2=$3. Place 2x$2=$4 on red.

-If you win, you win $4. Your net gain is $4-$3=$1. Stop here.

-If you lose, your net loss so far is $3+$4=$7. Place 2x$4=$8 on red.

So, unless a streak comes that is longer than your bankroll, you win, but slowly. I figured it was worth $100 to try it. I started playing and for about two hours this system worked perfectly. I was slowly making a gain, but when I reached about $280 and right after an employee who seemed to be watching me pretty intently was doing something at a workstation next to the roulette table, I had an eight number streak of not my color. I have to point out that for the last two hours and for as long as I had been watching the Roulette table this cruise, I had never seen more than a three color streak. Now I know that this could have just been dumb luck and the woman may have just been doing something routine and not related, but that cured me of gambling.

 

 

I was already suspicious though, because I used to get onto a Carnival ship and play the slots when the ship was headed out on night one. I set limits on my play. Start with $20 and if I lose that, I am done for the cruise. I would play a dollar and win like $50. After that first night, I would not win again. The next three cruises, I tried only playing on that first night and I won around the same amount each first night for three cruises. It was like the slots could not lose on that embarkation night, but now I am just cashing out and walking away and not gambling the rest of the cruise. This worked for four cruises and then stopped. My last three cruises, no wins on night one. I spend my twenty on slots and win nothing. So this could just be luck, I know that chance can be strange statistically, but in the back of my mind it could also be that an algorithm linked to my sail and sign card has told Carnival that I take my winnings and walk, so don't waste money on this guy. I know, I know, it is all highly regulated and above board, but that was enough for me.

 

Oof. Where do I begin with that. I'm a roulette player.

 

Here's the truth: If you have enough money to successfully gamble with a martingale strategy, you probably aren't going to gamble it in the first place. It's pretty safe for making a bit of cash in the short run, but even with favorable rules giving a 0.002% chance of running into a losing streak that breaks your bankroll, it can still happen, and you will eventually streak into breaking your bank roll.

With that said, here are some ground rules that I live by:

*Rule #1: Don't ever play American Roulette.

*Rule #2: Decide the streak odds you're willing to accept.

*Rule #3: Don't accept smaller table ranges than your accepted streak odds.

*Rule #4: Bankroll the table max at martingale, or don't play.

*Rule #5: If you're going to increase your bet outside of Martingale, quit on the spot.

*Rule 1 explained: European Roulette only (single zero instead of double zero, cuts the house edge on a 1:1 bet in half to 2.7%). If you can find a roulette table that also has either "en prison" or "la partage" in effect, it further reduces house odds in your favor on 1:1 bets while doing a Martingale. The Bellagio has a single table that meets this criteria in their high stakes salon, but the table limits are $100 - $10,000, which they won't change, ever, for anyone. Since I'm not willing to risk $20k, nor am I willing to violate rule #4, I'm restricted to the peasant tables with $1k or $2k caps without en prison. MGM, Wynn, all the other strip resorts have $25 - $20,000 single zero tables, which sometimes get bumped up to $100 minimum bets during peak. NCL and Carnival only have American roulette tables; supposedly RCCL has both, which I'm still trying to get more details on - same with Cunard, and the other lines. You can find online casinos with favorable rules (5Dimes has a $1-$2500 European table with En prison) which is a DREAM....but based on a single reddit post that a single person made a year ago about suspecting 5Dimes of causing identity theft....I wasn't willing to risk gambling in their casino.

*Rule 2 explained: There are 37 entries on a European roulette table; 1-36 and 0. You have a 47.3% chance of winning and a 52.7% chance of losing. While every spin (like a coin flip) has identical odds of occurring, you're betting on a streak. For me, that's "Follow the House." When the house rolls red, I bet red. When the house rolls black, I bet black. If the house goes RRRRRRRRRR, I just won the table minimum 9 times in a row. For me, losing means the house goes RBRBRBRBRB in exactly that order, never duplicating color for 8-9 doubled bets in a row. A spin is a 0.473 of me winning. If I bet black and the the house went red, I switch to red. The next spin has an equal chance of being red (0.473), but the chances of the table displaying black, then red is 22.4%. The chances of the table going black, then red, then black is 10.5%. For me, my accepted streak odds are 0.0025; or 3/10 of one percent - that the house won't spin BRBRBRBR in exactly that order.

*Rule #3 explained: For my 8 bet (or 0.25% chances of streak loss) table requirement - which by the way is VERY difficult to come by - casinos implement table limits to prevent people with an unlimited bankroll from making money (and you have to avoid American roulette - 0/00 is a sucker bet). The only way to even get an affordable 7 bet Martingale European table in Vegas is to show up at one of the 6-bet tables during off-peak, with no one there, and ask the pit boss to either halve the minimum for you. They can, and will at their discretion - but even finding a table to gamble on is a gamble. Showing up at the MGM hoping for $25 - $20,000, but there being enough people to make it a $100 - $25,000 table sucks.

*Rule #4 explained: If you can't bankroll a table for the rules you set for yourself above, don't play. If its a $10-$2000 table, you need to bring $3,935 to the table. If it's a $1 - $250 table, you need to bring $443 to the table. I don't straight Martingale, because chip denominations aren't friendly to trying 5-10-20-40-etc; instead, I bet 10/25/50/100/250/500/1000. Table min/max are never set where it would make a difference or add a double to your bet count.

Keep in mind that you're going to spend most of your time making minimum bets. This is not the kind of system where you bring $100 and leave with $10,000. This is not even the system where you bring $100 and leave with $200. This is the system where you bring $5,000, play for a bit until you've won $500-$1000, then leave and thank Jesus for not making the 0.25% streak chance show up while YOU were at the table and costing you $4500 for trying to win $500.

*Rule #5 explained: You've been sitting at the roulette table for 5 hours. You brought $2,000 for a $5-$1000 table and you're up to $4,000. You won that $5 at a time over 5 hours. Eventually, you will be either drunk or numb enough to be bored enough to think "I should bet $1000 just because" or "I should play even/odds too" just to change things up. You will lose. Every losing experience I've had in my lifetime is because I stayed too long, got bored and broke the rules. Two vivid memories - after 3 days of gambling at the Hard Rock Casino, I'm up $7,000. Sunday morning, getting ready to fly home and I think, "Man...just one last hurrah for the big time." The last spin when I walked up to the table was red. I put $1000 on red. It went to black. I put $2000 on black. It went to red. I put $4000 on red with pit-boss approval. It went to black. 3 days of work, poof broke. The other experience was two years ago on the Norwegian Jewel - my wife and I took a cruise. I'm a "valued casino patron" so a mostly free cruise. Casino had $25-$1000, and only American roulette. I should have known better. I DID know better. But a week on a cruise ship with a casino and free booze RIGHT THERE....I was weak. Lost $2000 in 10 minutes.

The most I've ever won from a roulette table in a single sitting was actually on another cruise ship - the Norwegian Pearl - and it wasn't from Martingale. At the end of the cruise, I was up a net $500 from an hour here and there. While I was gambling, the intercom announced we were re-entering American waters in 30 minutes, at which point the casino was closing. I started to leave, and the dealer said, "Awww, one last hurrah?" I asked her to pick a color - she went with red (her fingernails), and I clunked my $500 winnings onto red. It spun to red. I doubled onto red, and it went red again. Table max was $1000, so I pulled $1000 back and let it ride. 8 times on red, then I quit. I asked her to spin it one more time because I had to see - and it was black. I'd just shoveled all the chips into my pockets when my wife came into the casino looking for me. She asked how I did, and I pulled out $300 in chips and was like, "Eh, not a total loss." Then I pulled out a handful and said, "Oh, these too!" ($100 chips, coat and pants all stuffed). She freaked out. Then I pulled another handful, and another, and $8,000 later, we decided to fly home first class. It's one of my most cherished memories.

I didn't "overly" mind losing $2k on the second cruise because my net winnings were up, but I was pissed the whole cruise because I KNEW BETTER and still gambled - probably because I "felt" lucky. And that's the point - if you start feeling...leave the table.

In short, Martingale's low risk is good for making money in the short term. My personal rule is 120%. I stop when I have 120% of my starting bankroll. $10,000 turned into $12,000. $500 turned into $600 (for those cheap $1 - $250 tables), but you always need double the table max to play on that table.

Make a little money, but be aware this isn't a gambling system that will get you comps. Take your Martingale winnings (if you didn't hit that rare streak) and use them to flat bet a color for hours while sipping free drinks to build those house comps (average bet per hour = points awarded). If you went with your spouse and you want to double milk the comps and spend the least amount of money buying those comps, give her half your chips or some cash of her own, and make her bet opposite you - but don't associate as husband/wife while you're doing it. You put $25 on red, she puts $25 on black. 98% of the time, you two will break even, and 2% of the time, the house will get paid on green. But you can farm those comps. Double bonus points if you slowly palm your bankroll and winnings into your pocket one chip at a time when you can get away with it, so the pit boss sees diminishing stacks in front of you and thinks you're losing more than you are.

Casinos don't like gamblers, which is stupid - but casinos are run by bean counters now, not by gamblers. Martingale is gambling, and doesn't fit into the -EV profit expectations per hour of utilization. Casinos want players to sit down, and slowly pay out their bankroll to the casino's inevitable odds. Go big or go home.

[Welly9]

1st of all, I never heard that you gave her a tip?

2ndly i doubt she was 'freaked out' over a little win.

 

Here is a 'freak out' - and money laundering at same time ...

Was at Resort Casino - cant say name, but was in DR.

I was playing the board, the middle numbers as I always do, and a couple of fave numbers as we all enjoy doing. Playing with my wife for about an hour, ended up it was just us, we would go up a bit and then lose some, then up and then it would get chipped away again...normal stuff, but its for entertainment and of course try to win a few bucks while enjoying the atmosphere...

A dude walks up to the table, this was the 4th day here so i recognized the Mgr talk to the Pitboss, who came over to the Roulette Dealer and talk a bit and then leave...then he came back with a paper from this dude apparently as it was, a credit note, then started stacking hundreds plus they had some $1000 chips, he had $20K to $25K in chips...here I am hitting numbers with my $1 chips, the Dude places all the $K chips on 17, shared all the 100 chips on the corners and sides of 17, no where else and nothing on 0 00, we are observing and taking all this in, watching the dealer and then watched as he spun the ball out, and said to my wife watch this, and I put the rest of my chips on 17...what do you think hit???????

lol YEP 17...un believable ' money laundering operation in front of our eyes! so since then I watch every dealer at roulette playing or not and guess pretty close as to where that ball will drop now, its an art, there is inside house playing here too...the dude waited for the pit boss and he showed up like, OMG wow...and paid him off close to $500K, us? we got a couple hundred out of it, and drew even that night, lol :loudcry:

[SRF]

The fallacy with the system is, the odds of the wheel going black is 47.3% NO MATTER WHAT THE PREVIOUS SPINS HAVE BEEN.

 

The odds of RRRRRRRR is exactly the same as RBRBRBRB

 

Each spin is statistically a separate event.

[AlanF65]

This last cruise with Carnival, not RC. I tried something in Roulette called the double down method or Martingale system. I have never been much of a gambler, but I ran some tests at home with an electronic roulette wheel and $100 in starting chips at $5 bets. This method never failed even once in my at home testing.This is how double down works basically.

 

Choose a color to bet on. Say, “red”. Until the end of the game, you will bet only on red.

-Place your initial bet, for example $1, on red.

-If you win, your net win is $1. Stop here.

-If you lose, you have lost $1. Place 2x$1=$2 on red.

-If you win, you win $2. Your net gain is $2-$1=$1. Stop here.

-If you lose, your net loss so far is $1+$2=$3. Place 2x$2=$4 on red.

-If you win, you win $4. Your net gain is $4-$3=$1. Stop here.

-If you lose, your net loss so far is $3+$4=$7. Place 2x$4=$8 on red.

So, unless a streak comes that is longer than your bankroll, you win, but slowly. I figured it was worth $100 to try it. I started playing and for about two hours this system worked perfectly. I was slowly making a gain, but when I reached about $280 and right after an employee who seemed to be watching me pretty intently was doing something at a workstation next to the roulette table, I had an eight number streak of not my color. I have to point out that for the last two hours and for as long as I had been watching the Roulette table this cruise, I had never seen more than a three color streak. Now I know that this could have just been dumb luck and the woman may have just been doing something routine and not related, but that cured me of gambling.

 

 

I was already suspicious though, because I used to get onto a Carnival ship and play the slots when the ship was headed out on night one. I set limits on my play. Start with $20 and if I lose that, I am done for the cruise. I would play a dollar and win like $50. After that first night, I would not win again. The next three cruises, I tried only playing on that first night and I won around the same amount each first night for three cruises. It was like the slots could not lose on that embarkation night, but now I am just cashing out and walking away and not gambling the rest of the cruise. This worked for four cruises and then stopped. My last three cruises, no wins on night one. I spend my twenty on slots and win nothing. So this could just be luck, I know that chance can be strange statistically, but in the back of my mind it could also be that an algorithm linked to my sail and sign card has told Carnival that I take my winnings and walk, so don't waste money on this guy. I know, I know, it is all highly regulated and above board, but that was enough for me.

 

There is a reason table games have limits, on the odd chance that someone played a lot of hands ( with unlimited funds) and won two bets in a row in a double every bet system after a long string of losses they could break the house.

 

 

Also the table max limits are lower to the starting bet so you would need to win in about 5-9 bets at BJ before you couldn't double any more depending on the table max relative to the start.

[awestover89]

I've had really good and really bad runs on slots and table games on board and on land, probably about the same percentage. On our last cruise my husband and I played probably about $200 each on Blackjack, he broke even and I was up about $80. Slots there have been cruises where I spent my entire $300 budget, and others where I came out a few hundred ahead.

 

Oh, and for the poster mentioning the Martingale, it's a system that will occasionally work, if you have a massive bankroll. Tiny wins, but huge losses and unless you have a table with a really high maximum bet and a very large bankroll, you will end up losing way more often than winning.

[SRF]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(betting_system)

 

Part of the problem with the Martingale is that you cannot bet unlimited amounts.

 

So if you are a table with a $10 - $2000 range, you bets would run - 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2000, 2000, 2000 ...

 

So once you lose 8 in a row, you can no longer recoup your losses with a win, and at the point, if you win, you offset the last loss, but not all the previous losses.

 

If there was a system that works, it would be banned by the casinos. :D

 

Even card counting is not a guaranteed win (unlike the movie), by counting, you can take advantage of small swings in the house percentage, it does not mean all of a sudden the players will win every hand.

[time4u2go]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(betting_system)

 

Part of the problem with the Martingale is that you cannot bet unlimited amounts.

 

So if you are a table with a $10 - $2000 range, you bets would run - 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2000, 2000, 2000 ...

 

So once you lose 8 in a row, you can no longer recoup your losses with a win, and at the point, if you win, you offset the last loss, but not all the previous losses.

 

If there was a system that works, it would be banned by the casinos. :D

 

Even card counting is not a guaranteed win (unlike the movie), by counting, you can take advantage of small swings in the house percentage, it does not mean all of a sudden the players will win every hand.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

[sellwingri]

I spend a lot of time in the casino on the ship and find that it’s my favorite form of entertainment. My games of choice are Ultimate Texas Holdem and Three Card Poker. I will admit that I spend too much money but am rewarded with free cruises or large discounts. I also drink for free in the casino so I save money. Occasionally I do walk off with money but usually lose.

 

I go to Vegas once a year so cruising (usually 6 times a year) is where I gamble. Its my entertainment.

[John&LaLa]

I spend a lot of time in the casino on the ship and find that it’s my favorite form of entertainment. My games of choice are Ultimate Texas Holdem and Three Card Poker. I will admit that I spend too much money but am rewarded with free cruises or large discounts. I also drink for free in the casino so I save money. Occasionally I do walk off with money but usually lose.

 

I go to Vegas once a year so cruising (usually 6 times a year) is where I gamble. Its my entertainment.

Laura's favorite is 3 card. I play blind, hoping the dealer doesn't open.

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[George C]

I like to gamble and will play for about a hour a night , normally win a few nights but rarely come out ahead at end of the week, I play poker, bj and roulette.

[lovescats5]

We live in a gambling state (NV) and they do not build the casinos by paying out winnings. I cannot imagine a boat would be any different. As we have always said, along with someone who already answered, the only way to win in any casino is to not play.

[mk-ultra]

Oh dear god. Folks, there is nothing like a betting system like "Martingale" that works, no matter how large your bankroll is. If there was, casinos all over the planet would be going bankrupt instead of raking in money from dingus gamblers who buy into this nonsense.

 

I'm a fairly serious blackjack player (insomuch as I understand the game, the table odds and rules that vary that change my odds), and play 100% accurate basic strategy. I know that without adding some sort of counting strategy on top of that, I'm going to lose money over time. I don't bother with card counting because it's way more work than just memorizing the correct basic strategy -- and I'm at the table to have fun. It just mitigates my losses. I KNOW I'm still going to lose money, just at a slower pace.

 

Don't buy into this nonsense. "The fundamental reason why all martingale-type betting systems fail is that no amount of information about the results of past bets can be used to predict the results of a future bet with accuracy better than chance."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(betting_system)

 

There are table games that with a lot of work and knowledge can earn you a small advantage against the house. The table rules in most cruise ship casinos are bad enough that no professional advantage player would even bother with them. The one double-deck blackjack table on my last cruise paid 6:5 for blackjack and dealer hits a soft-17 with maybe 1 deck penetration before a shuffle. I wouldn't touch that table with a 10' pole even if I were counting.

Edited July 29, 2018 by mk-ultra

[PigsCanFly]

We play 3-card poker with the 6-card bonus. It often saves our bad hand by making a 5 card straight or flush. I had the fortune of having a royal flush on the Granduer and finally saw an example of the $5000. max payout. My royal would have paid $10000. (Now the max has changed to $40000.) A few days later, my son hit a Straight flush for $2000. He even kept most of his winnings. I gave most of mine back, but at least I came home with much of my gambling budget.

[John&LaLa]

We play 3-card poker with the 6-card bonus. It often saves our bad hand by making a 5 card straight or flush. I had the fortune of having a royal flush on the Granduer and finally saw an example of the $5000. max payout. My royal would have paid $10000. (Now the max has changed to $40000.) A few days later, my son hit a Straight flush for $2000. He even kept most of his winnings. I gave most of mine back, but at least I came home with much of my gambling budget.

I dont think I've been on a Royal ship where Royal flush pays higher than straight flush.

 

But then I dont play the 4th spot. Just blind on bonus, ante, and bet. 5-10-10

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[SRF]

Oh dear god. Folks, there is nothing like a betting system like "Martingale" that works, no matter how large your bankroll is. If there was, casinos all over the planet would be going bankrupt instead of raking in money from dingus gamblers who buy into this nonsense.

 

Even with the Martingale system, you only win the amount of your first bet.

 

So it you start with $10, even if your last bet is $1280, you only have won $10. Not a way to get rich.

 

If you want to start with a $10,000 bet and double on each loss, you can make $10,000. :D