Rare Honolulu Blue Posted January 18 #1 Share Posted January 18 (edited) This post was recognized by LauraS! Honolulu Blue was awarded the badge 'Great Review' I played this on the Carnival Magic on November and won a few bucks on it. I saw more of these on the Carnival Dream, which I'm on RIGHT NOW, and settled in for a more extended stay. First, here are some of the rules from the help screens: Anyway, I put my $100 in and started firing up $5 bets (single hand, can play up to three hands at a time). I stayed even for a bit, then I got hot. I continued to win and I kept raising my bets. I ended up with $25 bets and a $190 gain. Sweet. 🤑 I hadn't had a run like that for many years. And I even gained points for this - 64 of them. There could be an opportunity here, if I valued cruises from Carnival highly. Sadly, I don't these days. Carnival does a lot of things well, but they don't have the cruises I want these days - even for free. The good news is that this machine also has craps, baccarat, and roulette. The bad news is that the even money bets at B and C pay around 90 cents on the dollar. And IIRC, roulette features a 000 virtual wheel. And all games have their side bets, which I didn't try to evaluate and paid little attention to. Thank you for reading. You might see this game, or something like it, on a casino near you sometime. Be sure to read the rules for your local machine, because the devil is in thise details. 👹 Edited January 18 by Honolulu Blue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KarmaCruisers Posted January 18 #2 Share Posted January 18 I got my cousin and uncle hooked on those machines on our recent Panorama sailing..they wanted to play blackjack and I suggested they play the machine for $1 a hand since it paid 6:5 same as the $6+ table. on a $20 they had great fun. and like you said; they actually earn points whereas on table games..it’s up to humans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Honolulu Blue Posted January 18 Author #3 Share Posted January 18 14 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said: I got my cousin and uncle hooked on those machines on our recent Panorama sailing..they wanted to play blackjack and I suggested they play the machine for $1 a hand since it paid 6:5 same as the $6+ table. on a $20 they had great fun. and like you said; they actually earn points whereas on table games..it’s up to humans. Thanks for your story, experience, and comments. The machine I was on had a $3 minimum for blackjack. It's interesting that the minimum is lower on the Panorama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVU_Neal Posted January 18 #4 Share Posted January 18 Biggest problem with the game is 6:5 for blackjack rather than 3:2. I won't play those games/tables. Neal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Honolulu Blue Posted January 19 Author #5 Share Posted January 19 1 hour ago, WVU_Neal said: Biggest problem with the game is 6:5 for blackjack rather than 3:2. I won't play those games/tables. I don't think Carnival offers 3:2 blackjack at any tables (electronic or live). for less than a $10 minimum anymore. More frequently it's played for $25 and up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KarmaCruisers Posted January 21 #6 Share Posted January 21 On 1/18/2024 at 4:06 PM, Honolulu Blue said: I don't think Carnival offers 3:2 blackjack at any tables (electronic or live). for less than a $10 minimum anymore. More frequently it's played for $25 and up. 6:5 less than $25 tables, 100% for sure. i think 6:5 BJ is still better game than any slot or video poker they have on the ships (I think the best video poker is 95% payback) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Honolulu Blue Posted January 21 Author #7 Share Posted January 21 43 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said: 6:5 less than $25 tables, 100% for sure. i think 6:5 BJ is still better game than any slot or video poker they have on the ships (I think the best video poker is 95% payback) Thanks for the confirmation. I think it's likely that the house edge is lower on this version of BJ than for any of their other slots or VP. That's why I wanted to note it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorJoe22 Posted January 21 #8 Share Posted January 21 Does anyone know if NCL has digital blackjack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smarterman64 Posted January 22 #9 Share Posted January 22 4 hours ago, SailorJoe22 said: Does anyone know if NCL has digital blackjack? ive seen some at the bar. multi game machines. BUt i think these are 1:1 payout for blackjack which is worse odds 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Honolulu Blue Posted January 24 Author #10 Share Posted January 24 Because I'm a degenerate with more money than sense 🤑, I went back and played two sessions on this machine. The first one didn't go my way as I lost $54. I did gain about 160 points as some consolation. With the second session I experimented with betting 3 hands at the same time. This one went better as I gained $84.20 as I gained another 60 points or so. Being up $240 on a negative expectation game should be good enough, but I'm not certain if I've had enough punishment for this trip. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Honolulu Blue Posted January 26 Author #11 Share Posted January 26 This morning, I completed one more session on this silly machine. The good news is I got about 260 points for this session, for a total of 485 for the cruise. That's almost $2500 coin in. If that doesn't get the attention of Miami, then I'll never be able to do it. The bad news is I lost $58. I couldn't get a streak started because the dealer would often get some miracle hand while I had decent to good ones. Isn't that always the way? ♥️♦️♣️♠️ Carnival had a couple of machines near the cashier that cashed out my bank in real cash. It worked smoothly and saved me some time standing in line at the cashier. I learned a lot that could help me on future cruises. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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