Cruise Blackjack Conditions?

Hi,

What kind of BJ games should I expect on a Cruise Ship?

Thanks.

6 deck shoes, DA2, DAS, no surrender, dealer stands on soft 17. Carnival was different with double deck and super fun games. Only one dealer on NCL recognized count betting and the pit bosses didn't seem to have a clue. Won about $300 in five days which was more luck than count. $5 to $40 spread.

Also, they had a side bet for consecutive hands won. You could bet 2, 3, 4, 5; paying 3:1, 7:1, 17:1, 35:1. Pushes left the bet as is. Until a hand is won, you can add/withdraw. Play any combo of the 2, 3, 4, 5. On good counts, I played the 3 and 4, with room left in the shoe; the 5. Won the 4, 3 times and probably made money on a side bet for about the first time ever.

Anyone got stats on this?

I think you would be better off adding the side bet money to your regular bet. Chances of winning two hands in a row are about 23% (47.5% X 47.5%). You're getting a three-to-one payoff on a four-to-one odds bet.

The chances of winning vary with the count. Also, you do not have to play the lower percentage paying 2 consecutive wins. Many times I played only the 3 or 3 and 4. However, I do agree that it may be better percentage to put the money on the bet. I was looking for stats on this.

Like when count goes to XX, player percentage for one hand is XX, 2 hands is XX%, 3 hands is XX%, etc. I've seen the first but not 2 or 3, etc.

just returned from a Princess cruise. judging by the other respondents to your thread, rules for cruiselines are almost identical ie. DAS, DOA, dealer stand on soft 17, no RSA etc. all games were 6 deck, pen varied by dealer, nickel play spreads 1-12 no problem. won about $150. in addition, did well at the blackjack tournament which was a lot of fun (for 1 hour play (qualifiers & final), $30 buyin the top prize was $650) i really think the cruise line is going to be more accomodating to varied betting - the casino action was really slow which puts jobs at risk & the cruise lines really want you back on future cruises (this is especially true if you are a frequent cruiser and loyal to a particular cruise line) have a great time!

From a practical standpoint, even with higher counts the player wouldn't be "expected" to win more than about 55% of the hands. At this win rate, the payoff odds on the side bet still favor the casino.
Sorry I don't have the specific information you seek.

Take a look at BJ Stats.com. It has some real neat data repositories. One will give you the win/loss percentages by true count for varying sets of rules.

The sample size they use isn't extremely large, but the expected win % (including ties) never gets over 60% on their chart, much less the 66% needed to justify this bet. It only goes up to TC+20, so theoretically, an obscenly high TC might get high enough. Excluding ties improves things a bit (not sure of the specifics for this side bet), but the percentage still doesn't get high enough. Given their small sample size, the data looks weird higher than TC +15 or so, so again, it may theoretically be profitable at really high counts. I suppose I could do a sim on this, but it does not seem to be worthwhile, so I won't.

You mentioned they have double decks--are they pitch games or do they deal them out of a shoe? What is the maximum bet?

I wrote a reply along the same line as this, but I must have forgotten to post it.

> The sample size they use isn't extremely large, but the expected win % (including ties) never gets over 60% on their chart, much less the 66% needed to justify this bet.

According to Quill, the two-in-a-row bet pays 3-1 which is fair odds for a 1 in 4 chance. So you only need a win probability of >50% to beat this, which occurs around +5 Hi-Lo (depending on conditions) if you exclude ties. The three-in-a-row is the same; the four and five are slightly better.

Regardless, the bottom line is that the side bet would only be advantageous at times where you would be putting out your max bet, but it would have lower EV and higher variance. Might be good for cover, but not much else.

Last year they had single and double deck, no shoes. They had super fun 21 and a dealer shows down card game; I cannot remember specifics of that (I did not do it). In the single and double deck, I believe there was no double after split and no surrender, double first two. Also, there was alot of drinking/rowdiness on Carnival and on all cruises very poor strategy players. Be comfortable with players doing some really strange things or don't play til after 3AM.

The tournaments were not interesting to me as they did not pay out what they took in and there was one $500 winner and some T-shirts. I believe they took in a couple thousand on Carnival and more than a thousand on NCL.