I recently took a transatlantic cruise from Copenhagen to Boston. I have been looking forward to this trip for quite some time, and started practicing for it two weeks out. I’d forgotten that they use the owl eye dice, and will be getting those for my cruise next year (or earlier as I’m now getting free cruise offers).
Betting on cruises, to me, is different. I never bet single odds at casinos other than on cf’ers, but this cruise line limits odds to single. Therefore, I place bet and double dip most numbers. It’s also a $5 table. You can get 2x odds with $25 on the line and 3-4-5 with 50, but I wouldn’t bet those odds $-wise anyway, so I stick with double dipping on single odds.
I treat my cruise a little differently than any other casino visits. I really enjoy getting to know the crew, mgrs, and host. I normally tip 1 on my PL and one for crew PL, and add 1 on place bets after first hit under my control. Here, you can’t top your PL nor player control, so they don’t self-fund on the wins, and when on a cruise, I’m OK with that. Yes, it’s giving up edge, but again, I’m on a cruise.
Anyway, as I posted in August while in Copenhagen, I played Rocket 7s at the land casino there, VERY interesting game (see post). First day on ship, I visited the casino before we shoved off, met the host who put a VIP sticker on my card, and I checked out the table, a very nice 10 footer. The first night, I did well, played conservatively, and ended up a little. Second night, I came out of the chute with a 40, and had a good number of rolls in the teens. Throughout the cruise, I had up and down days, but adjusted betting accordingly and called it quits earlier when necessary and figured out what I was doing wrong (usually grip). Also fun was shooting while sailing through 16′ seas in North Sea on the way to Iceland, then coming back down from the Arctic Circle with 12′ seas. Fairly often, I missed the dice and had to wait a second. (Yes, not optimal conditions, but I’m on a cruise!). One thing I tried was placing a $30 6/8 working on come out, then on first hit, change to $18 each to pretty much play on house money from the start and then progress as I normally do. It worked well because I really wasn’t waiting for dice to get around to me, so it was like a continuous roll.
Casino hours are rough for Craps players. They can open only when in international waters, so casino opens generally about 7pm anyway, but when we’re on cruising days, of which there were 8 on the way to Boston, the casino opens slots at 9am, tables including a $6 blackjack table (8 deck) at noon, and Craps at 7:30pm. On the plus side, I had the table to my self about 50% of the time, which is nice. I could choose the side and they’d switch when I felt like trying SR for a few rolls. I did play BJ which I’ve never played live before and did pretty well, a few hundred ahead over the cruise. I didn’t have Dom’s strategy card but they had one available so I dabbled when table was empty. I did have a guy literally yell at me for a play (strictly by the card) and he wasn’t even playing! I won! Ha!
On the down side of a long cruise, if you get stuck with ….. not well-mannered people, it can really suck. One lady constantly yelled to hop the 7’s, not really good for the head while shooting, so backed my bets off when she was around or I took a break. Most players stuck around for 10-30 minutes. Both sides were open for only 1-2 hours a night based on demand or lack thereof. I never had an issue getting my spot, perhaps once shooting SR for one round before SL spot opened. I really loved the crew, and they probably made $150-$200 per night on me. I know I’ll hear from BTK on that one!
It was really a great trip and I did well, but I’m now back in reality and settling back into our local venues.
Replies:
Posted by: Dr Crapology on October 3, 2017, 11:13 am
Just hope you got the opportunity to get enough to eat!! 😆 😆 Now back to a decent diet and your exercise program.
You can’t do anything but have a good time on a cruise.
Hope to see you in the casino soon.
Rose and Doc
Posted by: HardNine on October 3, 2017, 1:08 pm
Although I place bet more than GTC recommends, I ALWAYS 5 count or more. There were many hits on that first come bet! Wish I could meet up with y’all more often.
Don
Posted by: billythekid on October 3, 2017, 8:15 pm
Cruises are fun and when you can make a profit in the casino it just makes it so much better.
The single odds game IMO is fun to play and I like to play single and double odds games because it makes me change my game to account for not being able to progress my odds and instead having to progress the flat bets instead. The way I like to think about is what spread do I want initially on the table. If your spread is usually $120 – $150 using $10 flats with 345X odds then you must change your thinking and get that amount of money on the table with reduced odds. The important thing for me is going in with a plan before I start to play. I have played a lot of double odds games but have only played single odds a couple of times.
As you saw with this game allowing different odds with higher bets these games will often allow different odds depending on how many "units" that you bet. This sometimes is not obvious to us players so I always recommend asking the crews specific questions about this since you may find that there are breakage points for odds bets on different numbers. The game that i used to play daily would allow $50 odds on a flat of 25 but would allow $100 in odds on a $30 flat bet. Another situation that they had was only double odds on $5 bets but a $6 bet could take $20 in odds. These low odds games often have different rules and they often have to do with what the pay outs are with the different bets. These games and the odds that they allow are often dictated by what the payouts are and whether a certain pay out is easier for the dealer to make than another pay out. A pay out that can be paid with 2 colors is much easier and faster than a pay out that requires 3 colors.
In a double odds game I usually double my flat bet after 2-3 wins and I will continue to do that through out the hand. I like to see how big I can get those flat bets. You will be bucking a slightly higher edge but the flip side to that is the seven out with a come bet up will pay you more which always takes the sting out of that last toss.
The tipping. I don’t care how much you tip since it’s your money of course but I always say that you should get something for your tips. In this instance, being on a cruise ship, you will be playing with the same crew every day which means tipping can get you farther than if you are playing with different crews daily. By the end of the cruise they should have been treating you very well and since they dealt to you daily. If they gave you good service and made it easier for you to get the money then over tipping is worth it. Being contract workers on the ship they work for smaller salaries and depend on getting tips so they were most likely very attentive. My rules on tipping are based on getting something for the tips, and there have been times where I have tipped big because what I was getting was worth a lot of money. I remember a morning where the 5 and I filled a toke box by ourselves, but we also overfilled our racks. The joint where this happened was a great place to play then and warranted the tips but it has been a decade since I put a tip up for the crew there because they bite the big one now.
Glad that you had a good time and made money, wish that I had been there too. BTK
