Had a great vacation trip with a decent amount of casino time. Flew to San Juan on the 6th. I’d booked at the Condado Plaza Hilton in part because I had points to use and they had a casino, I even called to confirm that months ago! So we arrive in San Juan in decent shape (upgraded to First Class) and we took a walk to find the casino. We found a beautiful open Ball Room with a big black curtain in front of it. I peeked in to look and in was a very nice ball room! It even had a thousand security cameras mounted everywhere! Beautiful! You guessed it… SON OF A BUCKET! Just like AC, San Juan is going thru many casino closings. Anyway, we walked down Ashford and found Casino1 with it’s 2 10′ tables, and the Casino2, which I’d stayed at before I started playing Craps and it’s 14′ table but they don’t open it until 8PM. C2 was very quiet, but C1 had some good action, so we watched for a bit but never played.

The next day, we headed to the port to board our fine ship heading down to Barbados, and in the early evening, before we departed, I found the Casino Host and introduced myself as I’d already arranged to get rated. I walked around and checked out the digs, nice casino and a very nice table. After dinner and after we’d sailed away, I headed down to play. To backtrack, the day had seen some storms rolling through and it was raining much of the day, and big storms were still coming in…. back to play… the table was slow and I got to shoot a often before it picked up. There was a guy there who had lost a bit before I arrived and I had some good rolls and was up for the night, and apparently he’d gotten back to black. Throughout the session, the seas picked up and with the table on the outside edge of the casino, which is about 12′ from the edge of the ship, throwing was becoming interesting… I’d have to time my throw with the waves… pretty fun until my head got a little foggy, so I colored up.

The next day, while at the Cruzan Run Factory in St. Croix, USVI, we were sitting down with our delicious comp rum drinks and a couple walked up and he says "Hey Harley (I’m wearing Harley shirts whenever he sees me), [wife], this is the guy who got my money back!" That was good to hear!

For the remaining days, which were all port days except for 1 (casino can only be open in international waters, so basically evenings on port days, early afternoon on cruising days), I practiced before heading down, and had decent sessions, but there was also a large group on board from a San Juan casino, and there was this one couple who got to be a little annoying. Sometimes he was in the SL hook and to my left and wasn’t bad, but when at the other end, their late bets and other crap got to be too much to warrant staying, so I’d pass whenever they were at the table and go do something else. Some interesting facts on RCI cruises…. single odds until you have $25 on the line, then only able to add a nickel to odds so still 1.2 x; they won’t let you put a dollar on the line bet in addition to the crew bet, so couldn’t self fund the tips. Great crew who loved when I came to the table and would cheer me on, they got decent tips!

Once back in San Juan, we spent 4 days doing some additional site seeing and found Casino 3 near the Pan American Port, and really liked the table but the crew was outstanding, including the suits, what a joy to hang out here. It is interesting that they will not let you tip on the line, here you have to put it on your line bet then give it to them. Also 2x odds everywhere I played.

All in all, I was even for the trip, which is good for me for a week and a half of daily playing. In the past, I’d either go crazy on some bets and lose or just not get some long hands. I had a decent number of hands in the 20’s and teens, and my betting strategy held up against single / double odds really well. I’d practiced the strategy at home for the month prior to the trip using 2 options.

I’m still working on solidifying my grip and zeroing in on getting it accurate quickly… getting there, lot’s more practice at home but doing much better after Shreveport. Will get to my home casino sometime this weekend and see how we do with home field advantage!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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