Casino Wizard blackjack - a review

[Honolulu Blue]

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

[KarmaCruisers]

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.

[Honolulu Blue]

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. 

[WVU_Neal]

Biggest problem with the game is 6:5 for blackjack rather than 3:2. I won't play those games/tables.

 

Neal

[Honolulu Blue]

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.

[KarmaCruisers]

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)

[Honolulu Blue]

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.

[SailorJoe22]

Does anyone know if NCL has digital blackjack?

[smarterman64]

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

[Honolulu Blue]

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.

[Honolulu Blue]

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.