Gambling Aboard the Norwegian Jade
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As I have written the past two weeks, Bonnie and I recently cruised the Eastern Mediterranean aboard the NCL Jade. I usually avoid casinos on cruise ships, but this time I found plenty of playable opportunities.
There were only four separate slot machines that I knew how to beat — when conditions were right. (There were six other machines that would have been playable some of the time except they were closed down. Apparently it’s difficult to get slot machine parts in the Eastern Mediterranean. I was told they’d be up and running in November, which is when the Jade planned to sail to a United States port.) Over the two weeks of the cruise, each of the four were positive some of the time and I was able to get some plays in. There were other slot machines that possibly were beatable by more knowledgeable players than me, but there are limits to what each of us know.
There were also six Super Star video poker machines. These machines have a variety of games on them, mostly not of interest to me. They also included the standard Ultimate X games. On each machine there were 39 separate games, split evenly among Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, and Deuces Wild. For nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars, each of these games could be found in Triple Play, Five Play, and Ten Play. For dollars, the three games could be found in Triple Play only.
As you probably know, Ultimate X games are designed to be played at 10 coins per line. You score immediately the same way you do in all video poker (e.g., for straights, full houses, quads, etc.) and you also earn multipliers that count towards the very next hand you play. When you wish to leave, if you have any existing multipliers, you should play five coins per hand rather than 10 coins — which collects on all the multipliers and doesn’t generate any more. This five-coins-per-hand strategy at the end of your session is not difficult and is well known by many players, but there are many players who either do not know this or can’t be bothered, and it’s these players who make the game beatable by Ultimate X hustlers.
These games only returned 95% or so when no multipliers existed. But if the last person who played left one or more multipliers, you should play five coins per line and play them off. Every time I found a multiplier, I would have at least a 5% advantage — sometimes much, much more — but that advantage only existed for one hand at a time.
Over the course of two weeks, I’d usually check out each of these machines once a day. I found more than 100 different plays. Each hand was often a loser, but when you’re playing that many separate events at an advantage, you’re unlikely to lose overall. And I didn’t.
It was with advantage slots where I had a new experience. On the last night of the first week of the cruise, I stopped by the casino about 12:30 a.m. While usually cruise ship casinos stay open so long as there are active players, on this night signs were posted saying the casino was closing at 1 a.m. I suppose they had to get ready for next week’s cruise — which would start the next day.
I found four UX plays and managed to lose $8 playing them off. No big deal. At about 12:55, I went to check the four slot machines I track. One was being played and it immediately caught my eye. It was at the $5 per hand level, and it was definitely in positive territory. Were I on such a machine so close to closing time, I’d be pounding away like it was a slot tournament machine. I’d want to get to the bonus round before they pulled the plug. If they came and told me I had to cash out now, I’d continue to pound away while I “negotiated/stalled.” But the player playing it was hitting the button every 20 seconds or so, absorbing the sounds and sights of this game.
I sat down nearby to see what would happen next. At 1 a.m. sharp, the announcement came to cash out your machine and take your tickets to the cashier. Casino employees went along to tell any stragglers that they had to cash out now.
When they got to the machine in question, it turned out that the man spoke no English — only Spanish. After getting a bilingual employee, I was close enough to overhear that he was from Mexico City. Although he had heard the announcements, to him they were in gibberish because he couldn’t understand the language. When told he must cash out, he almost cried. He was down more than $500 and was sure the machine was ready to pay off. He pleaded to be able to finish. Promised he’d play very fast.
The casino manager was polite but firm. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but the machine must be shut down now. Sadly, the player cashed out and they locked up the machine.
I checked to see when the casino would open again. I was told one hour after sailing, which was scheduled to be at 6:30 p.m. the following day. They would definitely not open the casino before 7:30, but if there were delays in sailing, a not-so-rare occurrence, it would be later.
I figured the game was worth about $100, starting where it was. I could definitely lose, and on rare occasions could receive a W-2G on the play, but my best guess was $100. This was a juicy target and I wanted to collect it if I could.
The next day, Bonnie and I arranged to eat dinner so we could finish out meal at about 7 p.m. Our table had a view of the water, and I noted that the ship left at 6:30 sharp, so I figured the casino would open on time. At 7:10 p.m. I rolled into the casino — literally, because I was on a motorized scooter — and the machine I wanted was vacant. So, I sat down and began reading a book that I brought.
I was informed by a casino employee that the casino would not open for 20 minutes. I responded that this was no problem. This was my favorite machine, and I was happy to wait to make sure I got to play it. That was fine with the employee.
I was somewhat concerned that the casino would have reset the machine. I’ve heard stories that shipboard casinos sometimes reset machines between cruises. But that wasn’t the case here. Even while the machine was locked up and unplayable, you could see blurrily what was on the machine. It was right where it was left by the man from Mexico City.
At 7:30, all the machines were turned on at the same time. What used to be blurry was now crystal clear. I logged onto the machine, inserted cash, and began to play. As I was sitting there, I noticed there was also a play at the $1 denomination of the same machine. Five minutes later, I had played off both the $5 and the $1 games for a $145 profit.
I had never experienced this sort of play before because the casinos I play at are open 24 hours a day. In the past, when I visited a casino that closed between, say 2 a.m. and 10 a.m., I would be playing standard video poker. And so they would not be in an extra-advantageous situation when the casino opened. But since I now know something about advantage slots, this was a new situation to me.
I could have done this several more times on the cruise because the casino did close every night, but there were only four machines for me, and I never knew in advance when the casino was going to close. So it was not a good situation to hang around for. Still, if I could arrange to be around at opening, maybe I could collect on something somebody left.
There was no need to check the Ultimate X machines before we left. Although it had been 19 or so hours since I last checked them, nobody had been allowed to play them and so no unplayed-multipliers could have been generated. I planned to come back and check them at 1 a.m. or so. For the two weeks, I played probably 12 hours in the casino, and I ended up about $1,100 ahead. Not nearly enough to cover expenses on two weeks of cruising, but still a fine result. I want to discuss this result next week.
