Onboard the Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship, there’s a good opportunity to play Video Poker with an edge thanks to credit card charges funding buy-ins.
I’m currently onboard the Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship, thanks to a comp cruise offer that comes with earned MGM Platinum status. I earned status from spending on the MGM Mastercard credit card, and I now get to experience the annual comped cruise.
The Offer
I received an email titled “Your Annual Cruise Benefit is Waiting” offering me a cruise for two in an Oceanview Stateroom to The Bahamas or Mexico for three nights on Royal Carribean or four nights with Celebrity. The offer also includes a $200 onboard credit.
When I booked the cruise and connected a credit card for taxes, fees, gratuities, and wi-fi charges, I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve card and while onboard, I used that for casino buy-ins to play Jacks or Better Video Poker.
Starting at the $1 denomination, Celebrity offers 8/5 Jacks or Better Video Poker. Lower denominations have worse paytables with 7/5 Jacks or Better, so I played single-line Video Poker for $5 a round rather than a triple play (or more) game that would be more expensive.
How I Started
Rather than buying in with cash and playing a negative expectation game straight-up gambling, I selected a room charge option to charge my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card to later receive 3x Ultimate Rewards points, offsetting the house edge.
Celebrity allows up to a $500 room charge per transaction, and allegedly up to $5000 a day, but I received error messages at $4000 and wasn’t sure why. I played through new money I deposited, deposited another $500, and continued this process, ensuring I was always playing new money to have an edge.
Playing 8/5 Jacks or Better Video Poker, I’m giving up about 3% in house edge, but receiving 3x Ultimate Rewards on my deposits, so I’m easily gambling with an edge redeeming UR at more than one cent per point.
How It’s Going
On day one of gambling, I charged a total of $4000 and cashed out for $3611 – not many great hands, and not even one four of a kind. On day two of gambling, I charged another $4000 and cashed out for $3900 – four four of a kinds, but not straight flushes.
I ran below expectation so far on this trip, but that inevitably happens. I’m in it for the long game and am confident that winning sessions are ahead. My $8000 in charges will get me 24,000 Ultimate Rewards, though, easily worth more than $240 and likely worth around $400 or more when redeemed for travel.
As always, gamble and use credit responsibly & intelligently.
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