Mine was a 1/2 NLH table. It ran everynight and the play was super limpfest, which just bloated the insane rake. Also with 50% of the table unable to get their head around touch screen hole card technology the speed of the play was close to unbearable.

Just got back from the Carnival Fascination. I liked the Poker Pro table. Made it feel more like online. It shows everyone's name and stack size which is nice.
I did not have one problem with the table, everyone picked up on it real quick. I wish it had a slider for betting, thats about it.
Cruise ship poker makes PS 10 NL look like tables full of Ivery and Durrr.

I've been on a few carnival cruises. I haven't played any of the tournaments, so I can't tell you about those. The following is true for every cruise I have been on:
1. There is 1 table, never more.
2. The only cash game I have seen played is 1/2 NL. Min buyin is 40-50. No cap that I am aware of
3. Play starts with about 5 people somewhere between 8 and 9 PM.
4. The table fills up for a couple of hours.
5. People start leaving around 11 PM for whatever entertainment is scheduled.
6. Play continues shorthanded until about 1 AM.
7. The play is agonizingly slow. People's family come up and talk to them while they are at the table. They don't realize that we are waiting on them. Other people get tired of reminding them to play, so they start talking to someone else or space out and then don't notice when play is on them. It's a vicious cycle. Very few dealer dealt games run slower than the average cruise games.
8. The tables are pretty easy to use. Within a few hands, a new person is generally pretty comfortable with the table.

About the players:
1. There is 1, maybe 2, other solid players at the table. It's easy to avoid them.
2. 20% have probably played poker less than 10 times in their life. They figure they are on vacation on they will give it a try.
3. 40-50% are limping, calling stations.
4. 10-20% are too aggressive. They are quick to shove their stack in against the calling stations with marginal holdings. They don't adjust, however, and shove light against you also. They interpret your first fold as you being a supernit and that they can always bet you out of the pot.
5. There is generally a lot of limping PF. However, sometimes one of the aggressive guys feels the need to raise every single pot.
6. There is very little 3betting.
7. Don't expect people to notice that you haven't played a hand in an hour (that's about 25 hands). Your 3-4bb raise will still get 5 callers.

10 percent up to $6 is not a huge rake, especially with no tipping and lots of donkeys.

I just got back from 10 day Alaskan Cruise starting from San Francisco. I was on the Sea Princess ship, which had one PokerPro table.

It was $1/2, 50 min, 200 max.
The rake was 10% up to $7 and they raked pots with no flop.

The donkament structure was $50+$10 with 1500 chips, blinds starting at 50/100 with the blinds going up every 15 minutes. (lol, no I didn't play those)

Summary

Overall, I ended up losing $265 over 400 or 500ish hands. The mega whales ended up sucking out on a ton of hands on the first few days of play and the 4 other 25/8 "regs" ended up valuetowning them to death before I could take my money back. One of the more annoying things of this cruise was that 3 of the regs were two brothers and an uncle, who keep talking during the hands. I might fold like 20 hands in a row and when I raise, they will say "WHOAA!! I didn't see this guy play yet, or they would start guessing my hand out loud while the whales were playing with me. After showing so many solid starting hands playing about 15/11, even the mega whales started to catch on. I found it difficult to get paid off during the last 2 days of play, where as the annoying obnoxious 25/8 "regs" kept getting paid off. On one of the last 50 hands, there were 3 limpers in front of me and I raised to $16 with kings (because when I raised to $10-12 with KQ and get 4 callers I whiff too much). The whales actually folded. Where as the "obnoxious looking" "reg" 3bet shoves with aces and two whales call.

Some Afterthoughts

I only played live at a casino once before this cruise and it was b4 I actually learned the game seriously, so I don't really have much of a comparison.

1. People talking during the hand pisses me off.
2. Playing against a family who call themselves sharks playing 25/8 pisses me off.
3. Open limping small pocket pairs is not a leak here.
4. Overbetting preflop and on the flop with strong hands is very profitable.
5. Betting 1/4 or even 1/5 of the pot on the river with top pair hands is not exploitable. People tend to look at bet sizing like $5/$7/$10 instead of $15/$30/$60.
6. People seem to be more willing to put a ton of money in on draws then with top pair.
7. Playing with the same players everyday sucks.

8. I asked the 25/8 "obnoxious looking" "reg" who probably won $800-$1000 during the trip what stakes he plays online. He said he doesn't because he thinks it's rigged.

So there are regs on Cruises?

None that I saw. By day 4 I could literally not convince anyone to play with me. They thought I was some sort of poker pro. I played pretty tight and busted a couple people. I guess word got around. Last ight I sat dawn and 4 people just said "naw we aint playin with you" and left.

When I took a cruise to Alaska 2 years ago, we also had a single table. It was basically the same 10-12 guys there every night. Some were better than others, but we all had a decent, low limit time. No one pushed too hard, and the worst guys were happy to lose a little bit everyone night. A bunch of us went out for drinks the last night after the casino closed.

Just got off the Fantasy out of Charleston Last weekend. One 1/2 NL table, 10%rake, $7 max. No min on the rake.you pay 50c for a hand where the SB raises and the BB folds.

The casino host on the Fantasy was a waste of time. Either that or there was just not very many poker enthusiasts on board. She demonstrated the table with a free game the first night, let us play two hands and stopped. I would have stayed and played, but everyone else bailed. They should have someone on staff put the table in demo mode and let people play for free until they get people to sit.

The second evening there was about 4-5 people interested, so I could play for about 1-2 hours before the table broke up. Sad thing is, with the high rake, when the table gets a little shorthanded players start noticing the money on the table is disappearing. You have to keep these table near full to keep them going. Short cruises out of Charleston or other places that do not have any casinos nearby, are probaby not good cruises to select if you want to play poker.

I eneded up about $18 dollars for the cruise (maybe 10 hours total). I felt good about that considering the rake.

Goin on the triumph out of new orleans the weekend before the Super Bowl. Was just wondering if anyone had any recent experiences with this boat, the nola port, etc.

Just got back from the Carnival Fantasy.

This was the juiciest 1/2 nl game I will ever play in. I hardly ever play live and didn't really know how live players play. I was down about 600 before I figured out that being aggressive and playing actual poker was idiotic. Came out with 500 profit.

Here are the things you need to know to beat these people:

1. Don't ever think they are thinking about what you have. They have no concept of representing hands and their level of thinking is inconceivably moronic.
2. Isolating limpers cannot be done with 5x. When someone limps and you raise to $10, you will still have 3 callers with k7oish hands. Raise to $12 or $13 and they will start to fold.
3. It might have been easy for me since I was by far the youngest player, but you need to seem bluffy, yet play 17/14.
4. Value bet extremely hard and do not cbet your normal frequency. My cbet couldn't have been any higher than 35%.
5. If you have k10 and the flop is 2610r and someone bets into you, raise. They will call with worse. Everytime. They will call with kqo. They will call with 33. They will call with 45.
6. Try to avoid deep level thinking, it is harder than you think. I often had the temptation to 3bet garbage hands for balance but there is truly no merit to it. They will not think what a 3bet actually means and only see/think about how much more it is to call.
7. Get to know the people you play with and be friendly as there is a core group of 5 or 6 players that will be there all of the time.

I hope this helps you out and that you make a couple of buy ins. Good luck!

Can you tell me about the rake?

Yes.

I cruised out of New Orleans a year or so ago (I believe it was the Carnival Fantasy, at the time). The port itself was pretty easy, check your bags outside with the porter and tip 'em $5-$10, your bags will be the first to show up at your room. We were also able to stash a bottle or 2 of liquor that never was detected, I was told that the tip helps in this respect as well, but who knows. Show up early, as they let people board earlier than the announced time, you might not be able to get to your room but you can check out the ship and head to the Lido Deck for some lunch. Played poker onboard, it was the same 4-5 people every night with a rotating cast of tourists.... the "regs" stayed out of each others way for the most part and picked on the newcomers. Games tended to start around 7-8 pm and went till 1-2.

Don't know if you are familiar with New Orleans, but definitely check out the Harrah's there as well. Weekends are always pretty fishy there, I have been to NOLA many times, usually for jazzfest but a couple of times on other occasions as well, and I can honestly say I've never had a losing trip, and have paid for my entire trip in a session more than once. Obviously a lot of this has been me running good, but there's a lot of action from people stumbling over from the French Quarter.

I cruised out of Galveston on Carnival about a year ago for 4-days. They had one table spreading 1/2 NL, 50 min, 200 max.

By day 2 there was me and 2 other "regs" and a continuous flow of tourists. I say reg because we recognized each other and spent the most time at the table together.
The table was usually filled up after dinner until 2-3 in the morning. We all sucked.

I managed to make a decent return and this was before I knew anything about poker except hand rankings and that you should only play premium hands. Just this alone will make you a better player than almost everyone else there.

Think of it as NL2 online and you will understand how the game will be played. Play a few hands at NL2 if you want a warm-up.

No one has talked about the rake in these games

i have been on a number of carnival cruises, 7 or eight days, all with poker pro tables with 1/2 NL 40-50min/200-300 max, 10% rake, $7 max, rounded UP on fractions.
my thoughts are - play is very soft, but a lot depends on mix of people, specifically how much $ they have to play with.
my first time i did great playing abc poker with typical adjustments for weak
players, but on that cruise people were buying in mostly for at least $100, although always a few min buyins. drunks would come in late at night and buy in big. was up about 1k by end of trip, but played alot(30+ hrs).
on another cruise, a lot of young people, mostly would buy-in for min, and play for an hour with $15-30 up, never adding until they busted, then rebuy for min. on a cruise like this, i ended up being about even, not playing as much since i could see after a few days the table didn"t have that much potential.
all the stt's that they (try to) run on sea days have TERRIBLE level of play, but also TERRIBLE structure, making them a crapshoot, not worth my time, i don't play craps.
so as u can see alot depends on the specific mix of people. just like the importance of game, table, and seat selection in a casino - except on cruise u are stuck with 1 table so none of these are options

so make sure u will be ok with the cruise if poker turns out to be not very +EV due to player mix.

I've played on two in the last year.

Played on a Carnival and Princess ships.

Each had one table set up in the casino, and it offered 1/2 NL with a 10% rake up to $6 taken in $0.25 increments. Compared to live places that drop $4+2, this really isn't a horrible rake.

They also have 'tourneys' scheduled at times, and they are very quick, usually done in an hour or so, never played one.

The cash games are so so so soft. On my 3 day Carnival one, I played for 3-5 hours and won $300. On my 7 day Princess, I played somewhere between 10-15 hours and won $1500.

People love to limp and love to call. Never try bluffing, only value all the time. Stick to value and win money.

And the real reason these tables are extra soft, people don't have to have cash to play. They can charge it to their room on their cards like you do with the bars. There is something like a 5% transaction fee for this. So basically people don't have to get up and take the walk of shame to an ATM to get money, simply push a few buttons and auto rebuy. Free money!!!

Not sure about the Carnival one, but the Princess one had NO rake 3 handed or heads up. Talk about heaven.

Just got off the Triumph this weekend and the ship only has one 1/2 table with a tournament every day at 1130 and 1255. The manager, however, was a crotchity old hag. The tournament was ******ed easy, even if a donk did suck out on me. The blinds start at 50/100 and people are more than willing to limp at any stage for any amount and fold to a push. I even saw a guy with 4,000 chips limp for 2500 and then fold on the flop. Any decent player could destroy the tournaments, even at a rake of 20%. The players were god awful and if you hit a set expect to double up. There is no point in bluffing because people will call down with anything. You can pretty much just get drunk, play ABC poker and expect to pay for your cruise. Should you have someone at your table who has played before, he will probably overplay top pair.

Here's an ethically dubious tip. The older people tend not to cover up their hole cards. I say dubious because it's not like their play isn't horribly exploitable anyway.

Tables are a pain when it comes to buying in. The ones I played on you had to load your cash in like when you buy a Coke out of a machine. Anyway, the overall playability of the tables are easy. I've been on four Royal Caribbean cruises and have run up a hefty bar tab on all four and won enough on all four to pay the bar tab and take home extra money. Of the three cruises the 7 night Oasis was the most profitable. They have three tables and from after lunch to the early morning you can get a game. Heck, sometimes I even had to wait for a seat! The 2nd best was the Majesty. They played 2-5, but everyone pretty much bought in for 200. It was a live deal and the game usually only ran after I sat down alone at 8P.M. and waited for the usual people to sit.

Cliffs
Get on a boat
Play ABC poker
Get off boat with more monies than you got on with.

Any recent carnival cruise line poker updates?
Anyone been recently?
How were the tourneys?
Cash games?

I'm heading out on the Carnival Legend this Sunday. I plan to get in many hours at the table during my week away. Last year I cashed out about 1100 or so more than I started with. I'm hoping to have similar success this year.

Recently, I've only seen 1/2 NL played at these tables (I cruise once a year). On one of my cruises several years ago they did run a tournament during one of the sea days, but the house cut was silly. Since then, I haven't seen enough people show up for the tournaments when they've been scheduled. I'd probably play in one if there were enough people, but the rake/structure were so bad that I doubt I'd play the same game on land. I would only do it to pass the time on a vacation. I don't remember the exact rake/structure--I just remember it wasn't anything that would have been attractive if I wasn't out in the middle of the ocean drinking Coronas all day.

If you're interested in reading a more detailed account of my poker experience on my last trip, check out this post.

jj

I went on a Carnival Glory(miami-bahamas)-it was 1/2 super juicy(they change it and do run some sngs on request/schedule), could probably win 10-20 bb/100. Nobody knew what they were doing.

Poker Pro is pretty cool in the sense that they don't need a dealer/manager to watch the tables. Additionally, with so many new players you dont have to worry about string bets, or other issues that happen with brand new players

My take is that it was cheaper/profitable for me to play poker than it was to play craps/BJ. Also it was a good way to meet other people. I wouldn't spend my whole cruise time at the poker pro table, i would suggest checking other things out and spend time at the shows, and other bars.