People walking about does not protect you from being followed and robbed by someone who saw you in the casino with money.

I'm planning on going to Aruba in May with my wife; we'll be wanting to play a little bit of 2-5nlh. After reading this thread I'm now second-guessing it as all I'm seeing are posts about collusion and having to worry about walking home.
Is Aruba really this sketchy? I thought Aruba was the least sketchy place to vacation.

Ive played in Aruba many times. Games are not sketchy st all. Generally it’s the tourists fleecing the locals who are generally nice people but horrible players. Play at the Hilton or Holiday Inn and you’ll be fine. Enjoy!

Ps I’ve walked back to my hotel from Hilton and holiday inn at all hours with pockets full of money and never had an issue or felt remotely threatened.

I played at the Hilton lot of locals. They were the worst players. But everything seemed safe. Played 3 3hr sessions "would have played longer but on vacation with wife" ended ahead 800

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I might be spending a little time in Aruba and would like to play poker there. Where and at what time of day/night is it easy to step into a game? Are the dealers competent? Are the games soft from the tourists? Also, do the hotels comp? I'm interested in playing No Limit Hold em cash games only.

I read that the rake at the Orchid is 5% capped at $10 ($12 for Omaha). I assume that's a USD 2/5 game.

Just a little update on Aruba poker. From what I saw over the week I was there, cash games don't get started until 9 pm or so, and most rooms just had one game running. At the Holiday Inn on Thursday, two of the poker tables were being used by bingo players.

It is probably a little more active on the weekends.

Thanks venice. 2/5?

did you get to check out the rake?

I was there a few months ago. Played exclusively at the Holiday Inn. A $4/8 limit game gets going around 7:30. The rake for that game is 10% up to $10 and $2 promotion.

The 9PM $2/5 has a 10% rake up to $10 and a $4 promotion.

On my last day I had mentioned to the table that the best poker player in the world could not beat their limit game. I just got bewildered looks.

My advice would be to play online. Aruba has fast internet access.

Oh yeah, and the tournaments are a crap show with starting stacks at 50bb unless you use your add-on chip or re-buy chip. But hey, you don't go to a casino not to gamble.

The supervisors favor the locals, which is to be expected. I can elaborate if you'd like. May turn into a tl;dr.

Check out Eagle Beach if you have never been. There is also a food trailer slightly north (between Eagle Beach and La Cabana Resort) where you can get a good meal for $8 from 11-3 while supplies last. Go early to get the fish. Ask for the purple slaw.

I would argue that the 2/5 is so soft it’s beatable even with the exorbitant rake. (The $4 jackpot drop is lol). But seriously. The game goes from 9-3. Even if you play every night of your vacation you’ll get 40 hours in at most. If you’re worried about your theoretical EV then don’t play (not to mention you don’t even understand the concept if you think 40hours in this type of loose passive game has any statistical relevance). The games at Hilton are consistently soft and fun. If you’re visiting Aruba and enjoy poker, then play. If you expect top notch professional dealers and consistent floor decisions, maybe stick to the beach.

I live on Aruba and play poker. This is so true. I told the floor manager many times about the inconsistent decisions, but he refuses to listen.
The only good game is nowadays at the Hilton, the other two rooms are almost dead.
Be prepared for some local Aruban poker, with specific rules.
Hopefully it will get better after the WSOP in November.

How bad are we talking about here in terms of decisions?

I'm not worried about -EV in the game itself, but if management is really bad, it might make me think twice about playing.

Played there a few times without any major problems.

My rule is whenever you are playing at a small place where you are a tourist, whether it be a small casino in upstate NY, Miami or Aruba - do everything in your power to make things extra clear and avoid grey areas:
1) Somebody bets out of turn - ask the dealer if the bet is binding if you check
2) You raise to 25, couple people call and shortstack goes all-in for 38. Ask the dealer if that reopens the action (do not assume it does not).
3) Somebody says what sounds like an all-in in Spanish. Ask them to put the chips in before saying call or tabling your cards.

If you do that - you will not have a problem (I played 7-8 sessions while on vacations in Aruba and made just enough to pay for the trips without any unpleasant interactions with the floor or the players). While it might seem that local players are extra friendly with each other, they are really mostly bad regs (local small business owners looking to play some cards and bet sports). The only remotely competent players are occasional poker playing tourists and dealers/floors from the other casinos.

The reason its so important to avoid ambiguity in "small ponds" is that dealers and floor primarily make their tips from the same 30-40 local regs. So in a case of a close call, you cant quite expect them to rule in your favor (same applies in Miami and even some of the Station casinos in Vegas).

tl;dr

This happened to me at the Holiday Inn in January.

The tourneys are a crap show shove fest. You start at 50bb at 15 minute levels. But it is a cheap show. So when in Rome do it.

Tourney. Dealer starts dealing incorrectly, I told him I was just the SB. He didn't care. I mentioned it to the player to my left because it affected him being the BB twice in a row.
He started talking to the dealer about it. It didn't matter the hand started playing. A bet and call ahead of me, I shove. SB talks to the room supervisor. Understandably he said action had taken place so we were to proceed. I'm cool with it.

"A few hours later" at the 2/5 cash table a local drops $75 in chips down on the table then announces $60. The dealer told him no it's $75. I assumed it was because he didn't announce his bet before placing the chips on the table. MP calls, I raise on the B. Original better discusses the situation with the same supervisor from the tourney decision and the supervisor allows the $60 bet to stand and $30 is removed from the pot. Both players fold to my 3 bet.

I wasn't butt hurt over either situation and didn't raise a stink about it, but this is what you may encounter. GL

Am going on a cruise that will be n Aruba during the wsop for over a day. Anybody know if I can walk to the Hilton form the cruise port? How is the 2-5 at Hilton or how will it be when wsop is there? Rake and buyins are?

Games typically start and run very late at night (like 10-11pm until 4-5am late), so if you are on vacation with a spouse or friends who are not poker players than the timing might not be ideal. Rake is high, but the way I look at it if you are only playing the game once, it should not be a major dealbreaker (I understand the room's viewpoint too - if they are going to run a $50+$15 donkament with 60 entries and then have 2 tables run for 6 hours a day with some days the cash games not running at all, they cant charge $5 a hand rake like they do at Sands and support that operation; no economies of scale...).

No. I think it's about 3+ miles away. Could be wrong. But I for sure wouldn't want to walk it.

Edit. Looking it up, it appears to be a 5 mile distance.

I'd take a taxi. No sense is in spending 1.5 to 2 hours walking each way. They aren't that expensive.

Yes, so conseus is that even. With wsop in town, cash won't be running till after like 7/8pm? These wskp circut events are gonna be <$100 ???

WSOP is the only reason there might b a game. I would still bet no.

Been here the many diff cruise stops in Carib and never found a game yet. Only exception on when the games started was Puerto Rico. But that was where we were boarding and spent a few days there before cruise. Those games will r afternoons on tournament might be possible. But they are also not worth it. Go enjoy something and sav was the the poker for on board the boat. Ridiculous that rake but still soft enough you can make plenty. More than past d for a cruise for two more than once.

How is the 2/5 at The Hilton these days? Rake? How do I contact the poker room via email?

We go to Aruba every October and I play almost every night. The three main poker rooms are at the RIU, Hilton and Holiday Inn. The game at the RIU never got started when I went so I just gave up.

Getting to the casino is easy all of the Taxi's are flat rate. The games usually start around 8pm and end by 3am. The is a good mix of locals and tourists and everyone is very friendly except for the odd too serious tourist. The locals are a mix of very good and very bad players. You can spot the bad players as they usually buy in for the minimum. I played NLHE, POL and LHE all of the games are pretty soft and the bad locals are very sticky and refuse to fold. A few players bet out of position and I didn't really make a fuss out of whatever the dealer said was the ruling. I found the games to be very profitable as long as you focus on the bad players. The tournaments are straight bingo but that is expected for a $20 buy-in. I didn't really pay attention to the rake but I think it is 10% $10 max.

My favorite place to play was the Holiday Inn the room is old and run down but I love playing with the locals and the dealers there. They are very friendly once they have seen you a few times. One night I got almost black out drunk and one of the locals made sure that I got in a cab. Another night one of the players was a chef and mentioned a great burger place. He ended up sending someone to go grab burgers for us. Another night a local offered to drive me home.

The atmosphere reminds me of the poker rooms from 10/15 years ago when people were having fun rather than these days where it seems like everyone is busy looking at their phone trying to make 4bb/hour.

If you're a nitty stuffy player that is going to complain about the competence of dealers and rulings please stay home. If you a decent poker player looking to have some fun, socialize and make a couple of bucks there is no better place to play.

Hopefully this corona thing blows over and I will be able to return in October.

Anybody know if poker is still running in Aruba?

Yes, live poker is running in Aruba. I was pretty sure, just based on the low covid cases and the fact casinos reopened so long ago, but I reached out to the Hilton via facebook and they confirmed they are open with measures. Also a number of casinos are going smoke free!

Negative Covid Test is required to enter Aruba. Right now they have only 120 cases (105,000 population) so it's a pretty good spot for vacation imo. Flights are like $200 from USA I think. I recommend bringing enough cash for your trip with you, don't rely on the ATMs, which I found extremely frustrating / inadequate. They do use USD, as well as their local currency which is pegged to USD.

Has anyone played any poker recently in Aruba? Heading there in a few weeks and staying at the Hyatt so pretty central to all the major hotels.

Looks like the Hilton or Holiday inn is the place to be. May just stop by the Hilton and see if I can get the casino manager's number so he can text me if there is a game going on at night.