Hey, I'm going on the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas on July and i heard that poker on cruises is extremely soft, so I wanted to know if anyone is aware of what structure is accessible on this specific cruise (are there cash games? what are the blinds? is it live dealer or e-table? rake? etc).

Thank you very much.

I'll be on this ship soon. I'll write up a report at the end of this month.

In my experience cruise ship poker is limited to primarily tournaments. On the few cruises I have been on they run a list for cash games but the game never gets going. The tournament structures were also awful. On one ship the tournament started everyone with 10 big blinds, had 15 minutes levels which always at least doubled the blinds and allowed rebuys with an unspecified percentage being retained by the casino.

The only ship I have ever been on with consistent cash game activity was one with an electronic poker table. Most nights this table was going but the rake was pretty ridiculous, I think it was 10% with a $12 max or something. That was back in 2008 or so. It was a $1/$2 NL game and the players were bad but you certainly aren't going to pay for your cruise with a game like that.

In summary, poker on cruise ships is not really worthwhile. Also, I would recommend enjoying the other ship activities while on the cruise. Oasis most likely has a 3 ring circus, an oragami class, and a singing competition going on at any given time of day.

I was on the Oasis last December. They have three, maybe four, electronic tables, I think they were Lightning Gaming but they definitely were not Poker-Pro tables.

I was onboard while the Royal Poker Tournament finals were running so they had a poker room set up in a conference facility with live dealers. The electronic tables only got used on the final night of the cruise when they had shutdown the poker room.

I believe that RCL charges 10% rake up to a $15 max.

They will also be running Double Shoot-out Single Table Tournaments with first prize being an entry into the 2014 Royal Poker Tournament and a free cruise for 2. I won a package last year which is why I was on the Oasis in December.

The structure of the tournament is lol bad, 20 BB's to start with 10 minute levels and doubling of the blinds every level. You could re-buy for the first half hour. People have no clue how to play so if you're reading this post you probably have a significant edge over the field, since most of the competition couldn't add two plus two never mind read these forums.

I was on the Oasis in November 2013.

3 Lightning Poker tables.
Only game I saw played was 1/3 NL. $50-$500 buyin. 10% to $10 max rake, resolution down to $.25 (i.e. $33 pot is raked $3.25). Uncalled bets aren't raked. 9 handed.

Play started around 10PM each night and ran until the casino closed (around 3:00 AM).

Almost everyone bought in for and rebought in for $100 or less. After awhile stacks would get fairly deep in a couple of spots. Play ranged from loose passive to tight passive. I'd guess that half the players couldn't figure out how to bet or raise more than the minimum.

Drink service was solid. You have to pay for drinks.