I have been on 2 cruises both norweigen cruise like, they get 1-2 games running only at night like after 9 or 10, rake was very high dnt remember exact but do know it was high. Games were very poorly dealt, slow, not great play, but the fish at sea that your looking for. One was last year other was January 7-14 2012 to Bahamas. Games were live, only had 1 table usually about 6-full never saw wait I don't think. Games were tough to get going though.

Both of my cruises out of new York.

Poorly dealt? There were live dealers?

Yes they were live, dealers were sloppy compared to Foxwoods, and they made some incorrect rulings. I forgot the exacts, in one case they made me post big blind twice then small instead of having a dead small one hand. They gave me a free drink for it after though.

i'm going on a bahamas 7 nighter on sunday on norweigen jewel

didn't even think about poker but found this thread
so how are the games there?

and the cruise in general? this will be my first

The games are very dependent upon who is on your cruise since you'll be playing with the same 15-20 people all cruise.

what about tournaments? i heard there are daily tournaments, is this true? whats the buy in?

my ship is sailing out from nyc

Sailing out of NYC on Sunday might cause some issues with this "storm of the century" coming in on Sunday.

As for tournaments, don't expect them to run regularly if at all and the structure is probably terrible. Cash games should be profitable though. Have fun!

i hope it gets higher than 1/2..

hopefully some cute single girl will be playing too

Thanks for the informative trip report. It appears that you'll no longer be sailing to the same places on the Spirit. She's being relocated to Australia.

Yeah. A few years ago she got moved to Florida. That is usually what happens as cruise ships get older. First they are in some premium location, then get moved to California after a first five years or so. Then after ten years they go to Florida. Maybe then to Austrialia, Italy, India, etc. I think eventually they end up in places like Greece, poor Asian countries, etc. That is what happened to my favorite cruise ship, the Ryndam. I'm not even sure where she is right now. I've sailed on her three times (three weeks/twelve days/twelve days). She was built in 1993 or 1994, I believe.

Can someone please PM me details on these cruises leaving out of NYC with poker that they're talking about?

Cruised on NCL to Bahamas a few years back. Cash Game ran pretty regularly but had the highest rake I have ever seen $1-2 NL 10% rake with a max of $25 (yes $25!!!).

They also ran tournaments either $100 rebuys or $60 rebuys. I believe you started with 1,000 chips (2,000 if you rebought immediately) with blinds of 25-50. Levels went up every 10 or maybe 15 minutes. I donked the first one with a $100 buy-in for a $2,000 profit and final tabled two others (bubbling both times) play is horrible since people will limp fold with 5 BBs and other horrible stuff.

I've been on Royal Caribbean cruises the last three years.

Year one (on the Serenade of the Seas) I won the poker tournament, but there weren't enough entries. I didn't like a couple ways that things were handled. I played the tournament on the first day of the cruise when we had a full table. There were six rebuys, so there was $1500 contributed towards the pot and I ended up coming in first. Day two, they couldn't field a table. Day three, they couldn't field a table. Finally, day four, had five people. No one re-bought=$500. Day five, in the morning, same thing. Another $500. Day five was also the day of the final table. $2500 in the pot, RC took 25% So there was $1875 available to us. I figured that because there were only three of us, the logical thing to do would be to just give each person the amount that they earned by winning their table, and not bother with a three person "final", but that didn't happen. We ended up each taking $500 with $375 going to the winner (which I won), but felt that it was a bit ridiculous that RC made just about as much money as I did by winning the entire tournament, and didn't like that I wasn't rewarded for winning the most difficult day of the tournament. But oh well...

Year two (on the Liberty of the Seas), I won the entire thing again. This time, the tables were full each day, so I won the free cruise and $100,000 tournament entry on the Allure. Second place won $1000. I think third place won something around $500.

Year three (on the Allure of the Seas) the tournament was really well run, and the cocktail party for participants in it was really well received by everyone I met. Ended up losing on day two :/ The one and only problem I had, and many people who were in the tournament had, was that the day before the tournament started, they had a single table tournament to get into the big one. We all were under the impression that the only way to get into it was to win prior to it.

Everything you said about cash games was exactly what I experienced on all three ships. There is absolutely no reason anyone who can actually play can't make a good amount of money, though the electronic tables are a bit of a pain to play on.

Super late reply, but someone else may benefit.

Princess has e-tables on their ships now. Rake is high. Tourney structure is hyper-turbo or faster. Out of LA you could run into some pretty good players. Lots of us Vegas people travel on those cruises as it is a short drive. LA card players I've met on previous cruises do well too, of course. Ymmv.

FWIW, I've done the 14 day Hawaii cruise and it is great. I'm doing it again later this year, though I'll be on the Sapphire. I strongly recommend the helo tour of the volcano on the big island. Really cool.

Hope this helps.

was on the ncl jewel during the hurricane

tournies are only 10 big blinds as the guy said above, i got 2nd for $600 in one, busted the other 2 (didn't think rebuying was worth the buyin cost to prize ratio despite the terrible field, its still a 10bb crap shoot)

the 1/2 games are literally crushable, but the 15 or so total players just start to limp every hand preflop and trap

rake is ridiculous, dealers are amateur (if you leave the table to bathroom, the dealer might pause the game until you're back lol)

so much bs u have to deal with but its 100% profitable

i have to say though all the players were very friendly. they always show their hands, win or lose.

anyways, with good friends..cruises are very fun and the poker/casino is just a huge bonus. this was my first cruise and am already planning the next.

Anyone been on the Oasis of the Seas?

I went on a cruise earlier this year and didn't play poker at all. The games looked terrible or barely ran at all.

Just got off the Holland America Ms Zaandam. There was a 1-2 NL game going most evenings with anywhere from 6-10 players. I have neither the bankroll, mindset, nor (probably) skill set to play NL so I can't comment on the quality of the play. From what I saw from kibbitzing about an hour the game was very friendly and not particularly loose. The rake was 10% to a max of $5. The dealers weren't the greatest but not horrible either.

They also had daily one-table tourneys. These tourneys are 30+10 with a horrible structure. 4000 chips. Blinds start at 100/200 and double every 10 minutes. They almost never lasted more than 45 minutes.

Despite this you needed to get on the registration line 10 minutes (or more) beforehand to make sure you got a seat. If enough people signed up they would have a second table later that day (and they usually did). They were a lot of fun to play in. A very friendly group, lot's of banter, no "You donkey" comments -- decent value for entertainment dollar considering the possibility you might actually win something. Unfortunately, I entered two and didn't win anything but I had a good time and would do it again.

How many hands an hour do you get? If it's double ore more than a live dealer, could that upside make it worth it?

If you are a good, solid $1-$2 live player, you'll do well, though you'll likely suffer some bad beats (e.g., Flop two pair kings and jacks and get a queen on the turn to give a preflop caller a set of queens...).

There were three solid guys (not me) when I went on my last cruise. They always bought in for $200 and it wasn't long before their stacks were up to $400 or more. Lots of people buy in for $40 - $60 and then do that 4 or 5 times, lulz.

Problem is the games are hit/miss. Table sat empty most of the time on my cruise. It just depends on the cruise I guess.

Hands/hour is probably double a live game. Maybe a bit less than double but it is fast, especially after people get the hang of using their room key to press the screen instead of their fingers.

Good Luck!

This is 100% true and I mentioned it earlier in this thread I believe.

Asking does cruise ship A have good poker is pointless.

The game will have between 15-30 regulars throughout the cruise and a few drop ins that might play once. Who those 15-30 people are makes or breaks the game. Even more important are who are the 3 or 4 people who are always at the table when at sea.

It does run a lot faster. Dealing is super-fast... Pots are awarded almost instantly. And everyone has a clock automatically running when the action is on them, so for good or for bad, nobody has a lot of time to think deeply over a decision. You act within a minute or so, or you auto-fold.

I can't do the math to say if the hands per hour increase makes up for the higher rake (assuming you have a profitable winrate)... But it definitely plays more like online poker than a live casino table...

Since I play more online than live, maybe that will serve me well too.

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Just got out of a 7day 6 night cruise on rcl independence o the seas.... running 2/5nl with 10% cap at $15 .... if your any type of decent player u should be crushingthese games quite easily.... compare to other posts it seems like my ship had a smaller player pool... playwas incredibly soft... I mean seeing ppl not 3 bettig wih aces or kings and calling down to complain bad beats lol .... a lot of limping and a lot of moanin when there are raises.... inly bad thing is most ppl on my ship bought for the min which really sucked

I won a seat on the Carnival PokerPro grand final this November. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth going, or if I should sell my seat.

Last year was 360 players. The payouts are:

1st: $75k
2nd: $25k
3rd: $12.5k
4th: $6.5k
5th: $5k
6th: $4.5k
7th: $3.5k
8th: $2.5k
9th: $2k
10th: $1.5k
11-20: $500
21-30: $400
31-40: $300

Blinds start at 50/100, 20,000 chips, blinds go up every 20 minutes.

The room is 40% off, so let's say it's $600 for the room, plus another $300 to fly there. The question is: is this worth going to, or should I just sell the seat? Some guy offered me $200 for it.

The competition should be very soft, but I'm exclusively a full-time cash game player and I have very very little tournament experience. The actual playing in the tournament I can prepare for between now and November, but I don't have a good sense of what these payouts really represent, how high variance it is, etc.