I'll be taking a Princess cruise in August (Alaska, don't have the ship name handy), and definitely want to get some poker in. Do they have the nice second gen e-tables? Are there cash games, or only tournaments? What stakes/buy-ins?

Each ship is different. If you have the name of it, you can usually look at the deck plan to see if there is a poker table.

I've been on a few Princess Cruises (a few years ago now) and they both had a PokerPro table. They had 1/2 cash games anytime at sea except when a tourney was scheduled. On the itineraries, there is usually a time listed for a 1/2 cash game. If the game doesn't seem to get going during off hours (can walk by frequently to see), you will likely want to get there at that time to help get a game going.

Each cruise is very dependent on the passengers. All you need is 3-4 people who are going to play every evening and the game will go consistently strong. Otherwise you might struggle to get a game going except during the advertised times.

The ship is the Star Princess. Not finding much on the deck plan now; I'll keep looking...

Sorry, I'm dumb: Is that limit or NL?

Pope may have different data than I, but I have never seen deck plans online with the details down to the types of pit games. On ships, poker is of ten treated as just another pit game. With etables it is a little different.

Iirc Princess is a second level brand of Carnival. Carnival generally uses etables. I would expect the same on Princess. However RCL and Norwegian lines use live dealers.

All the games are NL. It is 1-2 on the etables and 2-5 on the live dealers tables. The tournaments are,different on each line sometimes even each ship. But the tournament structure is almost universally poor. House takes is as much as 50% of the cash collected. Sometimes the prizes are just as if they are satellite tournaments. If you win a seat at the main it is entry plus a minimal cabin typically low level interior, maybe for two. The seat may or may not be transferable. The cabin I don't recall. But the are really just short stack shove feasts.

While I really do not like etables on land, I prefer them on cruises. Easier to get games started. One nice thing at least on Carnival cruises, when you are playing heads up, there is no rake. So my wife and I will sit down and start a game, maybe even just trading blinds to just start a game. Once a third join the rake on the etables is usually like 10% up to $15. This was also the rake on the last RCL cruise I took. I can not remember about NCLbut just assume they will all be ridiculous compared to most US land casinos. But so is everything else in the cruise casinos. Just don't plan to run bluffs. You will gay called extremely light. Also expect a short stack high variance games. This is not always true but it is the most common game to develop. The last RCL cruise I took was. 2-5 game with $300 max buy in or 75% of big stack.

On the map (deck plan), they usually detail where each table is with chairs, so if you see chairs with a semi circle of seats, it is a pit game. If seats are all the way around, it is a poker table. I just looked at the Star Princess and it didn't have those details.

Example: https://www.carnival.com/cruise-ship...val-magic.aspx

Click on deck plans, go to deck 5. If you zoom into the casino, you can see two tables with 10 chairs around them in the NW area near the restrooms. I would assume those are poker tables, compared to the pit games to the east of them.

The new 2nd Gen etables from 52 Gaming (8 seated ) were just installed on the Carnival Liberty, Pride and Fantasy.

A competitive product from Jackpot Digital (10 seated) was installed mid 2018 on ~5 Carnival Ships (not sure which brand or ships but I think they were all mostly US west coast ports)

Carnival is pretty consistent across the brands. Dealing $1/$2 NL ($20min $200 max), with occasional $150 SNG qualifiers that pay out cash and entry into their annual PokerPro Challenge MTT.

I believe in this case some of your assumptions are correct and some are not. I have not been on the Magic. But I have been on at least two others of that class. The location you note is one of the two I have seen used on those ships. But I also believe they all dropped to a single table a couple of years ago. They added video poker or slots in that space.

I also know of a ship from a different line that switched from ppro to live dealer and did not change the deck plan.

So your logic is valid but far from universal. And is still based on several assumptions that are not always valid. One in particular is that those specific details are not only included but also kept up to date. They are certainly better than nothing but also not perfect.

Thanks for all the info, guys. Definitely looking forward to it.

Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship's Name: MS Noordam
Date of Cruise: 22 Nov 2018 for 15 nights
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: Poker Pro e-table
Blinds: 1/2
Buy-in structure: $20-$200
Rake structure: 15% $8 max
How often did the game run: see my comments

There were 1,800 passengers aboard, of which only eight had an interest in NLHE. Management would not consider any rake reduction shorthanded. Nothing is collected until there are three players, which then becomes full rake. This ship like any other I've been aboard, has a daily activities newsletter delivered to every suite. Cash games were advertised as opening at 9:00 PM each "sea day" (which means the ship is not in port), with tournaments offered at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. Tournaments were always $50 + $10 freezeout paying 70% / 30%. Final two players were allowed to make a deal for chop. The cage is next to the table, so this required getting the attention of whomever is attending it. Initial stack 1,500, with blinds going up every 15 minutes. 50/100 - 100/200 - 200/400 - 300/600 - 500/1000 which never got past level five. Six to eight players for each 1:00 PM luck-box tournament and no one wanted the 3:00 PM time slot, due to other activities. I never saw the cash game get started, for obvious reasons.

Pro tip: The casino offers a half hour tutorial on the first ocean day in the morning, demonstrating how to use the e-table. Whether or not you have played this device before, always attend. At the very least, you can gauge the interest and competition up front. You have 45 seconds to finish your action, else your hand is folded if not all-in. That might seem like enough time, but UTG it can take 15-30 seconds to achive the right "touch" to view your hole cards. Often this takes several attempts, and you also need to properly "let go" before removing your hands without flashing. You also must verify your action, by tapping your choice twice. This is not a trivial learning curve.

Cruise Line: MSC
Ship's Name: Divina
Date of Cruise: December 20th - 30th, 2018
Length of Cruise: 10 days, (Antigua, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, Tortola, St. Maarten)

Number of tables: zero

Live or e-table: N/A

Comments: Unfortunately, this ship does not have any live poker whatsoever, other than the three-card poker table game. They also don't have a craps table, so can't even degen away any money that way. Needless to say that as a result, I haven't spent any time in the casino at all on this cruise.

Wat?? Gambling fail.

Thank you for your feedback regarding the Jackpot Blitz table. We are always trying to improve the user experience. Next time you play on the Jackpot Blitz electronic tables, you will notice several improvements in terms of graphics/sidegames/usability.

Just got back into town from a family vacation, wanted to bump this thread and share my experiences.

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship's Name: The Anthem of the Seas
Date of Cruise: June 1 - June 6 2019
Number of tables:1
Live or e-table: Live
Blinds: 2/5
Buy-in structure: $100min-$500max (or biggest stack)
Rake structure: 10% w/ $15 cap
How often did the game run: nightly 9PM - close

I had a similar experience to everything that you'll find reviewing live poker tables on cruise ships. The dealers were good, but slow. I actually observed that several of them were rotating between other table games (blackjack etc) and the poker table. Although not the most skilled, they were professional and one did a great job resolving a tough spot where a villain mistook my $100 bet for $25 and flicked in a green chip, then refused to call the rest.

The rake was of course very high, but the player pool was what made playing worth it. I have actually never played 2/5 before, but decided to take a shot and sit for a few orbits and see how the table was. There were plenty of very, VERY passive old TAG types who were regulars every night, with a random drunk gambler mixed into the lineup. Lots of limping, lots of minraising pre, just very bad play that can be easily exploited.

My final takeaway is that if you're there to play very standard poker with a long term strategy you cannot beat cruise ship poker between the slow speed and high rake. However, if you're willing to look for spots to exploit the very weak field and play for stacks, you can make a killing. As for personal results, I played for 6 hours over 2 sessions and showed a profit of $1.2K, booking my biggest career wins in my first time playing 2/5.

1. I am amazed you would call the dealers slow but good. Played live on cruise ships well over a dozen times and I have yet to see better than a poor dealer when compared to shore. Most have been horribad. As you noted they are really house degen game dealers. They simply do not deal poker enough with good examples to learn from to become good.

2. You realize it is literally impossible to have a very, very passive TAG player. The A means aggressive.

You’re right, that description was not well said. What I observed is that most of them would do things like limp every hand, station down with top pair no matter the run out, or 3 bet jam over a min raise with AA, KK, etc. So it would be better to say that the player pool was very passive except with premiums which they always played very face up.

Looking into a Long Beach/ Los Angeles to Mexico 4-5 day cruise. Thinking about any line except Carnival. Anyone have thoughts on which ship will be most likely to have cash games going? And also which ships I should avoid if I really have a hankering to play NL.

Do a quick search on Expedia and looks like Princess and Norwegian are the only offerings for short trips. Hmmm

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Carnival seems to be the best option when it comes to poker on a cruise ship. The others (RC, NCL) have live dealers and take a 10% rake up to $25, usually $2/5NL and a $500 buy-in. They don't always get a game going.

Carnival has electronic tables, $1/2 $300 buy-in, so you don't have to tip a dealer. The rake is 10% and capped at $10 last time I checked, which is still atrocious but beatable. Carnival poker players, in my experience, are absolutely horrible. I'm often the only one who seems to be able to click the "fold" or "raise" buttons.

I've paid for 50% or more of my cruise on more than one occasion just by playing every other evening. Depending on the ship, the poker table(s) are either in the casino or in the sports bar.

We did the Ante Up Cruise last summer. The poker room was small, two tables. I liked the tournaments, but the cash games filled up and there was a wait. Huge pots though it was a 1-2 game. We ended up playing in the casino.

Eyeing Royal Carribean 3-4 day trip to Ensenada. Curious whether anyone seen tables going on that line.

Hi everyone,

I saw some people recently selling a cruise package they won on Norwegian for the Caribbean Poker Challenge.

I am looking to buy one of these Norwegian cruise packages, with sail date of November 12, 2023.

If you won a cruise package and are interested in selling please let me know. Taxes and fees are approximately $800 which I will pay outside of it.

Thank you.