It seems like every couple weeks there is a new thread on this topic popping up, and throughout all those threads there is still very little definitive answers.

If you have recently gone on a cruise which offers poker, please share some info about the game with us in this thread.

A few items which may be important to include:

Cruise Line:
Ship's Name:
Date of Cruise:
Number of tables:
Live or e-table:
Blinds:
Buy-in structure:
Rake structure:
How often did the game run:



Thanks for taking the time to add some info to this thread!!

Google Poker Cruises and Card Player Cruises should be the top result. Prices seem quite decent and they are running a Dubai Poker Cruise as well!

Just did a cruise last month

Cruise Line: Royal Carribean
Ship's Name: Navigator of the Seas
Date of Cruise: last month
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: live
Blinds: 2-5
Buy-in structure: 100-500
Rake structure: 10%?
How often did the game run: Game usually did not get going till around 10:00 PM each night. One did run one evening from 5-8 the last day.

The ship also had a multiple session "Win a Cruise on the Allure" tournament on sea days. $100 buy-in. There were 4 preliminary rounds with the winner of each round advancing to the final table. They needed 30 total entries to for the Cruise prize to be active, otherwise the final table played for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for a cash payout.

Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship's Name: Liberty
Date of Cruise: May 1, 2011
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: e-table
Blinds: 1/2
Buy-in structure: 50+ (not sure of cap)
Rake structure: Not sure, capped at $6, no rake if less than 4 at table or the pot is won preflop.
How often did the game run: Only saw it running once, at 10pm on a day at sea, but I wasn't up past 11 most nights.

Good idea for thread OP, much needed

Poker cruises don't sound too fun, for poker purposes.

...nor for cruise purposes.

haha yes. Im sure the implied rake of paying for a cruise to go play poker makes this essentially a waste of $$$$

I'm referring to the games offered by the cruise lines themselves, although a third party poker room sounds like a nice idea, they only run a few each year. It us often hard to match my vacation dates with their voyages.

I don't plan to go on a cruise solely to play poker, nor is it the main factor in my choice. However it is still nice to know this information, as it will be a small factor when I decide which cruise to go on.

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship's Name: Monarch of the Seas
Date of Cruise: lol
Number of tables: One
Live or e-table: Live
Blinds: 2/5
Buy-in structure: I bought in for $500, which I considered standard for 2/5, but that seemed to be a lot for the other players at the table.
Rake structure: 10%, $15 cap. VERY BEATABLE.
How often did the game run: Usually every night around 9 PM. Never during the days, which was too bad.

They run a donkament most nights and I think the 2/5 NL goes after that. I'd say we had on average 8 players at the table and maybe 3 of them knew what they were doing. The rest were complete donks. Standard buy in was $100 and I saw people go all in with king high several times.

I think this ship only does 3-4 day caribbean cruises. If you're looking to get a little poker in at night during one of these short cruises, I think it's a good choice.

I also want to add that the "floor" is pretty much only watching this game. One night a drunk guy got a little upset about being called out on a blatant string raise and the they handled the situation very well.

Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship's Name: Noordam
Date of Cruise: Apr 28 - May 14, 2011
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: PokerPro
Blinds: 1/2
Buy-in structure: 50min/200max
Rake structure:15%, $6 max, no rake if fewer than 4 players
How often did the game run: Nightly. We'd start at about 9:30 and play until early morning. A couple of the games lasted until 5 or 6am.

There was also a daily tourny at 2:00pm on all sea days. Buyins alternated between $30 and $60, with $25 & $50 respectively going to the prize pool. Top two places were paid: 75% & 25%.

****************

Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship's Name: Mariner of the Seas
Date of Cruise: Jan 16 - Feb 15, 2011
Number of tables: 1
Live or e-table: PokerPro
Blinds: 1/2
Buy-in structure: 50min/200max
Rake structure:15%, $10 max
How often did the game run: Nightly at the beginning of the cruise. However, after the first couple of weeks, all of the regs decided that instead of paying the rake, we'd just buy a couple decks of cards and play for cash among ourselves in a game room/lounge on the top deck. We had a group of about 15 who would play off and on. We'd start at about 10pm and play until 1am.

The ship had a daily prelim tourney on sea days with a $100 buyin. The 1st and 2nd place players from each daily tourny would get a seat at the final table with the winner getting a free cruise this December. There were two separate tourneys over the 30 day cruise. Five prelims leading to a final, and then another five prelims leading to a final table for a 2nd free cruise.

does anybody have any information about the casino cruise ship based in goa, india?

I participate in an online community focused on cruising and there is one board that deals with cruiseship casinos. Within that board are several threads pertaining to poker on various cruiselines and specific ships. Here is a link to that board:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum...rune=100&f=586

these are considered poker cruises? 1 table running? 5,000 people on board and only 10 people play poker? Boy would I be disappointed to see this, I figured poker cruises were attended by people wanting to play poker but these just seem like a reg cruise.

Take a look at the OP again. This thread is not about special "poker cruises," it concerns regular run-of-the-mill cruises that offer poker in one form or another in their onboard casinos.

Moreover, I don't think I've ever come across 10 poker players on a cruise; usually only 2-3 know what they're doing. The rest are just people who have seen poker on tv and are curious as to how it is played. I've had people sit down at a table who didn't even know hand rankings. Take the fishiest game you've ever been involved in and multiply it by a factor of 10 and that will give you an idea of what poker on cruiseships is like. I won over $2k on each of my last two cruises this year playing 1/2NL a couple of hours/day.

Finally, on a related matter, not many cruise ships have 5,000 pax. In fact, of the 100+ ships out there, I think that there are only 2-3 that carry that many. The ship that I disembarked from last week had 1800. I've also been on ships that had fewer than 200 passengers.

bump

I'm going on the card Player Cruise trip on Sept. 18th. It's a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Allure of the Seas. I'm told that the games are still _very_ good despite the fact that the only way to have access to the segregated Card Player poker room is to book with Card Player. I thought this might mean tough games, but a dealer on the trips has told me that the games are really good.

Also, the rake is way more reasonable on these trips...I think she said that they rake the sb out of every pot, then it's 10% up to $5. Still more than a good casino rake for sure, but a vast improvement over the standard cruise ship casino rake.

If anyone has any info on these they want to share, post up! I've never been...am really looking forward to it. Also, I'll post up a TR if anyone is interested.

EDIT: I searched for this thread...didn't realize it was in BaM until after I posted. I'll leave this here in case anyone cares, but I'll search more for a more appropriate spot. Sorry about that.

I always make a few hundred on cruises. Never enough to pay for the cruise, but if I am cruising, whether or not they have a poker table is a deciding factor. I also research and if I am considering 2 different cruise lines, I pick the one with the lower rake. For that reason threads like this are great.

Also remember to fill out your comment cards at the end of the cruise. I always blame the lack of participants for the majority of the hours the casino is open on the rake. Even though the rake can be overcome, they pay attention to the comment cards and getting the rakes reasonable will go a long way to expanding the poker community because more beginners will be winners if the table isn't sucking off $300 an hour.

Just wondering if anyone has been on the carnival fantasy lately? If so, how were the games? I hear they usually have some quick tourneys, and then 1/2 nl at night. Seems that most threads here say the same things, very loose and fishy, but sometimes its been hard to get games started. So just checking to see if any one has had any recent experiences on board the fantasy.
Thanks in advance.

I hate to say this, but I really don't want to tell you 2+2'ers about my specific knowledge of poker on cruise ships. I will say this, though; I have played poker on 3 cruise ships, and I have not yet failed to pay for my wife's and my cruise fare and expenses on each. The level of play is incomprehensibly bad; you just have to get used to the feeling of congratulating people for binking the river on you after you get all-in w/ AK against 52 on a AT5 rainbow flop. It happens ALL the time, but thankfully, it doesn't cost you much when the fish buy in for the minimum. Just smile and encourage them to do it again.

So, basically just play ABC poker, be friendly, dont tap the glass on the fish tank, and enjoy the cruise?
Other then that, what ' specific' knowledge could you have that would be so dire to withhold? Other then trying to keep the best fishing holes for yourself, you have my interest peaked.

I played on a different "of the seas" ship of RC's with all of these exact same answers, including the tournament. The fishiness of the players more than made up for the rake.

I made another post on this shortly after my cruise last December ish, but it's basically ABC with a few adjustments.

I basically played 2-card poker, got it almost all-in pre if I could. The reason I say "almost" is because there is a psychological stigma regarding seeing or hearing "all in" at the table....it freezes people up.

You'll see somebody with 200 behind call a $150 raise pre with A3o, but they'll fold to a 200 bet. So what do you do? Raise 50-75% of their stack pre with whatever range you find yourself to be ahead of most of your opponents. In my case, it was basically 77+, AT+. No joke.

If they have it, they have it...buy back in and try it again. If they have it out of position, they'll let you know by raising pre...because it's the only time they'll do it.

So you just check it down post w/o top pair?

I was on the Carnival Dream last November. I started my bank with a 200 deposit on the first night, and cashed out for 1300 on the last night. I'm a fairly casual player (only do it for fun, but serious enough about the game to follow this forum). The level of play is pretty poor, but it's mitigated by plenty of ridiculous catches by people.

This leads me to my general theory on these cruise ship tables: I have nothing to base this on, other than general observation over my past 4-5 years of cruises, but I believe that the tables deal out "action" hands to encourage betting (and higher rakes for the house). I've never seen as many quads, straight flushes, boats, etc, as I've seen while playing on cruises. I've also never seen so many people willing to make completely loose calls, chase cards, etc. opponents will generally be drunk, relaxed, and will treat the poker table like a slot machine (lotsa gamble, win occasionally, and keep feeding it money). I play looser than I do in a real card room, but nothing like what I see from most other players. I don't know how/if the tables are regulated at all. I've heard ''expert'' opinions ranging from no regulation at all to regulation by the Nevada GC. Based purely on what I've seen, I'd be surprised to learn that the cards are truly random 100% of the time. Just be cautious with the nuts on the flop, because I've seen plenty of turns/rivers crack those hands after the pots get built up.

I leave for another cruise in a couple weeks, and I'm looking forward to getting on the table. Above all, however, I don't take anything for granted, and I set limits for how much I'll invest in the game. It's a vacation, and everyone there wants to have fun. The gambling money is already factored into their budget. You just want to be there to collect what you can when they call you down to the river with an unpaired ace.

If you're still reading, here is a quick story of my last night on the boat last year: I was up quite a bit for the week already, and I was just playing loose and having fun to close out the cruise. It was generally the same core group of 5-7 players every night, with a rotating cast of characters coming through and leaving money behind. Around 1am, a very drunk guy sat down and bought in for 200. He called every bet, and lost most of his stack to a guy within 3 hands. He rebought for 200, and lost it to someone else within 2 hands. Next was my turn--I had pocket 2s, and caught a set on the flop. He went all in, and i called. I caught quads on the turn and took his 200. He started to reload again, and a couple people at the table asked him if he was sure he wanted to do that. He was down 600 in under 15 minutes. He slurred that the money didn't matter, and he stuck out his wrist to show off the new Tag ''Hower'' (his pronounciation) watch he bought in port. Then he wanted us to know he paid 2500 for it. OK...he reloaded with another 200 and a fresh can of Fosters and gave that up within 2 hands. He reloads again. We again ask him if he's sure he wants to do it. I mean, we all want his money, but this guy wasn't in any shape to operate a vending machine, let alone make decisions about poker. He waves us off and loses it all yet again. Rinse, and repeat. I believe the final tally was 1200 that he gave away at the table within 30 minutes. He then said his wife was going to kill him, and he stumbled away. He was warned (sincerely) by everyone there not to keep playing, but he insisted. I think that everyone left at the table picked up money from him. It was a nice end to a decent week of poker. I wonder how things went for him when his wife saw the 1200 in casino charges at checkout.

Sorry for the long post. I can't wait to get back out on vacation later his month (Carnival Legend on 11/27).

jj