Last cruise I went on last January before the pandemic started didn't have any poker. There was a blackjack table set up with 6 or 7 elevated barstool seats to have a "poker" game at 2/5 with a ridiculous rake. A couple of older gentlemen passed by and looked at the sign, but kept walking. There were "poker tournaments" every day that no one attended. I tried to ask the pit boss that if I was the only one to express interest in the last tournament of the cruise with the grand prize of a free cruise, if I would be awarded it by default. He laughed and said there was an eight player minimum to make it happen.
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Cruise ship poker (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter GIANTDustySquid
- Start date
Last time I cruised on Royal (Oct 2018, Oasis of the Seas), they had live 2/5NL every night.
The dealers ranged from marginally competent to flat out awful, the rake was bad, and the game ran from about 9:00pm until 2:00-2:30am when they'd shut it down and send us home even if the table was full.
It was way better than no poker, and the players were mostly loose-bad gamblers. But yeah, it was clear that poker was far from the top of their priority list in the casino.
dkersey
Straight
I'm setting sail 12/1. My expectations are low. I'm hoping for a live table, and I can recruit passer bys like I did last time.
As a fall back, I'm bringing my travel cash set, and I'll post a game in their daily bulletin in the card/game room.
As a fall back, I'm bringing my travel cash set, and I'll post a game in their daily bulletin in the card/game room.
Matt Michaels
Pair
How do you get them to post in the bulletin? I have a carnival cruise this April Id like to try and have a game as well
dkersey
Straight
I'm going on memory but I think they had a space for messages by the guests. It may be all electronic now.
ekricket
Royal Flush
Royal has a daily newsletter that you can put things in. I’ve put “Poker in the Main Dinng” before and had some success. Most success comes from just sitting at the poker table and talking to people as they come by. Having a card to hand out is a big plus too, something beside just memory.
The casino people do not care if you get a side game going. They couldn’t care less what you are doing. The ship people don’t care as long as your having fun - that’s what their focus is, not busting petty card games. Put an ad for “Basics of Poker” everyday at sea at 2:00 in the main dining.
ctestb
High Hand
Going on a Norwegian cruise next year, hoping to play in a tourney somedays when the family will be busy. Anyone recently been on Norwegian?
dkersey
Straight
Just got back from a Royal Caribbean cruise, the ship Adventure of the Seas, out of Galveston. It had 1 poker table in the back corner of the casino. The first night I hung out try to encourage people to come over, but there was only 1 guy who showed any interest. It was so far back tucked away that most people wouldn't notice unless they were very interested in nothing but poker.
This is my 4th cruise, and the casino had a lot more customers than previous cruises. By that, I mean, lots of smokers, as it was the only indoor place to smoke. The smoke was thick in the casino, and you could smell the smoke if you were anywhere near the casino. It was bad.
I did talk to a casino employee, it was 2-5, 100-500 buyin, rake was 10% up to $15, which I know takes the money off the table pretty quickly unless you have tons of new players to replace the losing players, which obviously we didn't.
So for those reasons, I decided not to bother with playing poker the rest of the trip. It was my anniversary, so I figured that might not be good if I spent every night in a smoky room by myself waiting on the possibility of players to show up. I walked by a couple of nights late, and never saw anyone at the table. I don't think they had any game all week.
As someone said above, clearly they are not interested in poker, as they are only interested in the quickest money grab as possible. The cruise itself was great, ship was at about 60% capacity, so it was nice to always find a chair anywhere on deck you wanted. Great food, weather, and service. Otherwise, had a great time.
This is my 4th cruise, and the casino had a lot more customers than previous cruises. By that, I mean, lots of smokers, as it was the only indoor place to smoke. The smoke was thick in the casino, and you could smell the smoke if you were anywhere near the casino. It was bad.
I did talk to a casino employee, it was 2-5, 100-500 buyin, rake was 10% up to $15, which I know takes the money off the table pretty quickly unless you have tons of new players to replace the losing players, which obviously we didn't.
So for those reasons, I decided not to bother with playing poker the rest of the trip. It was my anniversary, so I figured that might not be good if I spent every night in a smoky room by myself waiting on the possibility of players to show up. I walked by a couple of nights late, and never saw anyone at the table. I don't think they had any game all week.
As someone said above, clearly they are not interested in poker, as they are only interested in the quickest money grab as possible. The cruise itself was great, ship was at about 60% capacity, so it was nice to always find a chair anywhere on deck you wanted. Great food, weather, and service. Otherwise, had a great time.
Last week a few of the local chippers and I were talking about the possibility of taking a group cruise somewhere, bringing a set of nice chips on board, and play cash games in the afternoon and evenings at a free table somewhere (casino, dining room, game room, cabin, whatever). Since we are a major cruise port for Alaska sailings (don't have to fly anywhere to get on board), it would be fairly feasible and inexpensive.
dkersey
Straight
My wife wants to do an Alaskan cruise. I probably could/would play late evenings. Any other times would cause ...ahem... issues. The RC ship had a very nice Card Room which was rarely used by anyone. It had plenty of chairs and tables but nothing else (no games). That would be my #1 choice to play a game.
acepilot388
Pair
I’m currently on the Norwegian Escape and played last night. They have one actual table with a dealer. 2-5 NL Holdem. $100-$500 buy-in. They charge a 3% fee to buy chips with the room card. So when I bought in for $500, it charged $515 to the room. Same applied to the table games- roulette, blackjack, pai gow, etc.
10% rake up to $25 so it kills the game quick. The players were talking that on the first night, a group of them played till 3AM. I played the second night, opened up the table and only stayed a couple hours. I got up for an hour and a half to go to a show and when I came back, no one was there. Then again, I won about $560 early so when I got up, I took $1,000+ off the table while the rest of the players had about $100-$400.
On the second day, there was a satellite tournament into Norwegian’s poker cruise in December-2022. If I heard them correctly, they said it’s $100 buy-in for 2,000 in chips, blinds starting at 100-200 with 30 min levels. It’s basically winner take all. I believe once they had a $3,000 prize pool, all that was for a 2-person cruise a and one buy-in into that tournament. Anything on top went to second place finisher. There are a couple more tournaments over the next few days, I’ll try to find out the details.
I recommend paying close attention to the dealers as all of them seem very new and inexperience, plus they are foreign. The first or second hand, the dealer grabbed an uncalled $50 bet and threw it into the $50 in the pot already. He counted the $100 and took out $10 for the rake then pushed the chips to the player. The remainder of the hands, I never saw them take rake from uncalled bets. The rake goes into the dealer’s bank in front. No organization to the bank whatsoever. Also, only myself and one other person was tipping on hands won.
I’ll try to report more info when the cruise concludes in a few days
10% rake PLUS a fee charged to buy chips? With cash? GTFO of here.
moose
4 of a Kind
No. 3% fee to charge chips to your room.
I see, so no fee if you pay cash. That's not as bad.
acepilot388
Pair
No fee if you use cash to buy chips. Fee is if you charge to the room, which is linked to a credit card.
Matt Michaels
Pair
We sail in April and Ill be trying to run my own game a few night on the cruise in the gameroom on board. There are 5 of us going that would be willing to play every night. Gotta see if we can get some others on board to join.
It's standard to cruise casinos
I saw same policy with Royal Caribbean in 2018 and Carnival in 2019. Knew about it before boarding, so I took a few 100s with me.
Lot of people , anyway, was happy with 3% surcharge because did not want to carry lot of cash
A few chips I used in 2019 cruising with Carnival Valor.
Chips from other ships were used, with "generic" Carnival Fun Ship chips too.
Carnival Valor chips had the ship on a side, "Shogun Club" on the ther side
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dkersey
Straight
I'm about to get on the Holland American Nieuw Statendam in a few hours. Anybody have any info on poker on this line/ship? (My expectations are low)
ekricket
Royal Flush
No fee if you get an advance against your room on a slot machine. Put your card in, get some $$ added against your account, then print your ticket and go cash out. No fee.
Nothing recent, but I sailed on the Eurodam around 2013. They had one electronic table, but I never saw a game going or even any significant interest.
dkersey
Straight
Update: absolutely nothing on the ship poker wise. Casino was fairly active but smokey so I was okay with avoiding it all week long.
You might want to check out Card Player Cruises. I did one a decade ago with some friends and had a blast. Only issue is that my expectations regarding how much poker I was going to play and my wife's expectations were quite different. 
dkersey
Straight
You might want to check out Card Player Cruises. I did one a decade ago with some friends and had a blast. Only issue is that my expectations regarding how much poker I was going to play and my wife's expectations were quite different.
I would have the same problem as you if I were to go on a cruise like this, so it is not a viable cruise option. We go on cruises for total different type of experiences and destinations, and if I were to spend a significant amount of time down in the bowels of the ship playing poker, I'm sure I would catch major hell before, during, and after the cruise.
I did totally disconnect by not paying for wifi/internet and forced myself to do different things. My phone was essentially a paperweight, so I left it in the stateroom. If I had internet access, I'd be doing what I do at home...wasting time on PCF, FB, etc. So for all that, the cruise was nice and fulfilled the purpose of the vacation. I saw too many people glued to their phones the whole time. I'm sure they were doing what they do at home...not a vacation to me if you are doing that.
Heading out tomorrow on my first cruise in four years. Coincidentally, I'll be on the same ship as that last cruise: Oasis of the Seas.
I'll be sure to return with a full report on the current state of poker!
I'll be sure to return with a full report on the current state of poker!
5400 passengers -- that's a Big Boy! Have fun!
Oasis games are the same 2-5 500 max that I remember from my last trip. So far the games have been pretty soft with the usual mix of partiers, gamblers, newbs, OMCs, and competent players.
Sunday night was an awesome lineup, but I was card dead and couldn't find any spots, -125 over 4 hours.
Last night the lineup was tougher (and ten-handed), but I ran well, found some spots, made an ill-advised double barrel on a K-high board against a guy who refused to fold his 99
, and won a large pot that probably deserves a strat thread. Ended up +500 over 2.5 hours.
Follow-up for my week-long trip on Oasis of the Seas.
2/5NL 500max ran every night of the cruise, typically running from about 9pm to about 2:30am. Always ten-handed, always the same players night after night, rake 10% up to $15. Overall the game was decent - there were a few solid(ish) players who camped the table all night, and several bad players who would rotate in and out.
I played four nights and ran pretty badly in a game where you mostly had to make hands to win pots. I already talked about the first two sessions above.
Session #3 was pretty boring. No interesting hands, no big pots won or lost, ended the night -100.
Session #4 was the heartbreaker. Very few playable hands, I didn't win a single pot, and I lost two big ones. Pot #1, I flopped top two vs bottom set and stacked off to a player who plays the hand the same way with TPGK. Pot #2, flop KJ9, and my KJ stacks off to QT in his first orbit. I was -700 and had another buy-in on me, but I was mega-tilted and just called it a night.
So overall, not the results I was hoping for (down one BI over about 15 hours), but I would probably keep playing in that game if it were local. The rake was robbery, of course, but in spite of that I think I could have been profitable if the deck had cooperated a bit more.
2/5NL 500max ran every night of the cruise, typically running from about 9pm to about 2:30am. Always ten-handed, always the same players night after night, rake 10% up to $15. Overall the game was decent - there were a few solid(ish) players who camped the table all night, and several bad players who would rotate in and out.
I played four nights and ran pretty badly in a game where you mostly had to make hands to win pots. I already talked about the first two sessions above.
Session #3 was pretty boring. No interesting hands, no big pots won or lost, ended the night -100.
Session #4 was the heartbreaker. Very few playable hands, I didn't win a single pot, and I lost two big ones. Pot #1, I flopped top two vs bottom set and stacked off to a player who plays the hand the same way with TPGK. Pot #2, flop KJ9, and my KJ stacks off to QT in his first orbit. I was -700 and had another buy-in on me, but I was mega-tilted and just called it a night.
So overall, not the results I was hoping for (down one BI over about 15 hours), but I would probably keep playing in that game if it were local. The rake was robbery, of course, but in spite of that I think I could have been profitable if the deck had cooperated a bit more.
Rooster410
3 of a Kind
I set sail on Royal Caribbean symphony of the seas this coming Saturday. Reading through this thread, looks like I shouldn't expect much, however, I plan to check out the casino and specially the poker table.
JustinInMN
4 of a Kind
Yeah, I actually went on Freedom of the Seas from Miami to the Bahamas back in October. (Three night cruise.) Game ran a few hours every night, 2-5 NLHE (or maybe 5-5 NLHE, not certain) but honestly once I figured out the $15/hand drop I didn't play. We got like $10 in free slot play that I ran up a bit
. Otherwise, not a lot of gambol.
Even with the outrageous rake, I think these games can be profitable or at least break even for a good player who is willing to accept the variance. There's always a lot of questionable play and gamble on the table IME.
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