Cruise ship poker -- if it can be called that. (1 Viewer)

pltrgyst

pltrgyst

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Just returned today from an 11-day cruise to the southern Caribbean - DR, St. Thomas, Aruba, Curacao, Caymans -- on Norwegian. NLHE tourneys at 1pm and 8pm, only one poker tables with eight seats, but I thought they might be fun and break the boredom at sea.

No way Jose...

NLHE, $80 buy-in, $80 add-ons, $80 re-buys. Antes begin after two rounds.
Tourney starts at 100/200, and the starting stack is 2000. Yep, ten big bets.

And they consider that "playing poker". :mad:
 
Last time I was on a cruise three years ago I was wondering why the one poker table the casino had stayed empty the whole week. I took a look at the placard on the table that detailed what games were spread and understood why right away.

The tournaments were similarly structured and when there wasn't a tournament, 2/5 cash NLHE was offered. Max $500 buy in but a 20% rake per hand uncapped.

Nope...
 
JMC9389 said:
Last time I was on a cruise three years ago I was wondering why the one poker table the casino had stayed empty the whole week. I took a look at the placard on the table that detailed what games were spread and understood why right away.

The tournaments were similarly structured and when there wasn't a tournament, 2/5 cash NLHE was offered. Max $500 buy in but a 20% rake per hand uncapped.

Nope...
Click to expand...
But…..no OMC right :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
I would not mind to play on a 20% raked table full of huge fish tho

And that will be only one playing that game imho
 
JMC9389 said:
Last time I was on a cruise three years ago I was wondering why the one poker table the casino had stayed empty the whole week. I took a look at the placard on the table that detailed what games were spread and understood why right away.

The tournaments were similarly structured and when there wasn't a tournament, 2/5 cash NLHE was offered. Max $500 buy in but a 20% rake per hand uncapped.

Nope...
Click to expand...
Looks like there is a market for bringing a 5% rake underground game to each and every cruise ship out there lol, like The Sopranos 7-card stud game.
 
Yeah, Cruise ship poker sucks. Which is a shame. when NLHE got really big, there were 2 - 3 tables on all the ships I cruise on, and waiting lists for a seat. Still had that shitty rake, but man I made a ton on those cruises. 1/2 blinds but you could play a tight aggressive game and clean house all day and night. Now, its just a few people who understand poker and never want to sit and grind out with mafia level rake.

I have also thought many times about bringing a set of chips and trying to get a game going in the library.
 
Silver_Fiend said:
I have also thought many times about bringing a set of chips and trying to get a game going in the library.
Click to expand...
The biggest problem there is the bank -- nobody carries a lot of cash on a cruise ship. Everything is charged to your ship's account. And no matter what they say, Internet access is spotty at best.
 
Silver_Fiend said:
I have also thought many times about bringing a set of chips and trying to get a game going in the library.
Click to expand...

We do this. We have the games in the dining room, same place they do the needlepoint and card making. It’s just another guest led activity.
We just do tournaments though, so they can be over in a couple hours and people can enjoy their evening activities.
Typically $20 buy in, T15,000, 12/12/5/6/2. I carry a 500 piece set in white boxes and a carry bag for airport security to peruse easily.
I sit at the poker table in the first few evenings and recruit. They don’t care at all. I can’t stress this enough, the casino people don’t care at all. Cardplayer cruises runs a large card room separate from the casino’s on their cruises.
It’s still hit or miss. On the cruises where there is interest there’s a game every day at sea. On the ones with little interest usually one or two games is the best we can do, sometimes none.
Occasionally we hit a good one and have two tables every day.

You will find it hard to get cash players in a “home game” on the boat. Too much worry about card sharks and Mississippi riverboat gamblers.
But tournaments are accepted, especially low buy in.
 
Let’s go! On Symphony of the Seas. Liz made the cut on this one, won a $1100 buyin and some cash. I flamed out in the second hour. Currently playing Omaha hi-lo survivor.




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Heh, I'm going on the Symphony later this year (non card playing cruise). Have fun! Let me know if the library there is a decent enough place to have a small tournament.
 
was just on NCL escape.

100/200 10BB

$120 entry, turned into a rebuy bonanza.

Also after the break. There’s a $120 chip up for 4x starting stack.

It was like a NOS boosted Turbo tournament.

Kinda lame honestly. Ultimate was a fun table game tho.
 
JMC9389 said:
Heh, I'm going on the Symphony later this year (non card playing cruise). Have fun! Let me know if the library there is a decent enough place to have a small tournament.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the cardroom/library is big and you can put tables together. There were only about 10 books in the library, all in Icelandic I think.
All the dining venues, including the windjammer, are small. We’ve used tables in the dining room before on other cruises.
 

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