Texas Hold 'Em on RCI

[BeachyBrowns]

Hello all,

 

My wife and I are relative newbies to cruising: we have been on Norwegian Dawn and Carnival Sensation in the past two years, but we have no real cruise experience aside from that. We love to play Texas Hold 'Em, and we had fun playing on the Carnival ship, but we have a problem. We want to go on RCI for our next cruise, and we have lots of poker-crazed friends that we want to cruise with, but we don't really want to sit around the same table and take each other's money -- we could just do that at home and not get raked. So, we wanted to figure out if there were ships (probably the larger ones) that have more than one Hold 'Em table.

 

So, to the question: does anyone out there know or (better yet) have experience playing poker on RCI Freedom class/Oasis? Are there more than one table on those ships? Are they Lightning Poker or Poker Tec tables (or, dare I even mention it, live dealers)? What were the stakes and the rake at your particular table?

 

Thanks for the info,

BeachyBrowns

[Bigtex1622]

Will be in the poker tournament on VOS in 19 days.

But I do know that on that Carnival line, I sat at the only

table that was computerized ( no dealer )

With a bunch of others, went with no other poker friends.

But what I hear, that some of the tourneys on Royal have way too many

people to only have one table. I am sure that others here can tell you.

Just thought I would give you my Carnival experience. ( I won no money )

 

:rolleyes:

[BeachyBrowns]

Thanks for the info, BigTex. I should clarify: we are more interested in playing cash games than tournaments; we never saw a tournament on either ship we were on that was worth playing. We played in one on Norwegian Dawn, and never again -- it was a push-fest, with blinds starting at 50-100 and starting stack of 1500. We won at the cash game on Carnival Sensation, and that's what we're most interested in doing with our friends.

[Tetti]

Hello all,

 

My wife and I are relative newbies to cruising: we have been on Norwegian Dawn and Carnival Sensation in the past two years, but we have no real cruise experience aside from that. We love to play Texas Hold 'Em, and we had fun playing on the Carnival ship, but we have a problem. We want to go on RCI for our next cruise, and we have lots of poker-crazed friends that we want to cruise with, but we don't really want to sit around the same table and take each other's money -- we could just do that at home and not get raked. So, we wanted to figure out if there were ships (probably the larger ones) that have more than one Hold 'Em table.

 

So, to the question: does anyone out there know or (better yet) have experience playing poker on RCI Freedom class/Oasis? Are there more than one table on those ships? Are they Lightning Poker or Poker Tec tables (or, dare I even mention it, live dealers)? What were the stakes and the rake at your particular table?

 

Thanks for the info,

BeachyBrowns

 

I can't speak for any Freedom class ships as I've only been on Voyager class cruises, but the last cruise I was on (~two years ago) had an automated machine for poker. You can also view this link which shows which ships use PokerTek. http://www.pokertek.com/locations/#cruise

 

I did not play but I've heard accounts that the game is 1/2 NL with a 10% rake. It appears the rake is determined by the ship itself. From what I've read Carnival caps the rake at $6. This thread may be helpful as well http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/27/brick-mortar/poker-cruise-ship-343668/

 

I think the cruise prior to that they used a modified BJ table for 6-handed $5/10 limit hold'em. I couldn't tell what the rake was from watching.