Carnival and Poker Chips...

[chino303]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm sailing on the Triumph this next Saturday, the 26th! Well, here is my question, Has anyone had any problem setting up their own Poker tournaments on board?

 

I love playing poker, and I've done my research and most ppl agree that poker on board is not really that good or worth playing at the Casino.

 

I was thinking to make it "free to play" or even have a small buy in tournaments at one of the libraries or lounges on sea days or late nights. I'm not 100% sure the legality with Carnival on this, and I was just wondering if anyone had any experience or even set their own tournaments before.

 

Thinking to bring about 1000 chips... Should I bring more? Less?

 

Now, can this week go a bit faster so I can go and sail already?! :D

 

Thanks in advance!

 

-chino

[innkeeper17]

In a dream I once had, we were complaining about the apox take of 15% on the machine. By the end of the second day where there was a regular group that met. A thoughtful member of our group suggested a game among ourselves. Each one of us would go to the casino and pull around 150.00 in chips. Craps was a good table for small and on roulette it wasn't unusual to ask for 20 one dollar chips. Met in places such as the library and kept a low profile. We would use the chips and pass the shuffle with the deck of cards bought in the casino. A good time was had by all and no complaints or crew members fret. Of course the dream lasted around 8 days....

[girlsjustwannacruise]

My husband would LOVE THIS! I mean love it, lol....

but...:rolleyes:

I swear i think i read someplace just a few weeks ago that you will get kicked off if they see you are organizing your own tournaments. I will try to find that article. :mad:

I would like more information on this please, because if i didnt mention before, my husband would love this. :o

[girlsjustwannacruise]

ahhhh...

 

here is what i read, here on this site: called 11 ways to get kicked off the ship

and i think this is the passage i read and somehow remembered it as organizing poker?? This has nothing to do with poker! im a goof !!!

 

anyways.. still no answers.

 

9. Organize your own tours in public. One of the things we love most about Cruise Critic's Roll Calls is meeting other travelers and teaming up to book independent excursions. While a cruise line doesn't mind if you book a private tour with a few friends, they do frown upon passengers booking a 30-person bus and advertising onboard for other cruisers to join them in shunning ship excursions. If you don't want to get forcibly debarked for soliciting, please be discreet in your tour arranging, and do not exchange money at Cruise Critic Meet and Mingles in front of senior officers.

[jay49307]

ahhhh...

 

here is what i read, here on this site: called 11 ways to get kicked off the ship

and i think this is the passage i read and somehow remembered it as organizing poker?? This has nothing to do with poker! im a goof !!!

 

anyways.. still no answers.

 

9. Organize your own tours in public. One of the things we love most about Cruise Critic's Roll Calls is meeting other travelers and teaming up to book independent excursions. While a cruise line doesn't mind if you book a private tour with a few friends, they do frown upon passengers booking a 30-person bus and advertising onboard for other cruisers to join them in shunning ship excursions. If you don't want to get forcibly debarked for soliciting, please be discreet in your tour arranging, and do not exchange money at Cruise Critic Meet and Mingles in front of senior officers.

 

Where did you find this? I did a search and was unsuccessful.

[near the beach]

I don’t think you would be able to have your own games. If you did you would probably have to purchase the chips from the casino.

[clcjdn]

I have not done this before, and I am not sure of the policy. However, I would think that as long as you are not "by" the casino, who would catch you? If you were playing at some random table on the Lido deck or Fish and Chips, etc... a regular Carnival employee would likely not realize that you were playing poker for money. I think the biggest risk would be someone higher up seeing the action and realizing the company was "losing" money. Great concept, let us know if it works!

[Robwerks]

We have done something similar to what you are asking, but on a smaller scale.

 

We usually travel with 4 other couples. We would set up a small Hold'em tournament for ourselves. Have a small buy-in and play with chips we brought from home. Each couple would typically bring 50 chips of one color (so 1 person is not hauling all of the chips).

 

We divide up the chips and play our game. We always pick an out of the way table - fish and chips area on the Conquest class works great. We keep it low key and have never had an issue. It is cheap entertainment for a couple of hours on a sea day.

 

You always see people playing board games, dominoes, etc. about the ship. I think if you keep it low key and not attract a big crowd you will be fine.

[chino303]

I'm guessing I will give it a try and see how it goes, I will come back and post my experience with this.

 

Hopefully I won't get in trouble :D

 

Cheers!

 

-chino

[eweiss1979]

How did it go?

[love my grandkids]

If it works lets try bingo with higher payout than what the ship offers

[Rosefloater]

If it works lets try bingo with higher payout than what the ship offers

 

Already been done. A few years ago on the Paradise we saw a group of women with bingo cards on a table in the Buffet area. Then out came the cage and balls from a lady's bag.

[rocking-m-cruiser]

I have not done this before, and I am not sure of the policy. However, I would think that as long as you are not "by" the casino, who would catch you? If you were playing at some random table on the Lido deck or Fish and Chips, etc... a regular Carnival employee would likely not realize that you were playing poker for money. I think the biggest risk would be someone higher up seeing the action and realizing the company was "losing" money. Great concept, let us know if it works!

 

I agree I don't see how this would be any different then playing any other game while on board. Bring your on chips. What is the difference in playing poker or left right center? Both of these are money games.

[love my grandkids]

Already been done. A few years ago on the Paradise we saw a group of women with bingo cards on a table in the Buffet area. Then out came the cage and balls from a lady's bag.

 

Wow. Say hi to your mom from us.:p

[riffatsea]

Interesting idea? Trying to picture going to a casino hotel in Las Vegas and then just staying in your room to play your own game not in the casino itself. I have a feeling it would be frowned upon in the same way as on a ship.

I suppose there are always people trying to do something in a way that gets around some sort of fee like smuggling liquor but it just seems tacky to me.

You could always play without money:p

[willyy]

we have an annual guy cruise, we always bring our own poker chips and hold our own tournaments on lido deck and also in lido restaurant. never a problem, even carrying the chips on board in the metal briefcase. just a rule we always use is no cash on the table, collect all buy ins and put them in case.

[love my grandkids]

we have an annual guy cruise, we always bring our own poker chips and hold our own tournaments on lido deck and also in lido restaurant. never a problem, even carrying the chips on board in the metal briefcase. just a rule we always use is no cash on the table, collect all buy ins and put them in case.

 

Interesting didnt know you could do that.

[Surfwench]

We have a family tradition of late night Texas hold'em games. On our family cruise we were surprised there were no cheap plastic chips in the library with all the other board games so we improvised with bags of fruit candy with different colored wrappers, (pink = $1.00, yellow = $.25, etc). Took over a big table in the Lido buffet and had the best time. Next time we'll bring our own chips. However, we were a closed group, and no money changed hands. I think if you start an event which could possibly compete with Carnival's games there could be problem.

 

I remember reading about a gentleman who was thrown off a cruise a few years ago because he was selling excursion tickets to the passengers.

[ccartman2]

Tough part would be gathering the players. You start advertising or even asking about a game, it could get difficult and possibly get in some trouble. Playing with chips should be fine, but keep the money away from the table and probably agree to give payouts in another location (buy-ins too). If they are raking 15%, that is pretty much robbery. 10% up to a fixed amount is pretty much the norm at the places I used to play. A loose game like a cruise ship and the rake should be irrelevant.

[mavvie]

I attempted to start up a "home game" on one of our previous cruises right here on cruise critic a month or so prior to departure. 7 or 8 other people advised they were in and we set up a meeting place on the first night to hatch a plan of action. The only problem I had was that only one of the other players showed up and I ended up stuck on the electronic poker table for the whole week. I hope you have better luck.

[eweiss1979]

If you want to play a cash game with friends then just have everyone go and buy the casino chips from the casino. Then take them to the lido deck and start playing. That seems like the easiest thing to do.

 

In tournaments with buyins then you could just bring your own chips of course to play with since they have no real value. The buy ins could be collected as casino chips though if you really didn't want anyone to see actual cash changing hands outside the casino.

[clcjdn]

If you want to play a cash game with friends then just have everyone go and buy the casino chips from the casino. Then take them to the lido deck and start playing. That seems like the easiest thing to do.

 

In tournaments with buyins then you could just bring your own chips of course to play with since they have no real value. The buy ins could be collected as casino chips though if you really didn't want anyone to see actual cash changing hands outside the casino.

 

I would think you could get into trouble if you used the casino's chips outside of the casino, but still on the ship........not sure on legality of it all, but this seems to me like it would be too far. You are better using your own, or finding a replacement like mentioned earlier.....heck sugar packets of different colors would work.....just have the $ exchange hands inside a cabin/some other non public place.

[Nic6318]

I think that if you want to play any game or even a tournament with friends it would be no problem on the ship, even for money.

The thought however that some stranger would approach me and somehow propose the idea of having a "private" game for money just sounds like a script out of a movie. If it was a riverboat I would be laughing.

Unless you had the time over the course of the week to really get to know a bunch of the people who play poker regularly in casino, I find it hard to believe that most people wouldn't look on your proposal with some suspicion.

 

Anyway good luck and have fun

[texast518]

Where did you find this? I did a search and was unsuccessful.

 

It was on Cruise Radio site.