poker questions

[Janespup]

Hello,

I am wondering if there are real poker games onboard, or are they all machine driven. Does anyone know if there is Pai Gow poker? Thanks.

[MickeyB426]

Hello,

I am wondering if there are real poker games onboard, or are they all machine driven. Does anyone know if there is Pai Gow poker? Thanks.

 

Texas Hold'em is with the PokerPro machine.

 

No Pai Gow.

 

They do have 3 card poker and some sort of Texas Hold'em dealer vs. player variation of 3 card poker, but with 5 cards.

[foureyedbuzzard]

RCCL also has Texas Hold'em tournaments. It's $100 buy in, six player tables, but only one from each table advances, and there are three rounds, and they only pay the final table. Typically there are 4 tables per day for the first few days. This all takes place over several sittings if you advance, and scheduling can be an issue. To make it worse (for the good poker player) there are almost unlimited rebuys during early rounds. This makes for very agressive maniacs if they don't give a $#!^ what kind of tab they're racking up to try to win - it distorts the game tremendously as your initial $100 could be facing $500 in betting power or more due to rebuys. Even though I love to play poker, it's a crappy format - Blackjack is a better game in the onboard casinos.

[MickeyB426]

RCCL also has Texas Hold'em tournaments. It's $100 buy in, six player tables, but only one from each table advances, and there are three rounds, and they only pay the final table. Typically there are 4 tables per day for the first few days. This all takes place over several sittings if you advance, and scheduling can be an issue. To make it worse (for the good poker player) there are almost unlimited rebuys during early rounds. This makes for very agressive maniacs if they don't give a $#!^ what kind of tab they're racking up to try to win - it distorts the game tremendously as your initial $100 could be facing $500 in betting power or more due to rebuys. Even though I love to play poker, it's a crappy format - Blackjack is a better game in the onboard casinos.

 

In the Texas Hold'em tournaments on the Oasis, there were NO re-buys.

 

There are 9 tournaments on each cruise, 3 on each of the days at sea. $100 to buy-in, 9 players per tournament, and they use the PokerPro table. No cash prizes for this preliminary round.

 

Win the preliminary, you advance with the other 8 winners and play on Friday.

 

Win the Friday tournament, you win a free cruise in December to play in a Grand Championship. I believe there are cash prizes for second and third place for the Friday tournament as well.

 

In the December championship, all of the winners from all the RCCL tournaments will play in a regular hand-dealt poker tournament where the champion receives $100,000.

 

From what the pit bosses were telling me, there will be about 300 entries in the Final and will play out like a regular "World Series of Poker" tournament. In addition, I was told that for about $4200 you can "buy" an entry into the December tournament, which includes the cabin and tournament. I do not have any other details regarding buying an entry.