RCI Poker Tournaments / Win a cruise event

[JJSMaine]

So... who has entered the tournaments and how did it go... anyone here win a cruise and going to the finale?? What was the tournament structure like? Time between levels? Entry fee?

 

thanks...

[cruisinfanatic]

So... who has entered the tournaments and how did it go... anyone here win a cruise and going to the finale?? What was the tournament structure like? Time between levels? Entry fee?

 

thanks...

some of the ones I've seen were on sea days. $100 entry.

If all the tables weren't full for each satellite, there was no free cruise, just cash for the winner and 2nd place I think.

If you win, you still aren't getting a free cruise. You have to pay the port and taxes which can be $250pp or more.

All you have to do is be in the final 2 per table to get to the final on the last sea day.

I did it once. Going along pretty good. Had a sure winning flush and got beat with quad kings. Sucked for me that day!

Edited August 25, 2012 by SeaUs

[skandls]

Don't feel bad. DH made it to the last table on our cruise. First hand 2 aces. Another player at the table went all in with 2 nines. You guessed it - a 9 in the river.

[patseacruiser]

I do know someone that won a cruise. They are rebut tournaments which I don't play but my friend got a 1099 or whatever form it is for $5,000 for the comped room which seemed a little high considering it cost her to play the tournament.

[Winegirl58]

Are these poker tourneys available on every cruise? My DH loves to play poker, and this would be something he would enjoy. We are on the FOS, Oct 14th sailing, if that helps... thanks!:D

[sdear]

I do know someone that won a cruise. They are rebut tournaments which I don't play but my friend got a 1099 or whatever form it is for $5,000 for the comped room which seemed a little high considering it cost her to play the tournament.

 

wow that is high ! Hope she had a good room !

 

I won 4K on a slot machine and no 1099 which was a beautiful thing.

[newlifeca]

I played in the tournament on Mariner of the Seas in Europe. We didn't have enough players to qualify for the free cruise. In the case that there are not enough players, instead of the option to win a cruise, you just win the cash prize. We did a chop at the final table for the money. This was five years ago, but as I remember the rake was high. the blind levels were really quick, maybe 20 minutes, so it became a shove fest pretty quickly.

 

If you're someone who plays poker regularly, you won't be happy with the structure of the tournament. On the other hand, if you're on vacation and need to scratch your poker itch, it can be okay.

 

As an option, I would suggest playing the cash games, the rake is high, but if you're a winning poker player, you may find the game profitable.

[Magic Man]

Just got off the Feeedom of the Sea.

The final table only had four people, we were playing for a cruise on the Oasis on December 7,2013 and an entry in the $100,000 poker tournment, second got $250 and third got $100.

The early round had enough rebuys and add ons at $50 each, the buy inwas $75

Yes I won the seat

Hello Oasis see you on December 7

[oneputt18]

I made final table on the Navigator last December, went all in with 4 kings. The other player called and flipped 5, 6, 8 & 9 suited, flopped the 7, talk about a bad beat. At the casino here in Fla. that would have one me about $10,000 or more in the bad beat pot.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[kazda]

Was on Oasis cruise 18th August and hubby won a cruise for 7th December 2013 sailing. As we live in Australia it will be an expensive free cruise when taking airfares into account, but can't wait to go back. In fact on our cruise the table was full for each tournament so 1st and 2nd places won a cruise, 3rd place won $75.00 :eek:

[the rev]

I won the Dec. 7, 2013 cruise when we were on a cruise in Sept. 2012 on the Enchantment of the Seas to Bermuda. I guess the 2012 tournament was full because we were awarded free booking as well as a paid entry into the Royal Poker Tour Tournament.

 

Yes, it wasn't really poker like you experience in the 'World Series of Poker', but there were enough buy-ins and re-buys that there was enough for the free cruise and entry fee. Second prize only got like $150 if I recall correctly.

 

I called and got the info from the 2012 tourney, which they said would probably be pretty much the same for the 2013. I've pasted it in below...

 

 

Saturday, Dec 8th – Fort Lauderdale: Seat Assignments from 7:00 pm- 11:00 pm Poker Room.

The Poker Room is located in the Conference Center on Deck 3 at the forward section of the vessel. Tournament seat assignments will be posted at this time. Please stop by to find out your seating assignment between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm.

Super Satellite with a $200 entry fee will be offered at 8:30 pm. The winner will play in the Royal Poker Tour main event.

Sunday, Dec 9th – Day at Sea – Tournament Day One: Poker room opens 11.30 am. Group 1, start at 12.00 pm until 6.00 pm (Break from 3:00 pm – 3:30pm)

 The tournament will be no limit Texas Hold’em freeze out (no re-buys)

 The starting tournament chips will be $7,500

 The blinds will start at $25/ $50 and increase every 30 minutes

The tournament will be split into two groups and run over five (5) days. The first group will start with approximately 145 players; the tables will be condensed down (This is not a shootout format). The remaining players from the first group will take their chip count to day three of the tournament.

Monday, Dec 10th – Labadee – Tournament Day Two: Poker room opens at 2:00 pm.

Group 2, start at 3:00 pm until 11:00 pm (Dinner break from 6.00 pm – 8.30 pm)

The second group will start with approximately 145 players; the tables will be condensed down (This is not a shootout format).The remaining players from the second group will take their chip count to day three of the tournament.

Tuesday, Dec 11th – Falmouth, Jamaica – Tournament Day Three: Poker room opens 7:00 pm.

All Royal Poker Tour tables start at 8:30 pm. The third day of the tournament will start with approximately 90 players; the tables will be condensed until we have reached blind level 18 (This is not a shootout format). Blinds will start at $1,000/ $2,000 with a running ante of 200 on this day and increase every 30 minutes.

Wednesday, Dec 12th – Day at Sea – Tournament Day Four: Poker room opens at 12:00 pm. All Royal Poker Tour Tables start at 1:00 pm. The fourth day of the tournament will start with players playing to down to the final six (6) players

Thursday, Dec 13th – Cozumel, Mexico – Tournament Day Five (Grand Finale): Poker room opens 7:15 pm.

Royal Poker Tour final table starts at 9:00 pm in Studio B, located on Deck 4. The six (6) remaining players will return to play in the final table.

Friday, Dec 14th – Sea Day – $500 High Roller Tournament: Poker room opens 12:00 pm. Royal Poker Tournament completed. Cash games and additional tournaments will be available.

Raffles will be provided to all spectators, every time a player is eliminated during the Grand Finale.

 

The prize pool for the final will be awarded as follow:

1st Place $50,000 and Trophy

2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th

Place $25,000 and Trophy Place $15,000 and Trophy Place $10,000

Place $8,000

Place $6,000 Place $4,000 Place $3,000 Place $1,850

10th

11th – 60th - TBA

[mtsnd1900]

I played in one of these on the Freedom of the Seas - won the daily satellite to the final table where the winner was going to get a cruise. The cruise was set cruise to play against other winners from other sailings. No changing for a different cruise, no selling it, no substitutes, etc. The date of that prize cruise was impossible for me to make. Think I went to the felt for 5th place.

 

A better option is to do something like a cruise that is designed around poker - google "card player cruises" and see the top results. a particular company specializes in getting 100-200 players together on set sailings, reserving the conference center and running cash games, tournaments, and seminars throughout the week - this is the best way to go if you are looking for real poker games while at sea.

[1cat4jan]

Blackjack tournaments had cash prizes. I haven't seen a free cruise prize in the Casino on any of our recent cruises.

 

DH waits for later rounds in the tournament, so he knows how much he has to win before he even starts playing. That knowledge affects the way he bets.

[the rev]

I won the Dec. 7, 2013 cruise when we were on a cruise in Sept. 2012 on the Enchantment of the Seas to Bermuda. I guess the 2012 tournament was full because we were awarded free booking as well as a paid entry into the Royal Poker Tour Tournament.

 

Yes, it wasn't really poker like you experience in the 'World Series of Poker', but there were enough buy-ins and re-buys that there was enough for the free cruise and entry fee. Second prize only got like $150 if I recall correctly.

 

I called and got the info from the 2012 tourney, which they said would probably be pretty much the same for the 2013. I've pasted it in below...

 

Oops! I just realized the prize pool I posted from 2012 was messed up... here's the proper prizes:

 

1st Place $50,000 and Trophy

2nd Place $25,000 and Trophy

3rd Place $15,000 and Trophy

4th Place $10,000

5th Place $8,000

6th Place $6,000

7th Place $4,000

8th Place $3,000

9th Place $1,850

10th Place $1,300

11th – 60th - TBA

[Drunkard of the Seas]

interesting info! ill be taking my shot at it next week.

-Roger

[Magnetchief]

I am a keen poker player, play in 2 different leagues each month.

Was very excited to see the tournament on the Allure last July. That was until I actually sat down to play. It was more akin to bingo than poker. Final prize was a cruise. Considering the money that they took in over the week it was a rip off. As mentioned earlier if your a regular poker player then you will be disappointed. If your just after a vacation gamble then you might enjoy it.

Better would be a private game in the of the bars. Not sure they would allow this. I ended up on the video poker. Big rake for the ship. No, outrageous rake for the ship but it was fun.

[johneeo]

I made final table on the Navigator last December, went all in with 4 kings. The other player called and flipped 5, 6, 8 & 9 suited, flopped the 7, talk about a bad beat. At the casino here in Fla. that would have one me about $10,000 or more in the bad beat pot.

 

 

Last time I was in Atlantic City the bad beat pool was over $400,000.

 

And the odds of that happening are probably about 1 billion to one.:eek:

[ChiBil7]

I was on Oasis of the Seas in December 2012 and won a free cruise for the Dec 7, 2013 sailing. I was on a holiday cruise so there were a lot of people playing the qualifiers. Ultimately the top 3 people won cruises and 4th place took about $1800 cash.

 

The first step is to play in a $100 rebuy tournament (usually max. 6 people as we played them at the blackjack table). Rebuys are only for the first 4 levels. I forget the starting chip counts, but the blinds go up every 10 or 15 minutes so there is a good amount of luck involved. If you win your table you earn a set at the final table which is played on the final sea day. Each person brings their ending chip stack to the final table with them.

 

This is where it got very suspect for me. 11 people qualified for the final table during my cruise and they had all of us playing at ONE TABLE! The blinds increased every 10 minutes which made it very difficult to play real poker. By the time the button went around the table once the blinds had increased 4 times. Also - with the lack of auto-shufflers, half the blind round was spent by the dealer shuffling and dealing the cards. Luckilly I had a good seat draw and was able to play hands in the earlier blind levels.

 

The final table was over in about an hour. Despite being able to make it to the top 3 and win the cruise, I was very upset about this structure. There eas basically no value for the $100 we all spent (and some people spent more with re-buys and add ons) Not to mention the time we all devoted to play in the prelim rounds and the final table. It didn't tell me that Royal Caribbean valued their cutomers' money enough to provide a better structure or at least put some more planning or thought into the tourney. They should at least have the final table structured differently.

 

From reading this thread, it sounds like the tourney that is played on the Dec 7 cruise will have a better structure. I'm happy about this as it will allow people to play real poker rather rely on pure luck. I hope to see/meet some of you that will also be there.

 

Here are some key hands in case anyone is interested - I caught pocket aces twice and got paid off both times. Also, I had a major suck out on another player when he had pocket jacks and I had A9 on a 9 high flop. It all went in on the flop and I caught a 9 on the turn to eliminate him. The other hand I remember is folding pocket Jacks preflop on the very first hand of the final table. I opened for a standard preflop raise, someone in late position re-raised for about 4x my bet and the then the big blind shoved all in which would have been about 75% of my stack. I though really hard and mucked. The late position player called the all in. Late position player showed AQ and big blind showed 88. The flop came AQ8! AQ couldnt improve and the big blind doubled up leaving the late position player extremely short stacked. She was eliminated a couple hands later. I made a good lay down. Had I called, it pretty much would have sealed my fate (with this structure). If not for those lucky hands and good decisons I probably would not have won the cruise.

 

Good luck everyone!

Edited March 22, 2013 by ChiBil7

[Shmua123]

The first step is to play in a $100 rebuy tournament (usually max. 6 people as we played them at the blackjack table). Rebuys are only for the first 4 levels. I forget the starting chip counts, but the blinds go up every 10 or 15 minutes so there is a good amount of luck involved. If you win your table you earn a set at the final table which is played on the final sea day. Each person brings their ending chip stack to the final table with them.

 

This is where it got very suspect for me. 11 people qualified for the final table during my cruise and they had all of us playing at ONE TABLE! The blinds increased every 10 minutes which made it very difficult to play real poker. By the time the button went around the table once the blinds had increased 4 times. Also - with the lack of auto-shufflers, half the blind round was spent by the dealer shuffling and dealing the cards. Luckilly I had a good seat draw and was able to play hands in the earlier blind levels.

 

The final table was over in about an hour. Despite being able to make it to the top 3 and win the cruise, I was very upset about this structure. There eas basically no value for the $100 we all spent (and some people spent more with re-buys and add ons) Not to mention the time we all devoted to play in the prelim rounds and the final table. It didn't tell me that Royal Caribbean valued their cutomers' money enough to provide a better structure or at least put some more planning or thought into the tourney. They should at least have the final table structured differently.

 

From reading this thread, it sounds like the tourney that is played on the Dec 7 cruise will have a better structure. I'm happy about this as it will allow people to play real poker rather rely on pure luck. I hope to see/meet some of you that will also be there.!

 

Be glad that each of your qualifying rounds only had about 6 people. On my FOS cruise, each of the 7 qualifying rounds had 8+ people (mine had 10). Only one cruise was rewarded at the end with 2nd place getting like $600 and 3rd getting $300. I won though so I can't complain. :) see ya in dec

[Deeliteful]

I won on the Mariner last year but not enough players so got cash (not much!) no cruise. Will try gain next month. Enjoy playing on a cruise but some games can be a bit of crap shoot!

[reney313]

My BIL played on Mariner in November 2013. it was $100 entry fee. He made it to the final table and they said they were 2 or 3 people shy to go for the free cruise.

 

I can't remember if he came in 2nd or 3rd. I think 3rd but I do remember clearly that he won $700. In my opinion, that was better than a free cruise as there was no 1099 to fill out (and I don't know if they would have wanted to pay on the full suggested retail value), not to mention they are currently low on cash so it helped pay for their onboard account for the 4 of them!

 

What was amazing to me is he has never played a "live" game of poker in a casino before. He's only played online. I thought he did pretty well :)

[CruzinSuz]

One of our cruise mates has won 4 times. 2 free cruises and 2 cash pots due to the lack of of players. He'll be playing again 12/7/13 on OA, we'll be wishing him the best. He didn't do so well the first time on Allure.

Wish I knew how to play! Even though the cruise is not totally free, I wouldn't say no to paying for the tips and port charges. It's a worthwhile prize to be sure.

[DevonianCruiser]

I was lucky enough to win last weekend. I've just seen on another cruise member site that someone sold their package for $2,500. The prize states tht it is transferrable to someone else so that has got me thinking. Airfares from the UK are expensive for a week, so I may consider doing the same . . . or I may try and bluff my way to $50K :-)

[Drunkard of the Seas]

congrats again! if you actually sell it for that much ill regret not making more of an effort to win it myself. ;)

-Roger

[DevonianCruiser]

congrats again! if you actually sell it for that much ill regret not making more of an effort to win it myself. ;)

-Roger

 

Apparently Roger Crown and Anchor were offering it for $3000 and the people who sold it were asking for around $2500. I presume whoever bought it offered slightly less. I'll probably go a sits a good chance of winning something as well as a holiday, but who knows if I get a good offer :-)