shakes the clown

yeah, that's something i need to remember - i love stealing pots. i also need to remember that it's +EV if as described here and on 2+2... some of these rivers make me go on life tilt :/

the fact that you know about 2+2 means you should do great on the ship. Here are a couple pointers I learned from my cruise...

-lots of calling stations so don't even think of trying to buy pots. You will get called down with anyone sporting bottom pair.

-unless you have a monster starting hand, its almost pointless to raise preflop if you are doing so to chase players from the hand. In a 1/2 game even if you raise to $10 you will still get several callers. I went with the limp and pray strategy which leads me to my next point. Case in point, I lost one hand with pocket aces because I raised 5x bb preflop and had a caller. Flop came out 8-3-3 so I bet it, figuring that no one with a 3 would've called my pre flop raise. Ended up losing to a guy who called my raise with 10-3. But it was suited, which became a running joke all week amongst the players at the table who knew what they were doing.

-unlike a real game, once you make the nuts or near nuts you can be guaranteed to have at least one caller no matter how much you bet.

My first night in the casino I lost about $100, each night after that I improved and brought in $300 on the last night and could've easily been alot more but I checked down several hands with friends of mine who I didn't want to take money from. Also lost out on $50 when some drunk idiot tried to string bet a $50 raise with a pair of 8s while I had a set of Kings.

Just be prepared to change up how you normally play is the best advice I can give you. The last night one of my friends lamented that she would've won a hand if she played her 9-5 and I told her that for $2 you might as well play 9-5 every time. To make a point, I played it the next time I got it and won a big pot with a straight. I played it 3 more times that night and won every time.

On the other hand, I lost every single hand all week where I had AK.

10% up to 10 for 1/2 is still kind of awful. i'll report in what conquest's was.

yeah, it is what it is. Captive audience and all. I still managed to do quite well at the table despite the rake.

The thing that will kill you more than the rake is all the calling stations on the table. Once you figure out that you really can't buy any pots its pretty easy to do well. Took me a couple sessions to fully grasp that.

10% up to 15? jesus.

That's for the 2/5 game, its capped at $10 for the 1/2. And it only applies post flop.

forgot to mention the rake was 10% with a $10 cap.

And there were plenty of people making mistakes such as folding out of turn and there were also a ton of string bets that were disallowed. I lost $50 on a hand because some drunk idiot called my $50 and tried to string bet a $50 raise. He had a pair of 8s and I had a set of kings. he actually got mad at the dealer for this because he reasoned that I migth've folded to his raise lol. I told him I would've gotten rug burn from the felt trying to get my money in quick enough :)

You guys have done a great job of limiting my expectations for playing poker on the Adventure of the Seas next month. UGH!!!

I just returned from a cruise on Adventure on the Seas and the poker ended up being great! First of all, they had LIVE DEALERS!!!!! The first night there I entered a $60 sit and go, we had 7 players and it was a joke. 1000 starting chips and the blinds went up every 10 minutes. Throw in a slow dealer and basically you had about 10 hands to double up or else you were basically done. Not coincidentally, that was the last sit and go anyone entered for the rest of the week.

The next day I played in the Royal Poker Tournament which is a $75 buy in with rebuys and an add on. The winner advanced to a final table where the prize was a free cruise next year on the Allure. A whopping 4 people signed up for the first one and i won it without using any rebuys or add ons. The rest of the week no one signed up. I became buddies with eveyrone in teh casino and on the last day they made a huge tongue in cheek presentation declaring me the RPT champ of the cruise and giving me a trophy and shirt as well as a cash prize of $300. $3000 was needed for the cruiise prize to be eligible.

But, the best part of the cruise was the cash games. It took me 2 days to get one going. Notice I didn't say the casino, I said me becaue I was the one who went out recruiting and rounding up players. We finally got a 1/2 game going and by the end of our first night of playing we had a waiting list and an audience of people watching. every night for the rest of the cruise we would get a game going at 9pm and go till they made us stop at 1:30-2am.

We had about 10-15 regulars and everyone knew each other by the end. It was very friendly and I made several good friends at the table who I plan to stay in contact with. It took a day or two to figure out who could play and who couldn't. First day I tried to buy some pots which was a big mistake because there are several donkeys who refuse to fold no matter what they have. First night I lost close to $100. Second night I was up $200 and then gave it all back on 2 hands to teh same guy. 3rd night I ended up winning about $100. And the 4th nigth I won $300. If the cruise had gone on a few more days I have no doubt I could've won enough to pay for my cruise.

Basically I learned that there was little point to raising pre flop unless you had a monster because you weren't gonna chase anyone anyway. Lots of limping and praying which ended up working out fine because even when you made the nuts there was still gonna be some donkey at the table who would call you down. once I figured this out it was easy pickings.

THe mood at the table was great all week, everyone got along and had fun. I ended up becoming good friends with a guy who played in the WSOP and he gave me lots of good pointers for live poker.

The only down side was that the game became SO friendly that by the end I lost a lot of value because I didn't want to take money from some of the people I really liked. I ended up checking down the nuts a few times because I didn't want to stick it to someone.

At one point one of my buddies went all in for about $150 pre-flop and another of our friends folded AK because he didn't want to take the guy's money.

But there were enough donkeys popping in and out that everyone was able to make money.

Yeah I can see where that would get really annoying. That's why I'd rather play a tourny cause at least there if you get screwed over you only lose your buy in.

What's this stuff I've been reading about the games being dealt on a machine as opposed to with dealers? Do you even get real cards or is it like playing video poker?

Hi, I'm looking to take a cruise in December, most likely on Royal Carribean. My girifriend and I were leaning towards Freedom of the Seas.

But, we are both avid texas hold em players, tournys moreso than cash games. Does anyone know how the poker is on that ship and if they offer daily tournys?

If not, can you recommend some other ships for this purpose?

Hi, me and my girlfriend are thinking about taking a cruise on this ship in December. I read through much of this thread, but didn't see anything written about the casino. Specifically, is there texas holdem poker available? I've seen some information about a possible texas holdem tournament, but can't find anything concrete to confirm that.

So, does anyone know if there is poker available in the casino and if it is every night or just a special occassion type of thing?

Thanks!