Carnival Cruise Poker

[Death Valley]

So I am back from my cruise.... we all had a good time, though I think Id rather just fly to one of the islands and stay 5 nights at a hotel rather than taking the cruise where you get very little time on each island.

The poker was fun and happily they had 1-2 NL. It was a video poker table
by pokertek. It worked pretty well with only one bad programming flaw (If I bet 20 and someone went all in for 22 it reopened betting for me when it came back to me).

The players were very bad as was expected, there were maybe 2 other competent players on the cruise. There were also a lot of nits who I didnt think were very good, they played way too tight and overvalued their one pair hands.
The worst part about the game was that the min buy in was $50 and 60% bought in for that amount and the rest bought in for 100 one guy would buy in for 200 but he didnt play much. I bought in for 100 usually so not to appear sharky and added up to max 200 when others had that much.

The games generally ran on and off btwn 1 pm and 5pm, but only really filled up after second dinner which meant about 1030 and ran till about 2-3am. Over the 8 day cruise I won 1500, the cashier who cashed out my account said it was the most she ever saw anyone win [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] (who knows it may have been her 1st cruise) I was happy with the amount though as it covered all the on board and island expenses

[mephisto]

Tell me more about the video poker table as they will introduce them to our casino in the fall. Is it like playing online poker? Are the hands per hour comparable to online poker 1 tabling? Did you discern any live 'electronic table' tells from the fish? You seem like a competent poker player so any info you can give will help lots. Thanks for the report.

[Death Valley]

It is more like playing live than it is playing online. You get to talk with real people and there are certainly tells. aside from the usual tells, there was one glaring tell almost everyone had, they looked towards the section of the screen that they wanted to click on as soon as it was their turn, so they would look at the fold button but then decide to call, this made bluffing the next street very easy. as for the speed it was faster than live with a dealer, but slower than online, id guesstimate aprox 40 hands an hour. There were no act in turn buttons, and you still had to wait for idiots to realize it was their turn (with no dealer to tell them), also every so often people had moderate to severe problems clicking on the screen.
This table was set to rake $1 at 6/16/26/36/46/56 for a $6 max (17% max), it also dropped even with no flop but I assume that is all the casinos choice.
Of course one of the biggest advantages over "live play" was that there was no dealer to tip

[tribet]

Death Valley thanks for this report. I look forward to my trip from Miami next month. Just 1 question was it always 1/2 no limit for the whole trip?

[pismeyer]

I've never seen one of the video poker tables until looking at the picture in your post.

Just by looking at the table layout and the way the main middle screen area where the community cards are shown, how are the players protecting/hiding there whole cards with there own personal screen?

Do you use your hands to cover them so the person next to you does not see them?

P [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[MrBrightside]

Yea.. looking at the pic, this was the first question that popped into my head too...

[zgall1]

When you place your hands over the hole cards, they become exposed. However, in my experience, this feature doesn't work perfectly and it can get irritating lifting your hands off the screen and putting them back down multiple times so that you can see your cards.

[pismeyer]

Yes....scratching this type of game off the list now...

P [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Death Valley]

To expose the cards you just shield the lower right corner of the screen with your hand (which they say will show your hand) in actuality you should shield the area then tap it with your finger. If nobody is directly sitting next to you, you dont have to shield your cards just tap them, as the images on your screen cant be seen from more than 1 seat away.

It was 1-2 NL the entire trip