Mini Trip Report Carnival Poker Pro

[Sanlmar]

Took a 5 day cruise out of Miami on Carnival to the Bahamas. Great weather. I always enjoy them. 2-3000 people all looking to get ripped and have a good time. Food, weather, good shows.

Took a quick spin through the casino. As expected all the table games were terrible. Blackjack tables paid 6:5 on a blackjack, for instance.

Saw one Poker Pro table. One lonely $1/$2 game. Railed it for a while. I have never seen Poker Pro in the flesh before.

Decided to sit in. No cash. You deposit via your cruise "Sail & Sign" card. Multi purpose card used for on board purchases, ID & room key.

Players use these cards to make selections on the Poker Pro screen. Input is far quicker and precise using the card edge than your finger. So the cards are obvious to everyone. I began scouting the cards and cypher'd out who the heavy hitters were (gold VIP etc).

I saw players with a little "Cheers" square printed on the card. I asked the player what that was. "I paid $208 up front for up to 15 free drinks a day. Lol. BINGO

Cruises are all about drinking. The cruise personal are hustling the $8 drinks hard. Yet the casino manager was constantly offering the table free drinks. Unheard of. Unlike land based casinos - there are no free drinks in the casino.

So the table is hammered and friendly. Couple heavy hitters (clearly identifiable) playing well under their comfort zone. Couple min buyin nits.

Poker Pro is the nuts.
No dealer fumbling with cards. Hands per hour were great for live poker. Play was lightning fast.
No tipping the dealer every winning hand.
Did I mention free drinks?
No fumbling with chips & cash.
No dopes holding up game buying chips from dealer.
All the tells and chatter and fun of live play

When you left table, you cashed out winnings back to the card. When you sat back in - later in the day or whatever - you could buy in with your huge stack

This game was playing pretty big for $1/$2 by day 3. Loose. Friendly. Lots of awful "I know I'm beat but I'll call you anyway"

I never had more fun playing poker in my life!. I can't put my finger on it but my impression was that Poker Pro on cruises were a poor play. I am back in a heart beat.

The table game dealers live on board ship. Food, housing, salaries. Poker Pro is guaranteed bank for comparatively little expense. Casino manager was pimping the poker table with free drinks etc. Clearly, they want this presence to grow.

Hope it does.

[lol wow]

did your cell phone company try to charge you like 2k for data when you got like 1 second out of the us

[Sanlmar]

did your cell phone company try to charge you like 2k for data when you got like 1 second out of the us

No shit. Been hammered before. Cancelled international roaming, shut off phone and passed on the $129 for wifi.

[lol wow]

i got hit for 6 k in 2013 and i called before hand BAE LIKES HIS PANDORA but it was a hassle getting it done

[Texter]

I could never figure out the rake on the poker pro machine, and no one I asked could tell me.

[Dan Druff]

The rake on those machines is terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible. Like they will rake some pots $25.

I determined it's -EV even if the players are awful, which they actually were when I played it in 2009 and 2011 on a Princess cruise.

One thing you can do (presuming Carnival works the same way as Princess) is just keep buying in chips, and then trade them for cash. Then use your credit card to pay the cruise bill, and you will earn points/miles/whatever. This worked because there wasn't a fee for buying chips on this machine, while all other machines would charge you 3%.