Well, I ventured down to the coast the first week of April and planned to attend an event on the SunCruz Casino that sails from Little River South Carolina. It was actually quite nice and well run.
The ship sails twice daily but only has No Limit Hold'em Tournaments on Tuesday and Friday. In the poker room, the cash game of choice that plays at every sailing is $5/$10 Limit Hold'em. But our friend who posts his comments anonymously about how 'unfair' the 1/20 rake from the local poker rooms is would really be upset over the SunCruz rake..... $1/$10 up to a maximum of $5.... so any pot that hits $50, gets raked $5. That's twice what the local rooms rake. And you don't have to drive to the coast for it, but you may have to undergo that pesky cavity search..... At any rate, that's another story.
The tournament.... the Tuesday Tournament is a $220 buy-in which will get you 1500 in chips and for another $20 immediately at the start of the tournament, you can purchase an additional 500 chips. The house rake is $20 of the $220 and the entire additional $20 purchase goes to the dealer(s). Tony is the pit boss and a very nice guy who was very helpful and made certain that everything ran smoothly. The cruise leaves the dock right around 11:00am and it's about a 45 minute ride before any gambling action begins. There were approximately 18 people there for the tournament and major issue number one arises quickly. Rather than play two tables of 9, they start one table of 12 players and as someone busts out, they insert one of the six players that are waiting to play. I don't like it and neither did the other players at the table. There's so many issues with it, I wouldn't know where to begin. Tony said that because they didn't have many players sign up that he had let a dealer leave. There is a sign-up board just to the left of the entrance when you first board the boat for you to register for the tournament, but over half the people who were in the tournament didn't sign up there. At any rate, I really would like to see them modify that strategy. The other concern was about smoking.... I've been on a couple of these casino cruises in the past and in the gaming area, the smoke was pretty unbearable. I am happy to report that the day that I was there, there were very few smokers in the poker room. So they do permit smoking everywhere on the ship and it'll be hit or miss as to how many smokers are there on any given day.
The good news for me is that I knew where the poker room was on the ship and went straight to it once I got on board and paid to play and was put into the first 12 players and got a seat rather than having to wait for the first bust-out. They didn't race the button, they started it on position 1 at the table. Again, a little strange, but since I was in seat 11, I was OK with it. Blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 15 minutes. I missed a golden opportunity in the first hand. Because of where they started the button, I'm in late position and pick up pocket 2s. There are several limpers and decided to limp as well. The button raised the 25/50 blinds to 400! There are 3 callers and while I'm late to act, I am feeling that I must be behind and don't want to risk 25% of my stack in the first hand on deuces, so I fold. The first card off the deck..... a deuce! It checked to the big blind who bet another 400 and there were 2 callers. Had I played I would have raised and probably would have at least isolated the big blind or, even more likely, would have taken the pot right there. Instead, they check it the rest of the way and the big blind wins with AK, nut-no-pair. LOL.
I ended up going out on the bubble.... who would have thunk it! I did play in the $5/$10 Limit game between there and our return to US waters and was able to get most of my tournament entry fee back.
All-in-all, not bad.... I'll definitely do it again. You do need to be aware of the very short nature of the tournament in determining which hands to play and when -AND- when you do get a hand, you do need to be aggressive.
By the way, there is a boarding fee of $5 or $10, but if you do a little looking around you'll find there are some passes to be had in the local newspaper or in some of the discount coupon books found all over the coast. Also while you are waiting to reach the waters where play is permitted, go to the customer service desk and sign up for their Player's Club which will get you on FREE from now on and depending on which games you play while on board could earn you other freebies.
The cruise schedule is as follows:
DAY CRUISE
Monday - Friday
11:00 am to 4:15pm
Saturday, Sunday & Holidays
12:00 pm to 5:15pm
EVENING CRUISE
Sunday - Thursday
7:00 pm to 12:15 am
Friday & Saturday
7:00 pm to 1:15 am
For more information, sail to http://www.suncruzcasino.com/
One more tidbit of information for you.... the local government is in the process of holding public hearings over the next few weeks to determine if they are going to implement some sort of "boarding" tax -or- if they are going to stop the casino cruise ships all together. I'll do a little research and post some of the articles for you.
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