Royal Caribbean Poker Tournament

[Chrispy560]

Hi All. Going on my first cruise in a couple of weeks on the Adventure of the Seas and was wondering what the typical cost for the poker tournaments are, and from your experience are they enjoyable? Are you playing for cash, or I believe I saw you can win a free cruise...? Thanks!

[WAAAYTOOO]

The Royal Poker Tour (RPT) satellite tournaments are held on all of the RC ships during most, if not all, cruises (not sure about the "shorty" cruises).  Depending upon how many entrants they get (more importantly, how much MONEY they generate from the satellites), they will either give away a free cruise and entrance into the RPT "finals" which are held every year the first or second week in December, or they will give away cash prizes if they do not earn enough entrant money to fully fund the free cruise and tournament entry.

The cost of entering the satellite tournaments varies from ship-to-ship.  Originally the entrance fee was always $100 plus any re-buys.  A few years ago they cut the entrance fee back to $75 plus rebuys (hoping to entice more people to participate, I presume) and then on the last cruise we were on, we noted that it had gone back up to $100 so it should be either $75 or $100, I would guess.  You can enter as many of the satellite tournaments you want (with a separate entrance fee, of course) and there are opportunities to rebuy up to a certain point in the satellite tournament but only 1 person will win the free cruise at the satellite finals, which are generally held the last sea night of the cruise.  If they award cash in lieu of the free cruise, they will pay between 2-4 places, depending on how many entrants they had and how much money they have to distribute.

If you are going on a cruise in the near future, my guess is that your satellite tournaments will be working towards the December 2019 event.  They generally cut off the date for the December event a number of months before December.