Pacific Empress
Our tournament ship. Eighteen tables across two decks, a dedicated cashier cage and the glass-walled Sky Salon for the final table.
12 decks
800 guests
214 events produced
Coral Sea · Tasman Sea ·
Whitsundays
Licensed dealers & tournament
directors
Brisbane International Cruise
Terminal
Tables for 12 to 800 players
214 events produced
Coral Sea · Tasman Sea ·
Whitsundays
Licensed dealers & tournament
directors
Brisbane International Cruise
Terminal
Tables for 12 to 800 players
The concept
An evening that only exists offshore
A poker night on land is logistics. A poker night at sea is theatre. Once the gangway lifts, your guests step into a room that cannot be walked into, filmed from the street or interrupted. The ship becomes the venue, the horizon the backdrop.
We hold the charters, the dealers, the chips, the kitchen and the licence paperwork — you hold the guest list.
How we work
Est. Brisbane 2019
Departure point
Pinkenba, Brisbane — boarding 17:30 sharp
The fleet
Three liners, three kinds of evening
Coral Duchess
The mid-size liner for corporate fields and celebrations. Ten tables, showroom stage and a wraparound promenade for the break between levels.
9 decks
420 guests
Whitsunday Star
A boutique vessel for high-roller salons and family celebrations. Four tables, one chef's counter and a sunset deck made for the champion's photo.
6 decks
90 guests
0
Tournament tables
0
Licensed dealers
0
Events at sea
0
Home ports
Formats
Poker, dealt the way your crowd plays it
From a slow social shuffle to a freezeout with real pressure — pick a format and we tune the blind structure, the room and the service rhythm around it.
Signature Poker Night
The classic. Six levels of No-Limit Hold'em, welcome chips for late arrivals and a trophy ceremony on the foredeck.
From A$ 4,900High-Roller Tournament
Deep stacks, slow blinds, a private salon and dealers who have worked final tables in Macau and Vegas.
From A$ 18,500Corporate Casino Evening
Team tables, branded felts and a leaderboard your CFO will actually care about. Zero-stakes fun-money options included.
From A$ 7,200Themed Casino Night
Monte Carlo whites, Havana nights or full noir. Roulette and blackjack join the card room for a complete casino floor.
From A$ 6,800
Between the hands
See this season's line-up
The room never goes quiet
Cards are the spine of the evening, not the whole of it. Jazz trios on the promenade, a close-up magician working the rail, DJs on the sky deck after the bubble bursts — the programme breathes with the tournament clock.
0
Shows produced on board
0
Resident artists & DJs
L'Acoustics point-source rigs on every ship — tuned for open decks, engineered for speech over surf.
Recent evenings
Nights our clients still talk about
Fintech summit · 560 guests
The Ledger Cup
A Brisbane fintech took the whole ship for its annual summit: keynote by day, a 62-table charity freezeout by night, A$ 41,000 raised for Surf Life Saving Queensland.
Anniversary · 48 guests
Thirty Years, One River Card
A golden-anniversary charter on Whitsunday Star. Grandchildren dealt the ceremonial first hand; dinner for forty-eight followed the final table.
Law firm · 220 guests
The Barristers' Bounty
Partners played bounties on their own juniors — every knockout pushed the firm's end-of-year bonus pool higher. Morale, apparently, at an all-time high.
Transparent pricing
Rough out your budget in thirty seconds
Charter budgets shouldn't need three phone calls. Move the sliders, pick a format, and get a working number before you ever speak to us.
- Charter, tables, dealers, chips and trophy included
- Catering and beverage packages priced per guest
- No hidden marina, fuel or security surcharges
Pick a format
Guests60
Nights at sea1
Working estimate
A$ 8,100
Where we sail
Departures across the Australian coast
Brisbane is home. Our liners also stage in Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns through the year, so a tournament can follow your conference rather than the other way around.
Brisbane
Home port. Pinkenba terminal, 25 min from the CBD, parking at the gangway.
Weekly departuresSydney
White Bay and Circular Quay rotations. Harbour nights under the bridge.
Monthly seriesMelbourne
Station Pier charters timed around the spring racing and conference calendar.
SeasonalCairns
Winter escapes to the Reef — poker at dusk, snorkelling before the first shuffle.
Jun – Sep
Routes & port schedule
Swell forecasts
checked 72h before every sailing
The crew
Meet the full team
Run by people who live for the river
Marcus Whitfield
Founder & Tournament Director
Elena Vasquez
Head of Production
Capt. James Rourke
Fleet Liaison, Master Mariner
Priya Anand
Guest Experience Director
Our clients stopped checking their phones about the time the ship cleared the Brisbane River. By the second level they were playing like they'd known each other for years.
David Chen
Managing Partner, Merlot Capital
Beyond the felt
Add-ons for the evenings that need more
Heli transfers
Land your VIPs directly on the stern pad, forty minutes after they leave the office.
Cinematic coverage
Drone pilots and a three-camera card-room crew cutting a highlights reel before you dock.
Ocean fireworks
A licensed pyro barge fires the finale while the winner lifts the trophy on the foredeck.
Branded felts
Custom-dyed table cloths, embossed chips and a trophy engraved before the first hand.
Booking
From first call to first shuffle
01
Brief & date
Tell us the occasion, headcount and the mood. We hold a provisional sailing while you decide.
02
Design the floor
Table count, formats, menus and staging are locked in a single proposal with real numbers.
03
Confirm & invite
A 30% deposit secures the ship. We send boarding passes your guests will actually keep.
04
Sail & play
Gangway up at 18:00. First hand at 19:00. Trophy on the foredeck before midnight.
Walk it first
Tour the floor before you book it
Every client gets a guided 3D walkthrough of the exact deck plan for their night — table positions, bar queues, sightlines from the rail, where the sunset hits at 19:40.
Book a virtual walkthrough
The Captain's Club
Membership for players who come back
Three tiers — Gold, Platinum and Admiral — built around the things returning guests actually ask for: first call on sailing dates, salon invitations, a private dealer on retainer and a cellar allocation that travels with you.
- Priority booking window, 60 days before public release
- Complimentary upgrades on cabins and dining tiers
- Two guests per season into the High-Roller Salon
Sea keepers
We leave the ocean as we found it
0
Shore-power hookup while berthed in Brisbane
0
Coral fragments planted with Reef Restoration partners
0
Single-use plastics on any of our charters since 2022
Good to know
Questions we hear at the gangway
The short version of what guests ask before their first sailing. The full archive lives on our FAQ page.
All questions
None at all. Roughly a third of players on a typical
corporate night have never played a hand. Our dealers run
a twenty-minute learn-to-play session before the first
level, and a roaming floor team answers rules questions
all evening.
Our events run as private social games and promotional
tournaments under Queensland's Charitable and Non-Profit
Gaming rules where applicable. No cash changes hands at
the tables — guests play for trophies, prizes and bragging
rights, and we handle the compliance paperwork.
We watch the Bureau of Meteorology marine forecast from 72
hours out. If conditions exceed comfort limits, the
evening moves to an inside deck or reschedules at no
penalty — your contract spells out both options before you
sign.
Yes — felts, chips, trophies, boarding passes and even the
funnel light-show can carry your identity. Our design team
prepares proofs within five working days of your deposit.
Eight to twelve weeks is comfortable for large charters;
boutique evenings on Whitsunday Star occasionally slot in
with three weeks' notice. December weekends sell out by
late August, every year without fail.
Set sail
The river card is waiting.
The river card is waiting.
So is the river.
Tell us the date and the headcount. We'll hold the ship, sharpen the dealers and chill the champagne.