Those who play Royal Hold’em poker are not necessarily descendants of the gods. In reality, the game is very similar to Limit Texas Holdem, and also very different. In Royal Hold’em only high cards (ten, jack, queen, king, ace) are dealt from a deck of 20 cards. This certainly makes it a real deck. Due to the smaller deck, the game consists of a maximum of six players.
The game
The standard limit format applies here where players are dealt two hole cards to try and structure the final hand along with five community cards. Hand values are ranked in the same way as in more standard poker variants, but the only color counted is the royal (no surprise here), no other color counts, and interestingly, the standard pairs they count for nothing. So everyone goes after royal flushes, pocket poker, full house, straights and two pair to get to the nuts.
The pinnacle of Royal Hold’em strategy
Since there are no low cards in the game, high hands rule supreme, making total hands very high quality. Selecting only valuable cards is paramount to successful competition. At a minimum, to stay in the game, a player would have to have ace-jack, which is still a iffy issue. Most players believe that the optimal hand is a pair of aces and ace-king is no slouch either. Ace-queen and pair of jacks can be a weak bid depending on one’s position.
Which brings us to position: High hand values make position an extremely important factor in staying competitive in the game. A player must consider that anyone who raises is in possession of a pair of kings or aces, and if his position is good, he can accurately know the hands of those players who have stayed in the game. If a player’s hand teeters on the edge, he should stay in the game only if he has a good position or if he is in the small blind without an early raise. High pocket pairs are ubiquitous in Royal Hold’em, so players should understand that the odds of hitting three of a kind are at least one in three hands, considering the alterations in the cards in your hand. If another player is betting aggressively against your hand of a pair of aces, it is probably wise to think that he has aces or a pair of kings, thus simplifying the task of identifying the type of hands he has.
Each player is looking for a draw of three of a kind or more, so you might think that the deck has 15 cards that everyone is drawing from, for example a deck of 20 cards minus two hole cards plus three community cards. Power hands should always be played hard and pot odds should be calculated before proceeding with your bets. If your opponent(s) also come strong on the turn, you should think he has a set or more. As a sample hand, you have two kings, the flop shows an unsuited king-jack-ten. Your hand is in second place as the ace-queen trumps yours. There’s a good chance your opponent will have ace-king or jack-jack, so you need to worry about the number of outs for a full house or the odds of your opponent having a straight depending on your position or betting structure.
