Royal Holdem

eddo31 · #1 11-04-05, 01:05 AM

Has anyone else seen the holdem variation royal holdem on UB right now?

apparently it is played the same way as holdem is, except that it is only with a 20 card deck. AKQJT are the only ranks in the deck.

this means that the worst possible hand will be a broadway straight, and the pot will be chopped. more often than not, the board will pair, and full houses and four of a kind will be in play. interestingly, there will be few flushes (although all will be royals), because there are only five of each suit in the deck.

i'm not sure what the strategy for this game seems to be, but if you can get a good basic strategy right away, i would think that there is a huge potential for profit. i doubt that most players will be making the adjustments necessary to win in this game, as starting hand requirements will have to be completely re-evaluated.

the pot sizes in the game are pretty big right now, and i would expect them to stay that way. i dont think that i will be playing this at all, as i dont really have a good grip on exactly what the right strategy would be, but it coul dbe a pretty amusing way to play.

Talking Poker · #2 11-04-05, 01:20 AM

Sounds interesting. And you're right - probably loads of dead money playing right now. I may check it out.

As for basic strategy, remember - tight is usually right. I'm guessing you need at least a decent set to proceed with a hand after the flop...

eddo31 · #3 11-04-05, 01:30 AM

i think this is about right. straights are worthless. flushes are fairly unlikely.

full houses and quads will be all over the place in this game.

the tough thing to realize though is that TT and JJ are marginal hands in this game, and you would only play them in the hope that you hit quads.

probability wise, you should get dealt AA once every 32 hands, and it is likely that every hand someone has a pocket pair.

this game appears to be nuts.

Talking Poker · #4 11-04-05, 01:38 AM

This actually shouldn't be very hard to figure out (preflop). I'll guess a reasonable system would be to only play AA, KK, and maybe QQ/AK preflop. Fold everything else. This may not be the optimal system, but I bet it would be profitable.

Is this limit or NL, btw?

Also, it would be possible to have as low as 2 pair, right? Say you had AJ and your opponent had AT and the board was KKQQA.

That would mean you would be chopping with AAKKQ, right? Hell, you could each have JJ and TT with that board and only have 2 pair (you'd both be playing the board).

eddo31 · #5 11-04-05, 01:45 AM

yeah, you are right, you could have two pair. no that it would be a particularly comfortable situation, but you could take it down with that type of hand.

it is a limit game.

i decided to play a little bit of .05/.10, and it is just a strange game to get a hold of. the other players are making some awful decisions, and it has been profitable so far. i just dont understand why someone would call with a straight on a paired board in this game.

would you ever raise preflop in this game? i would assume that it is +EV, but at the same time it really would make your swings huge.

Talking Poker · #6 11-04-05, 02:03 AM

Raise preflop with AA and KK for sure.... probably AK too.

Total guessing here, btw.

lightfungus · #7 11-04-05, 02:07 AM

Sounds fun. Funny thing I haven't played real money at UB yet...

jillaj · #8 11-04-05, 02:29 AM

Have been watching the 1/2 rooms and they look great. Unreal how much money is just sitting there for the taking. I can see people blowing a lot while playing this game drunk cause there is constant action.

PShabi · #9 11-04-05, 11:24 AM

Play AA, KK, AK, KQ and QQ.

That's it.

Automuck a flopped straight. You are at best going to be tied at the river. Bottom set is going to be very dangerous as well.

PShabi · #10 11-04-05, 11:26 AM

If the board does not pair then the best you are doing is splitting unless you have the flush. This is for the simple reason that the best hand is on the table.

If it is not a 3 or 4 flush board then it is a split.

The question is: how many of the players will realise that?

---------------------------------------------------

2 pair is a dead hand. It cannot win ever.
This is why:

1. If the board didn't pair then you are at best splitting
2. If the board did pair (not on your cards) then at least 1 of the other players (assuming all 6 are in) MUST have either a str or a FH. This is because only 3 cards don't play so one of the players MUST have the card that completes the str.

-------------------------------------------------------

Trips are a dead hand unless you fill up. Same reason as above.

Talking Poker · #11 11-04-05, 12:47 PM

Play KQ but not AQ? Splain me that logic, please.

PShabi · #12 11-04-05, 01:03 PM

Typo.

Add AQ to that list.

PShabi · #13 11-04-05, 01:05 PM

An ideal situation to be in would be with top set and an unpaired board on the turn.

A fish is going to want to cap it with his straight. The river card is either (A) going to pair the board and fill you up or (B) it's going to put a straight on the board and you split.

badblood44 · #14 11-04-05, 01:31 PM

I've been messing with the open-source hand enumerator software in an attempt to change the default deck to just 20 cards.

Haven't met with much luck yet, but if I succeed, I'll share the results. The software could be used to evaluate various hand vs. hand confrontations to see if they shed any insights.

PShabi · #15 11-04-05, 04:20 PM

I'm not playing this shit, so I don't know why I'm doing all the leg work for you slackjawed rats.

Oh wait, it's because I'm a generous contributor to the forum!!!!!!!

Anyway, more stolen shit: (This was run in Poker stove with cards 9 and under eliminated as "dead")

AA vs. KT: 73.6/27.3
AA vs. JTs: 72.6/27.3
KK vs. JTs: 72.3/27.3
JJ vs. JTs: 56.3/43.6
TT vs. JTs: 44.3/55.6
Any pair vs. random hand: 56/43
QQ+ vs. random hand: 63/36
Suited connectors vs. random: 48.8/51.1 (!)
AKs vs. random: 55.5/44.5
AKs/AQs vs. random: 54.3/45.6
AQs vs. KK: 40/60

Yes, suited connectors are worse than random hands