Royal Hold’em: What You Need to Know

• Card Count: Royal Hold’em is a variation of Texas Hold’em, but with a smaller deck—only 20 cards (10s and higher) are used, making the game faster.
• High-Value Hands: Due to the nature of Royal Hold’em, high-value hands are more prevalent. Don’t be surprised by multiple full houses or four-of-a-kinds!
• Aggressive Play: Given that only high-value cards are in play, aggressive betting strategies can pay off well in Royal Hold’em.
• Critical Position: Poker position is essential in Royal Hold’em, similar to other poker games. Having a late position gives you a significant advantage.
• Importance of Blinds: Given the rapid speed of the game, understanding and strategizing around blinds is crucial for maintaining your stack in Royal Hold’em.

Playing Royal Hold’em can be a lot of fun. Not only do you consistently see big, exciting hands, it’s easy to learn because the rules are so familiar to Texas Hold’em. However, don’t fall into a trap of playing in less than ideal situations. Read this guide to find out how to get your start.

Royal Hold’em appeals to the math-conscious Hold’em player. There are frequent opportunities where pot odds and counting outs are relevant to your decision-making process.

What is Royal Hold’em Poker?

Royal Hold’em Poker is an exciting variant of the traditional Texas Hold’em Poker. The significant difference lies in the deck size. In Royal Hold’em, the deck is stripped down to just 20 cards – all cards below ten are removed, leaving only tens through aces. The game follows the same standard poker rules as Texas Hold’em in terms of the betting rounds and the order of play.

Because of the limited deck size and the high value of cards in play, Royal Hold’em tends to be a faster-paced game with larger hands more frequently obtained, making it a thrilling choice for poker fans. Royal Flushes, Straight Flushes, Four of a Kind – these are all common sights in Royal Hold’em, further amplifying the game’s appeal.

It’s important to note that due to the smaller deck and more frequent high-value hands, strategies for Royal Hold’em can differ significantly from other forms of poker. Making adjustments to your poker tactics – such as playing more aggressively and focusing heavily on position strategy – can significantly impact your success in this variation of the game.

Image Credit: VITALII BORKOVSKYI/Shutterstock

The Difference Between Royal Hold’em & Texas Hold’em

There are a few key differences between Royal Hold’em and its Texas counterpart. The game is played at a 6-max table only, and uses just 20 cards (a stripped deck of tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces only). This means short-handed pots are the norm, and being aware of position during a hand is highly important.

It’s easy to get carried away with strong hands in Royal Hold’em, but playing them out will give you some insight into correctly folding ‘second best’ hands and not leaking chips into pots you should avoid.

Royal Hold’em: Pre-Flop Tips

Hand selection is key. Because Royal pots are usually won by the best possible hand (or close to it), you should only consider playing premium starting hands like AA or KK. Even AK is vulnerable when you flop top pair only. Depending on your opponents, chip stacks, and whether you are in a ring game or tournament, you should nearly always raise with AA or KK. With AA, you can even re-raise to try to maximize your profit.

Raising in position pre-flop, particularly from the Button, with hands other than AA of KK is fine if everyone else has folded, especially if you perceive the players in the blinds as tight. But be careful — extending your raising range too much when there are limpers, or if there’s a chance to get multiple callers is asking for trouble.

Still, you can include QQ or AK in your raises to keep your opponents guessing. Just remember that calling pre-flop with these weaker hands requires the ability to recognize unfavorable post-flop scenarios and minimize losses by folding ‘trappy’ hands.

Position is important because you want to have control of the betting. Think ahead. Raising in the Under the Gun seat with a poor hand will likely put you in an awkward situation later in the hand.

Royal Hold’em: Post-Flop Tips

Be wary of any hand after the flop which is not either the nuts, or drawing to a hand that will beat the current nuts. Straights are actually very weak hands in Royal Hold’em. Against three of a kind, a straight with no royal flush draw can only ever get a split pot (when the board fills in a Broadway straight to give a straight for everyone).

Counting outs and calculating pot odds is an important part of Royal Poker when considering calling post-flop bets. Awareness of your opponents’ tendencies will give you an idea of their hand strength, and then you can decide if your hand is already strong enough or has enough potential to stick around.

A flush draw is always drawing to a royal flush and is sometimes quite playable. Since the game only uses 20 cards, the chance of hitting a one-card out is better than 1 in 7 if you’re facing a small bet on the flop.

General Strategy for Royal Hold’em

ABC poker will work against bad players. Patience will reap rewards against overly-aggressive players. With the probability to get AA being better than 1 in 32, you will rarely go for long without some exciting action pots.

Making correctly-sized bets and raising when you should will help you extract value from calling hands when you think you currently have the best hand. In Royal Hold’em, your hand strength is much more readable than with a full deck, and observant opponents will be using their analysis and counting their outs, too. Don’t let them make good value calls by being too passive.

Bluffing is possible against opponents who are playing too tight or those who perceive you to be tight. This can lead to some interesting blind vs. blind battles, so it pays to tune up on your Heads Up play. And don’t forget to make some player notes!

Ready to take your seat? Before you join a game, why not check out our poker guides?

Lead image credit: Robyn Mackenzie/Shutterstock