I watched a Royal Poker tournament , It looked insane. It looked like the only top hand would be AAAAA. not my cup of tea.
How about games of 7 stud or Holdem with one Joker in the deck good for Aces, straights and flushes only.
Using the Joker and four A’s would be the best hand and beat any hand including a straight flush. Other than that normal high hand rules would apply.
The Joker would be the lowest card in any hand using it for straights or flushes.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a Jacks or better to open, Trips or better to win Progressive.
(If no openers then trips it goes to Queens or better Ks As then back to Js as the ante pot builds)
However some tourneys go hours as it is, That game might go on and on… and on.
Short Deck Poker aka 6 plus Poker would be a great alternative or additional game.
36 cards 2-5s removed, an Ace is high or low (in this case a virtual 5) and a flush beats a full house.
Never seen that varient on line before (but I never saw Royal before either before Replay :))
I like this. When I first started to play poker we played 5 card draw with something similar to this rule. JJ or better to open and if no one opened it went QQ or better next deal. It then went KK, AA going up then AA coming down, KK coming down QQ coming down QQ going back up etc. We didn’t have blinds but did ante up every deal. Every time we completed the up/down cycle the ante doubled. Some crazy big pots of matchsticks were won and lost.
I would like Short Deck instead of Royal. (I know that will ruffle the feathers of the Royal specialists on here.) Short Deck is still relatively new and not very well solved. Plus, it is gaining popularity (not just in Asia and the Triton Series) as the WSOP even has a Short Deck event. RP would be ahead of the game being one of the few to offer Short Deck online. It would be relatively easy (I would think) for them to implement it since they: 1) know how to remove cards from the deck (i.e., Royal Hold’em) and 2) would certainly know how to put in an ante/button double ante structure now that they’ve had a stud betting algorithm for a couple of years. (Royal is fully solved and isn’t really played anywhere in the world.)
Of course…another option would be to do away with the antiquated ante structures in NLH events and bring in the big blind ante structure that practically dominates the world nowadays.
We used to play follow the queen ( 7 stud ) where queen and card after it was wild–big pots:)
Royal is good once you know how to play it just like Omaha Hi Lo looks insane until you understand what good cards look like. Add other games, don’t need to trade off something
I played my first Royal tournament a couple days ago, on a random bored impulse. I got 2nd place, and I found it really easy TBH.
nobody bluffs. straight up, I don’t think anyone ran any bluffs other than me. if people are checking you can just bet big and take it down bc everyone is scared of the uber-nuts.
people mostly just limp around and wait to see a favorable flop. so if you actually have an opening range, and bet when you want to come in, you’re already getting an edge on the field.
These principles also apply to most O8 games on Replay, by the way 