Royal Hold'em

Your best chance to get a Royal Flush in a casino is in the bathroom.

-VP Pappy

UltimateBet has begun spreading a new type of Hold'em called Royal Hold'em. The basic gist is that the game is played with a maximum of six players using only the 10 through Ace of each suit. This gives a 20-card deck. This is a very fun variation, and has been somewhat profitable, even with my admittedly small sample size. I had 68 cents in my UB account left over from my last cashout. I took it to the $0.01/$0.02 Royal Hold'em table and turned it into $2. From there, I stepped up to the $0.02/$0.04 table. Went from $2 to $5. From there, it was to the $0.05/$0.10 table, where I got my balance up to $10. I stepped up to the $0.25/$0.50 table last night, and was up to $19, but I dropped $11 when I had kings full of aces, and the only hand that could beat me was pocket aces. My opponent had the rockets.

This variation of Hold'em is interesting in that winning with two pair is as rare as winning regular Hold'em with seven high. If you flop a straignt, about the best you can hope for is for the board to make the same straight you hold and split the pot with the rest of the players in the hand. Most pots are won with a full house. It is not uncommon for a pot to be taken down with four of a kind. (I've had quads twice since I started writing this...) Royal flushes are not uncommon either. I had two last night, and I've never had one in a year-and-a-half of playing poker both on-line and live.

There is some humor in watching the chat for the unsuspecting regular Hold'em player who has stumbled into a Royal Hold'em room. Comments like "What's with these flops?" and "I've had the best run of cards ever, but I just can't win!" are priceless. It's interesting, since most folks playing in these rooms haven't figured out the optimal strategy. I guess that's why I could be up 2794% yesterday.