Tried Royal

Poker Discussion
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I tried Royal for the first time last night. It was… interesting.

Hard to say since I have exactly one table’s worth of experience at it, but at least in this session the game consisted mostly of limping and checking, and folding to any bet.

I managed to do OK. I sat down at a table with one person and we played heads up for a period of time before more players eventually joined. Mostly the table was at least half empty the majority of the time I played, but we were 6-up for a brief period. There was definitely more action during the 6-up period. 3- or 2- handed there just wasn’t much action.

I used some of the knowledge I had gained by reading these forums to inform my strategy, and it helped. Knowing not to bet Straights was the single most important insight, very useful and surely saved me a ton of chips. Royal is a game where full house and quad hands tend to be the best, and are made very commonly.

Eventually, I hit a hand that won me a big pot. After more players joined the table, the original player who I had been playing heads up with started shoving his stack all-in more, usually after the flop, sometimes on the Turn. Somehow or other, we went from min betting most hands and getting the table to muck to any bet, to an all-in situation, and this occurred one time when I happened to hold the nuts, I shoved, he called, and I took the pot, busting the player who had been there since I joined. I ended up taking about 14,000 chips, leaving my bigger-stacked opponent with about 8k left in his stack.

This seemed to trigger him, and he immediately shoved the rest of his stack again the next hand, which I also called, and won, AJ over KQ, hitting Aces full.

My opponent rebought and just started shoving every hand preflop. Another player at my table called him on his first hand after his rebuy, and beat him; he rebought and shoved again.

At that point, I felt I’d had enough of Royal and was satisfied at being able to win some chips, so I decided to get up from the table.

For other Royal players, I wonder just how typical this experience sounds to you?

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If the other player’s name is lina, then it’s a typical experience at the Royal ring games :slight_smile:

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@puggywug ,
I play mostly MTTs, and I learned Royal that way… Took me awhile to get the nuances just right, and to just run away from any flop’d str8. I tend to stay away, unless its part of a promotion, thus I have to play…

My “take” is that , I just had to rank all 4 games on “draw heavy-ness”…
and I rank them : (most)->(least) … Royal , Omaha Hilo , Omaha , Hold’em.

What I mean by that is, if there “is a possible draw that beats me”, I “weight” each poker format accordingly, when I “calculate my odds” to stay in / fold, as cards come out.

Example only , not real odds…
When you look @ a board … Ah Kh 6s , if you think in holdem your odds to get drawn out on ( the flush ) is 20%… and you’re playing Hilo with ( 4 ppl in hand total ) , you might be look’n @ odds closer to 40% that your AA gets beat by the flush, obviously assuming you don’t hit quads, or a boat. Thats before you add in your “read” on your opponents, thus adding/subtracting from the mathmatical odds.

Since Royal only uses 20 cards, when you are on a full 6 person table… Remember, there are only 3 cards that DON’T get used… the 3 burn cards. Thats only a 15% chance that the cards necessary to beat you, won’t be in someone else’s hand, or on the board at some point.

You almost have to approach Royal, not as what you have … being the best…but how strong is your hand compared to what might beat it, and how likely is that to occur.

Example:
You have Q J suited , and the flop is Q J J … that looks pretty good, doesn’t it ??? Lets look closer tho… You have Jacks over Queens, anyone with K J or A J … has a decent shot to hit that K or A to beat you… does it look that good now ??? not only that but A A, K K, or Q Q… prolly will crush you… Q Q is already ahead, and that same A or K… yet again gives them a better FullHouse if they have A A or K K.

So now, AA, KK, QQ, AJ, KJ are the 5 hands you don’t want anyone to have. Your best chance on that board, would be to hit another J ( for quads ) or runner runner Q Q, again so you have quads…

I hope this helps @puggywug ,
Sassy

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Ha. It was Lina.