Royal Hold'em Rules

Royal Hold'em uses a deck of twenty cards: the ace, king, queen, jack and ten of each suit. There are no wild cards.

No more than six players may take part. A six-handed deal uses the whole deck: two cards to each player, five community cards and three burn cards.

The object, as in Texas Hold'em, is to win the pot with the best five-card hand from a player's two hole cards and the five community cards, or by making a bet no one calls.

Royal Hold'em was offered online for a period on the Ultimate Bet site. According to pagat.com, citing German Wikipedia, it was withdrawn in July 2007.

The button, blinds, deal, burn cards, betting rounds and showdown follow the rules of Texas Hold'em without change.

Only five hand types can arise. From highest to lowest:

3.1(a) royal flush;

3.1(b) four of a kind;

3.1(c) full house;

3.1(d) straight (always ace, king, queen, jack, ten);

3.1(e) two pair.

A flush is always a royal flush, because each suit contains only five cards and those five form a straight.

Every player has seven cards drawn from only five ranks, so at least two ranks must be repeated. A player with all five ranks has a straight. A player with fewer ranks has four of a kind, a full house or two pair. No player can finish with one pair, three of a kind alone or a high-card hand.

The weakest possible seven cards are two tens, two jacks, two queens and a king, which play as queens and jacks with a king kicker.

All straights are identical, so two players with straights split the pot unless one of them has a better hand.

The best five-card hand wins, using the rankings in article 3 and the usual hand-ranking tie-breaks. Suits do not break ties.