"Royal" Holdem on UltimateBet

For anyone who hasnt tried it out yet, its basically a game played with a 20 card deck; Tens to Aces

its constantly filling tables over on ub since its recent introduction. but here is the thing, noone has a clue on how to play it well (as far as i can see anyway). it of course attracts the biggest fish and gamblers due to the excitement involved, which means there is a lot of money to be made by good players.

the problem is i sure aint one of those good players. i dont have a clue.

i mean, i know what will change, but it seems hard to work out exactly how it will change.

has anyone done any work on this game at all yet? could anyone link me?

[binions]

Never played it. I don't know if UB uses burn cards. I know Stars does not. If no burn cards, then at most you could play 7 handed (14 cards out + 5 on the board). If burn cards are used, then 6 handed is the max. I assume you can play one or none from your hand (ie that the game is Holdem).

One and 2 pair hands are meaningless. 2 pair only has value as a draw.

Clearly, flushes impossible to get. Only royal straight flushes are available in the game. Even if you flop a "4 flush", you only have 1 out in 15 unseen cards. Drawing to the royal would usually be a sucker bet. Thus, playing a suited hand is usually wrong.

If the board doesn't pair, everyone will have a straight.
If the board pairs once, there will likely be multiple straights out with the significant chance of losing to a boat. If the board pairs twice, then there probably is only one straight out, but boats and quads rule. And all straights can do is tie. If all you have is a straight, you don't have much. Thus, playing an unpaired hand is usually wrong.

So that leaves you with playing pocket pairs. There are 20*19/2 or 190 starting hands. 30 of them are pocket pairs. So, you have a much better chance of getting one than a 52 card deck (78/1326).

Note: in a 7 handed game, if you have a pocket pair, then there is usually 1 more pocket pair out on average. (25 pocket pairs left in (19*18/2=) 153 possible starting hands left * 6 remaining players). So being dealt TT is not a cause for celebration.

Once you get a pocket pair, you have a much better (23%) chance to flop a set than a regular game, and a 6% chance to flop a boat. Once you flop a set, you have 7 outs in 15 unseen cards to boat or better on the turn, then 10 outs in 14 unseen cards to boat or better the river. With that pot equity, you should be ramming and jamming your sets.

So, the name of the game is boats (and quads). Boat over boat will be common, so JJ and especially TT should be leary.

Just my 2 cents.

PS If you can get in cheaply, AK has a 13% chance to flop top 2 pair. If it does do, it has a 48% chance with 2 to come hit a 4 outer and boat up, and a 29% chance on the river unless it is facing AA or KK, which is rare but happens.

[Quicksilvre]

Try the Other Poker forum; there has been some strategy discussion over there during the last couple of weeks.

thanks for the help guys, btw you were right there was a lot of good discussion in other poker for anyone else interested, i didnt even think to look there