Sequential Royal

Introduction

On this page, a sequential royal refers specifically to a royal flush that is organized from low to high, in the sequence of 10-J-Q-K-A. If a royal flush can be obtained in both low to high and high to low order (10-J-Q-K-A and A-K-Q-J-10), it is termed as a reversible royal . Adding to the complexity, a reversible royal game could describe a royal flush in either sequence as a 'sequential royal.' This page refers to games where the term 'reversible' does not appear, thus only counting sequential royals from low to high.

Typically, a game that awards a sequential royal provides a reward of 50,000 coins for achieving it, based on a wager of five coins. This equates to a payout that is 10,000 times your total stake. Statistically, this jackpot contributes approximately 0.23% to the game's overall return, assuming optimal gameplay including strategy modifications based on card order.

If the game includes a progressive jackpot, the return increases by about 0.526% for every additional 100,000 coins in the jackpot above the standard 50,000.

With a game speed of 1,000 hands per hour and constant play over 24 hours, a sequential royal is expected to be hit roughly once every 167 days.

The remainder of this page contains various return tables for different games along with pay tables that offer 50,000 coins for hitting a sequential royal.

Should you want to learn about the return for a game or pay table not listed here, feel free to check my video poker analyzer .

Overview

The table below provides returns for several popular games and pay tables that provide 50,000 coins, based on a five-coin wager, for a sequential royal. This assumes, as always, that the player employs the optimal strategy including considerations for card order.

In essence, if a sequential royal yields 50,000 coins for a five-coin wager, it adds between 0.209% and 0.235% to the return, depending on the specific game and pay structure. A reasonable assumption would place it at 0.233% for games without wild cards, while for deuces wild games, the figure would be around 0.209%. If the player doesn't adjust strategy for card order and sticks to a strategy where all royals deliver 4,000 coins, the added return from the sequential royal would be solely 0.189%. This implies that about 81% of the additional return stems from the average royal (4,383 coins) paying more, while 19% is derived from the strategy adjustments.

In general terms, using optimal strategy, a sequential royal is expected to occur approximately once in about 3.8 million hands. For a rate of play at 1,000 hands per hour over 24 hours, you should anticipate a reversible royal appearing roughly every 158 days.

Reversible royal games often come with a progressive jackpot. On average, as the jackpot increases by each 100,000 coins above the regular 50,000, the return increases by an additional 0.526%. This assumes you are following an optimal strategy for a 50,000 coin jackpot, rather than the actual jackpot amount.

The next seven sections on this page present return tables for seven widely played variants of video poker. While I don't guarantee that these pay tables are found in sequential royal games, they are commonly favored pay tables.

Jacks or Better

Deuces Wild

Strategy

The table below illustrates the average value of a royal flush based on how many cards you already hold towards achieving a sequential royal. The winnings are calculated with a sequential royal valued at 10,000 coins and all other scenarios at 800 coins, with averages rounded to the nearest whole number.

• 4 Cards: 3100
• 3 Cards: 964
• 2 Cards: 807
• 1 Cards: 800
• 0 Cards: 800

In my view, it's not particularly useful to stress over strategy adjustments when you have two or fewer cards towards completing a sequential royal.

Next, input the applicable average royal into my video poker strategy maker combined with the rest of the payouts. This will help generate a suitable strategy. Practically, I would recommend printing the strategies for average royals of 800 and 964. Use the 964 strategy only when you hold three cards towards a sequential royal. For all other situations, utilize the 800 strategy.

Whenever you have four cards toward a sequential royal, always take that chance, even if it means giving up a well-deserved straight flush.

Internal Links

My video poker analyzer can compute the return for sequential royal games. To be fair, for the same pay table, the return is slightly off by about 0.007% from the figures on this page—I'm not quite certain why that is.

Written by: Michael Shackleford