Ezugi Royal Poker: Our Review, How and Where to Play

Ezugi Royal Poker is a live dealer casino poker game made and released by Ezugi in 2022. It’s the newest and arguably best casino poker game this software provider has made thus far. It boasts an RTP of 98.23% with a minimum bet of $0.50 and a $5,000 maximum wager. Available on desktop and mobile, Royal Poker is just fresh enough to keep interesting without turning away traditional fans.

Royal Poker is one of several variations of this game played against the dealer. We have never seen this particular set of rules in any live casino before, which immediately makes things interesting. Our Ezugi Royal Poker review will take a close look at how it all works.

United States

Excitement
Design & Sound
Streaming Quality
Interactivity
Win Potential
Rated :
4.8/5

Play Royal Poker Live Here:

1xBet

4.4/5

VBet

4.8/5

BitcoinCasino

4.2/5

Royal Poker Live Review

Game Specifications
Game name	Ezugi Royal Poker
Game provider	Ezugi
Game type	Poker
Streaming from	Romania
RTP	98.23%
Bet range	€0.50 - €500
Max win	150:1
Side bets	No
Supported platforms
Supported OS
Languages	Arabic Bulgarian Chinese Danish English Finnish +18 All supported languages Arabic Bulgarian Chinese Danish English Finnish French German Greek Hindi Indonesian Italian Korean Lithuanian Malay Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Vietnamese

Few games in live online casinos are as varied as poker. Between multiple variants of Casino Poker and a few Hold’em options, poker fans can enjoy this classic game in a variety of ways. Ezugi’s latest effort reminds us a bit of Caribbean Stud Poker, meaning it uses 5-card hands, with players facing the dealer. However, the big twist is that you have options to exchange cards for potentially better ones.

We’ll explain how it all works in a second. As far as the presentation goes, it’s a classic kind of live dealer table. If you’re familiar with Ezugi’s other work, you’ll feel right at home.

An unlimited number of players can join at any time, and everyone shares the same hand. However, decisions such as Calling bets or stake sizes are individual and independent.

The live Royal Poker stream is available 24/7 in any Ezugi casino. The stream offers decent HD quality, though there are definitely better-looking games out there. As usual, this Ezugi-made game is focused on offering an authentic casino experience. It avoids the flashy studios and presentation of some competing titles.

Beyond that, this new release will mostly be interesting to those looking to play poker online. Especially if you’re looking for a 5-card poker game with high RTP.

5-Card casino poker with a few extra twists and features

Interesting new options include drawing a sixth card, swapping current cards in your hand, taking insurance, etc.

Huge payouts are based on the strength of the winning hand

Players are able to make up to two winning hands per round thanks to the 6th card mechanic

Narrow house edge of just over 1.70%, assuming you’re playing with strategy

Full HD stream broadcast worldwide, 24/7

How to Play Royal Poker

Royal Poker uses a single standard deck of 52 playing cards. The deck is shuffled between each round, assuring random results and fairness.

The opening stages of every round will be familiar to anyone who played live casino poker before. If you haven’t, fear not – our Royal Poker guide covers everything from the very basics to strategy tips.

Live Royal Poker – Step-by-Step Guide

Dealing and Betting

If you want to play Royal Poker, you will have to make a blind Ante bet. The standard betting limits are between $0.5 and $500, though that may vary depending on the casino.

The dealer will then place 5 cards on the player side of the table, facing up. They will also place 5 cards on the dealer’s side. Four of these are facing down, with only one card visible to the players.

Calling

After you find out what your hand is, you will have four options on how to proceed.

Fold – You can choose to fold, which forfeits your Ante bet. If you choose this option, the round is immediately over for you, but you can prevent any further losses if your hand is weak.
Play – The classic Call bet in casino poker. If you choose this option, you place another bet called the Call or Play bet. Its stake is always double that of the Ante.
Draw 1 Additional Card – You can choose to pay an amount equal to the Ante to receive a sixth card for your hand. You always get the first community card when they appear later.
Swap Cards – You can also pay 1 Ante to change one or more of your cards for a different one. The selected cards are removed from the game and replaced by the same number of community cards.

At this point, the dealer will deal 5 face-down community cards onto the table. If you opt to Draw or Swap cards, this is where the new cards come from. The extra Draw card is always the first community card. Any swapped cards are allocated in the order they’re placed on the table, meaning from left to right.

Dealer Qualification and Results

The main feature of Ezugi Royal Poker is the ability to swap or draw extra cards.

The dealer will reveal their cards at this point. The dealer’s hand needs to contain at least an Ace and a King or stronger. If it does, the dealer’s hand qualifies.

If the dealer doesn’t qualify, you get a 1:1 payout for your Ante bet. However, your Call bet will push.

Additionally, you have the option of actually swapping the dealer’s highest card. This also costs 1 Ante. This move is there for very specific circumstances – for instance if you have a very stronger hand and the dealer just barely fails to qualify.

If the dealer qualifies, the game moves on to the next stage.

If you decided not to fold and the dealer qualifies, all cards are revealed.

The players’ hand is compared to the dealer’s hand and the stronger one wins. This follows the usual card rankings found in casino poker. If you’re not familiar with how this works, check out our Live Casinos guide to poker hands.

If you win, you get a payout depending on the strength of your winning hand. Check out the paytable below for the details.

Live Casinos Best Tips for Royal Poker Live

1
Paradoxically, drawing the sixth card is only a good idea if you already have a strong hand. It’s better to try and improve payouts than try to salvage a losing hand.
2
Never Swap just one card – Swap 2 or more. If you want one additional card, just draw the sixth one for the same price.
3
Like in blackjack, Insurance is almost never worth taking.
4
Royal Poker Rules are the same as in a variant known as Russian Poker. Presumably, Ezugi went with Royal to avoid confusion. After all, they offer Russian-speaking native tables for certain games.

Payouts

As noted previously, the dealer will need to qualify but still have a weaker hand than you if you want to get a full payout. Otherwise, you only get a 1:1 payout on your Ante.

Anyway, here is a full list of payouts in Royal Poker by Ezugi:

Hand Value	Payout
Royal Poker Paytable
Royal Flush	100:1
Straight Flush	50:1
Four of a Kind	20:1
Full House	7:1
Flush	5:1
Straight	4:1
Three of a Kind	3:1
Two Pairs	2:1
Pair	1:1
Ace+King	1:1

According to Ezugi, Royal Poker RTP sits at a solid 98.23%. This kind of house edge compares very favorably to other casino poker online games.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are more ways to win potentially bigger prizes. Basically, if you pay to draw the sixth card, you can occasionally get up to two winning hands at the same time!

Both hands are paid in full. For instance, let’s say you get a Flush and a Pair. Flush typically pays 5:1, while a Pair pays 1:1. If you get both in the same round, you win 6:1.

You can even have double hands, not unlike a classic Two Pairs. For instance, stringing together 6 consecutive cards counts as a double Flush, paying 10:1.

New to Live Casino Poker?

Remember that LiveCasinos.com isn’t here just for live casino game reviews. We also handle guides and strategies, helping you get the best start possible. For instance, we’ve covered various online live casino poker guides. Start with this Live Poker strategy guide, and then check out our Live Casino Poker tips and tricks.

Make sure to choose the game that suits your taste and budget. For more extensive guides on live casino poker basics, read this article.

Special Features

We’ve already explained most of this game’s special features in the how-to-play section. However, there’s one possible move we haven’t covered yet.

You can also opt to take Insurance. The idea is simple – you pay a fee that’s the same size as your Ante bet. You can only do so if your hand is at least an Ace + King high card, meaning you have to at least have a qualifying hand. If you pay for insurance and the dealer does not qualify, you get a 1:1 payout.

Beyond that, the classic Ezugi UI offers a lot of options. You can adjust video quality, audio levels, and change the UI language. Lastly, the game itself contains a comprehensive Royal Poker guide and rule explanation.

Languages

Currently, English is the only available language option. However, this only refers to the language the dealers will use during play.
You can change the in-game text to one of several languages, including Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Chinese, Bulgarian, Hindi, Italian, Danish, French, Arabic, Malay, Dutch, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Romanian, Czech, Greek, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian, or Finnish.

Our Verdict of Ezugi Royal Poker

There’s a lot to love about Royal Poker by Ezugi, so we’ll round out our impressions in a few lines.

The gameplay boils down to a classic casino poker experience, but the twists and features are quite substantial. The options to swap cards or draw extra ones add a lot of strategic variety to the game that competing titles simply don’t have.

Better yet, these options managed to reduce the house edge of Royal Poker. At this point, it’s one of the best-paying casino poker games out there. Moreover, it’s very affordable with a $0.5 minimum bet, and can fit into any low-stakes budget.

All in all, Ezugi Royal Poker Live ends up being one of our all-time favorite poker games in live casinos. We highly recommend it to poker fans – and everyone else looking to switch things up.

Excellent

Play Ezugi Royal Poker Here

1xBet

4.4/5

VBet

4.8/5

BitcoinCasino

4.2/5

FAQ

What is Royal Poker?

Royal Poker is a casino poker variant, often also referred to as Russian Poker. It’s a five-card poker hand where players play against the casino instead of each other. Moreover, Royal Poker allows you to pay to swap some of your cards or even draw additional ones.

What is the best strategy for Royal Poker?

We suggest reading our casino poker guide if you want to know the fundamentals of how this game works. Basically, you want to fold if your hand is weaker than the dealer’s qualifying hand. This means you want at least an Ace and a King. However, the next step is deciding whether you want to try and improve the hand by swapping and drawing. We only suggest doing so if you’re confident your hand can win.

What are the rules of Royal Poker?

Check out this page if you want a complete guide to casino poker rules. Royal Poker introduces some new options, however. You can find out how they work in our full Royal Poker Ezugi review.

What is the house edge in Royal Poker?

Ezugi Royal Poker has a house edge of 1.77%, assuming optimal gameplay. This is a largely theoretical RTP rate because it can be influenced by your decisions.