In the '70s, I was a dealer in Vegas. I remember the Las Vegas Review Journal announcing that there were two royal flushes in the final hand of a Sahara poker tournament, involving big time players! Can’t remember their names. Is anyone else aware of this phenomenal occurance, and what would be the odds? The players split the pot, which was reputed to be over $80,000.
Can I get a witness?
virtually impossible. The combination of such a rarity-two ROYAL flushes-being in the finals of a big time Vegas poker tournament oozes urban myth from every pore.
Oh, the odds of Royal Flushes aren’t too bad. If you’re using wild cards. I mean, that’s the way me and my friends play! Yo, my three natural kings beat your king and two wild threes!
But I don’t know if the pros ever use wild cards. They might be too frowny and serious for that.
Nothing I write about any person or group should be applied to a larger group.
- Boris Badenov
*poppyp: In the '70s, I was a dealer in Vegas. I remember the Las Vegas Review Journal announcing that there were two royal flushes in the final hand of a Sahara poker tournament, involving big time players! Can’t remember their names. Is anyone else aware of this phenomenal occurance, and what would be the odds? *
Here are the odds with stud poker. It’s tough to calculate the draw poker odds, but they’d be less.
Odds of drawing the first Royal Flush:
<font face=“courier”>
52!
4 X --------- = 649,740 to 1
(52-5)!5!
</font>
Odds of drawing the second Royal Flush:
<font face=“courier”>
47! 1
3 X --------- = 852,188 - to 1
(47-5)!5! 3
</font>
Multiplying these together gives 553,700,847,700 to 1. Not impossible nor improbable, but the odds are greater than Powerball (80,000,000 to 1).
But given that it was probably a draw poker game, the players were aiming their draw to make the Royal Flushes. The odds are probably in the low billions, so it’s in the realm of possibilities.
Crap! The spaces got crunched. Lemmee try again…
Odds of drawing the first Royal Flush:
<code>
52!
4 X --------- = 649,740 to 1
(52-5)!5!
</code>
Odds of drawing the second Royal Flush:
<code>
47! 1
3 X --------- = 852,188 - to 1
(47-5)!5! 3
</code>
OK, straight-line equations then:
Odds of drawing the first Royal Flush:
<code>
4 X 52!/((52-5)!5!) = 649,740 to 1
</code>
Odds of drawing the second Royal Flush:
<code>
3 X 47!/((47-5)!5!) = 852,188 1/3 to 1
</code>
Sorry. I thought this thread had something to do with his and hers toilets in the palace.
The odds of the deck going that way randomly are pretty incredible.
The odds of a factory-new deck getting a couple of perfect shuffles aren’t so bad, though.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
There are 2,598,960 possible 5-card poker hands. Royal Flushes make up 4 of them, so the odds of being dealt a pat royal flush are 649,739 to 1.
Most poker tournaments are 7 card stud or Texas Holdem, where you can make the best 5-card hand out of 7 cards. It’s impossible in Holdem to have two players with Royal Flushes, since five of the cards are ‘community’ cards. So it would have to have been a 7-stud tournament. With 7 cards dealt, the chance of making a royal flush is about 31,000 to 1.
Calculating the odds of two players being dealt a royal is a bit more complex. Assuming one player already has a royal, and there are six other players in the game, the chance of one of them having a royal flush drops to about 3,000 to 1.
The average poker dealer deals about 25 hands per hour. If there are 8 players in the game, that’s 200 hands per hour being dealt. So someone will be dealt a royal flush roughly once every 155 hours. So, a 7-stud dealer would deal a royal flush to two players in the same hand once every 53 years.
It’s fairly meaningless anyway. The short answer is that there are a LOT of hands dealt in poker tournaments, and there are a LOT of poker tournaments. If one dealer will deal a double royal flush every 50 years or so, and the average tournament has 20 tables, then each tournament will run into a double royal situation every couple of years. And there are hundreds of tournaments around the country.
So the chance of two people being dealt a royal flush isn’t all that farfetched.
Even this isn’t a very good answer, because seeing two royal flushes is just one of many different types of longshots that you might see. And you remember the longshots when they happen. Thinking something is extraordinary after the fact is ‘data mining’, and it’s one way in which statistics are used to justify all kinds of bogus claims.
I’ve logged thousands of hours of casino and tournament poker. I’ve seen two players with straight flushes on several occasions. I’ve been dealt a royal flush 4 times. I’ve never seen two players get dealt a Royal Flush, but then I play mostly Holdem and Omaha where that can’t happen.
I play a lot of hold 'em and have been ‘dealt’ a Royal Flush once. (I say ‘dealt’ because of the fact that five cards are community cards). On that occassion, another player at the table also got a Royal Flush two hands later. Improbable, yes; but not totally far-fetched (as dhanson’s numbers would point out).
In the 1960’s and 70’s my parents, FRANK AND MIRIAM ROSEN OF SKOKIE, ILLINOIS … went to Las Vegas and stayed at the Sahara, where my father played some poker… NOT IN A POKER TOURNAMENT…JUST IN THE REGULAR POKER ROOM AT A $2 LIMIT TABLE… I repeat…A $2 LIMIT TABLE… the game was NOT Texas Hold-em… that game was almost unknown in the 70’s … most of the poker tables at that time were either 7 Card Stud or 5 Card Draw… Daddy was playing 7 card stud at a $2 limit table and GOT DEALT A ROYAL FLUSH…
… HE BEGAN RAISING UNTIL ALL THE OTHER PLAYERS, EXCEPT THE GUY ACROSS THE TABLE FROM HIM, HAD DROPPED OUT… Daddy fiqured the other guy probably had a full house… or some other decent hand…
…they both raised until they ran out of money… when they showed their hands…THE GUY ACROSS THE TABLE ALSO HAD A ROYAL FLUSH…
…the guy across the table was named Joe Esposito…I think he lived in Las Vegas…
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’'THE SAHARA CALLED IN “JIMMY THE GREEK” A FAMOUS ODDSMAKER…TO FIQURE THE ODDS, WHICH WERE ASTRONOMICAL… there had never been two Royals in the same hand in Vegas history, and hasn’t been since, either…
…there was a HUGE amount of publicity…both in LV and in Chicago…Daddy was interviewed on local TV programs and Radio shows…
…his picture was on the wall of the Sahara for many years and he carried the news clipping with him for awhile…
…as for the claim there was $80,000 in the pot… that is purely an urban legend… there was less than $100 in the pot and it was split between Daddy and Mr. Esposito… in poker one suit isn’t higher than another…
…I repeat… NOT a Poker Tournament… Not $80,000… :rolleyes:
the archives of the Review-Journal has this on file and will show my father’s name along with Joe Esposito’s… this should clear up all these fantasys and speculations and people who think they known what they are talking about and really know NOTHING…
…the Sahara got so much publicity from this that they gave my parents a free trip back to stay at the Sahara again…
see post from CurlyGirlLasVegas… CLEARS THIS UP 100%
PLEASE READ ALL OF IT
Sports Illustrated article from '74.
Thanks**, CurlyGirlLasVegas **
WHAT KIND of POKER do zombies PLAY?
trick QUESTION: THEY play SPAAAAAAAADES.
(eh. Best I could come up with.)
Hey, it’s a zombie, so I can relate a story of my own. I was in a game in the military wherein my four nines were beaten by another guy with four tens. Expensive hand, but not as expensive as the next hand where the same guy beat my four jacks with four kings. Natural. Ruined poker for me for many years.
I think when it’s the first factual answer to the OP it’s not so much a zombie as an “amazing recovery”. 
I once lost with 4 kings to a straight flush at a 5/10 limit holdem table. It was a pretty expensive lesson in thinking “what are the odds of that?” and assuming he had a full house.
Thanks for the story It was really nice to finally have that cleared up I thought for sure it would have been an urban legend Also props to Samstone for making the math much more clear oh And if my post seems strange it’s because somebody used up all the periods already Sorry 
THIS IS A FASCINATING thread"""""""""""
Our early ancestors on this board (many of which are still here today) were missing 2 key benefits that we enjoy today. Our ability to google for information with much better results, and others’ ability to google for information and find threads here. When the two collide sometimes you might get the right answer to a 10 year old question that was incorrectly answered at the time.
I haven’t regretted reading any of this thread except the snark about it being re-opened after so long. I view that as a waste of the re-opener’s time, not the other way around. (and so apologize for this continuation of it…)
Since this is about cards, let’s move it to the Game Room. Some interesting new information has been added.
Responders please note this thread is over 11 years old.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator