Have You Ever Heard of a 7-Card-Draw Game Called "One-Eyed Royals"?

My new in-laws (wife's three siblings and their spouses) get together to play poker once a month. They play a game I'd never heard of, called "One-Eyed Royals." It's a form of seven-card draw, with the king of diamonds and jacks of spades and hearts being wild. Have you ever heard of this game?

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We haven't heard of any particular version of poker being called "One-Eyed Royals," but we've certainly heard that nickname applied to the three cards you mention.

The so-called "one-eyed royals" are the three face cards that depict their subjects in profile, thus showing only one eye. All the other face cards show both eyes. Collectively, the trio is also known as "one-eyed jacks and the man with an axe," since the king of diamonds is the only royal who carries an axe (the others bear swords).

In many home games, especially in draw poker, the three one-eyed royals are wild, as these are the only three cards in the entire deck that are of differing rank and suits, while sharing a common trait.

It’s also interesting to note that only four court cards, all of which are black, are looking to the right. The other eight cards look to the left. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache and he's depicted holding a sword behind his head, which makes him appear to be stabbing himself. Because of this, he has been branded the "suicide king."

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Comments

Brent Peterson Apr-05-2021

Ro Ro

"21 May 2021" for the date. Hmmmmm . . .

AL Jun-12-2021

"One-Eyed Royals"?

I had 3 thoughts that I want to share; one came early, the others came later. First, when I first read this term, "royals" connoted "royal flushes" to me. So it was kind of a dull, anticlimactic surprise to learn that this term uses "royals" to mean face cards. I don't think that this word should be used to mean face cards precisely because of the majority definition that we all use. Second, why would you want to play a game in which exactly 3 cards are wild? Having just the Joker be wild makes a lot of sense, and having the 4 Deuces be wild makes the next most amount of sense. But having 3 wild cards that don't include the Joker and are not the same rank just seems so abstruse. Third, why do they assume that these 3 face-card guys only have 1 eye? Just because we can't see the other eye, that doesn't mean that the other eye isn't there; the other eye probably IS there but it's just not shown. We can't validly call them "one-eyed" unless the cards show an eye socket without an eyeball.

Randall Ward Jun-12-2021

wild

don't remember playing that but we'd play dealer choice and one eyed Jack's was pretty common.

Jxs Jun-12-2021

One-Eyed AL

Yes Al, you’re probably correct. If the playing card pictures were actual living beings, they’d probably have 2 eyes. Very deep stuff. Wow.

Kevin Rough Jun-12-2021

Deuces, Jacks, and the Man With the Ax

In my much younger days we used to play "Deuces, Jacks, and the Man with the Ax".  All of those cards were wild.  Each player had their first 2 cards dealt face down so only the player who had them could see them.  Each of the next 5 cards were dealt face up.  The kicker was if you got a Queen of Diamonds face up, you automatically lost (if she was one of your face down cards, you were safe).

Ray Jun-12-2021

Chill, Al...and a couple of games

Al, it's just a way of defining them. Please don't be so literal. And, 7 card draw? Wow. In stud, I've been involved in a couple of variations. One is deuces & Jacks and the King with the axe, and the other is Acey-Deucey one-eyed Jacks. Way too many wild cards for me, but that's what happens in friendly, barely monetary games

Jackie Jun-12-2021

Recently asked

 if I knew of a poker game, can't remember the name but looked it up online.  It was basically a version of Pan but used multiple decks stripped of certain cards.  Lost all interest as I never liked Pan or any version of it.

terry painter Jun-14-2021

wild cards

way back in college, the most absurd:two's,four's,whore's,jack's,man with the axe,pair of natural sevens takes all.

Question of the Day - 12 June 2021

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