OFC royalties chart

Top row royalties

The top row is three cards, so the only hands that exist there are pairs and trips — and unlike the other rows, the payout scales with the rank. A pair of sixes is the smallest royalty in the game; a pair of aces is worth nine times as much.

Pairs (sixes and up)

A pair of fives or lower pays nothing. That's worth remembering: putting a pair of fours on top gains you zero points and forces your middle row to beat a pair of fours. It is pure downside.

Three of a kind

Trips on top is the biggest realistic score in the game outside a straight flush, and it also keeps you in Fantasyland if you're already there. It is also the hardest legal board to finish: your middle then has to beat trips with five cards, which usually means a straight or better.

Middle and bottom royalties

Both are five-card rows, so they use normal poker hands. The values are fixed per category — a flush pays the same whether it's ace-high or seven-high.

Two things people get wrong here. Pairs and two pair pay nothing in the middle or the bottom, at any rank. And three of a kind pays nothing on the bottom — it's the minimum you'd expect down there, so it isn't rewarded.

Why the middle pays double

Same hand, twice the money in the middle. It isn't arbitrary: whatever you make in the middle, the bottom has to beat. A flush in the middle means your bottom row needs a flush or better with the cards you have left, or the hand fouls and you get nothing.

So the middle royalty is really pricing the constraint, not the hand. Every point you take there costs you freedom on the bottom.

Which royalties are worth chasing

Ranked by how often chasing them actually pays off:

Always take: bottom flush (4) and bottom straight (2)

The bottom row is unconstrained — nothing has to beat it — so a flush draw on the bottom is free upside. Start one on deal one whenever you have two suited cards and nothing better.

Usually take: high pair on top (kings 8, aces 9)

Eight or nine points for one card is the best rate in the game, and a high pair on top is beatable by a middle row that only needs two pair or trips. Compare that with a pair of sevens up top: two points for the same constraint.

Take with care: middle full house (12) and middle flush (8)

Big numbers, but they load the bottom. Only go there when your bottom row already has real material — a made two pair with a full-house draw, or four to a flush.

Mostly a trap: pairs of sixes through nines on top

One to four points, and they raise the bar your middle has to clear for the rest of the hand. The maths almost never justifies it early. Late, when the middle is already strong, it's free.

The one to dream about: trips on top (10–22)

Enormous, plus it holds Fantasyland. But it needs a middle row that beats trips, so treat it as something you accept when the cards hand it to you, not something you build toward from deal one. The foul-risk maths spells out when the gamble is right.

How royalties are settled

Royalties are netted, not added. Total yours, total theirs, and the difference moves. If you make 10 points of royalties and your opponent makes 4, you collect 6 — not 10.

That's on top of the row points: one per row you win, three more for the scoop. Worked examples of the full calculation are on the scoring page, and every number on this page is the one the app pays out — the chart in-game is generated from the same scoring code, so it can't drift from what you read here.