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Pai Gow Poker is a combo of the ancient Chinese game of Pai Gow and the game of Poker. It is a uniquely simple game but offers some strategic options. You can either go the speedy route and the quick win or play conservatively for little money and maximize your playing time. It is hard to win a lot of money in Pai Gow but on the other hand it is also hard to lose much quickly.
The game is played with a deck of 52 cards, including one joker. This joker is a wild card but it can only be used as an Ace or to complete a Straight, Straight Flush or Royal Flush. Ranks and values of the hands are the same as in basic Poker. After you place your bet, simply done by placing a chip in front of you on the table, each player and the dealer will get seven cards. Now you have to split up your seven cards into two hands. One hand with five cards and one with two cards. The only thing you always have to consider when splitting up your hand is: the five card hand must always outrank the two card hand.
For instance: You have a pair of fives and a pair of sevens in your original hand. The pair of fives must go into the two card hand and the sevens have to be in the five card hand. If your two card hand ranks higher than your five cards you automatically lose the game. Once all the players have arranged their cards the dealer will turn over his cards and split them up as well. He must also arrange them in the same way you just did, with the five cards higher than the two. The objective of the game is for both of the players hands to rank higher than both of the dealers hands. After the dealer has split up his cards he starts to compare his cards with the players hands in turn.
The Pai Gow player's two-card (low) must now beat the dealer's two-card hand and the player's five cards (high) must also beat the dealers five card hand. Only then you win. If your low-card beats the dealers low-card and loses on the high-card, or reversed, it is considered a push. In case of a push, which very often happens, no money will be exchanged and the hand is over. If either one of your hands rank the same as the dealer's it is called a tie. The dealer wins all the ties.
Since in this system lots of hands end up with a push, especially with low-cards, the casino does not make so much money out of it as it would like. So the casino charges a 5% commission on any winning bet. No commission is charged on a push or a lost bet. Most casinos want the commission right away. This means in case you win your game you have to throw the dealer a quarter on a five dollar win. You will only win $4.75. Other casinos keep track of the money you owe and you can settle up when you leave the table.
Strategies for Pai Gow Poker!
The thing you must remember is you need to win both hands. A full house would look very good in a five-card hand but unless you have another pair besides the full house in your hand, it would always be wise to split up the full house into a pair and a three of a kind. A pair in a two-card hand is almost unbeatable, unless of course your card values are lower than the dealers. And, of course, a three of a kind is also very good in a five-card hand. In this case you can be almost sure you are going to be a winner. If you kept the full house in just one hand, the other hand would have lost and it would have been a push.
Another thing to think of is in case you have to choose between either making two average to weak hands or one strong hand and one sure loser. Generally it is better to play it safe and go for one strong hand and hope for a push instead of risking to lose your bet with two average hands.
A different option in Pai Gow is the rotating bank. Since there are six players on the table plus the dealer you will get this option every seventh hand at a full table. This is the way to make really good money out of the game. On the other hand you also have a lot to lose. If you decide to be the bank you have to come up with at least enough money to cover the bets of all players on the table. Now you are in the position of the casino and everybody is playing against you - including the dealer. In case you lose you will have to pay any losses you incur but in case you are lucky enough to get a good hand and win, you will get the whole pot. Don't forget, even if you play the bank, the casino still gets its 5% commission on any winning wagers.
Pai Gow poker is somewhat different from normal poker, though the desired hands remain almost the same. Pai Gow poker is played with 53 cards, which is the standard 52 cards used in poker plus one joker, which can be used as an ace, or to compete a straight, flush or straight flush.
In Pai Gow poker the player receives 7 cards to divide into one five-card hand and one two-card hand. A two-card hand can be either a pair or two single cards. The player then must make a five card hand with the seven cards which scores higher than the two-card hand. If your five-card hand beats the dealer's five-card hand and your two-card hand beats the dealer's two-card hand, you win the hand.
If the dealer's five-card hand beats your five-card hand and the dealer's two-card hand beats your two-card hand, the dealer wins the hand.
If you and the dealer each win one hand, the result is a push, and you receive your original bet back.
If you fail to set your cards so that the five-card hand outscores the two-card hand, you foul and the dealer wins by default.
While the number of spots may look intimidating, roulette is actually a fairly simple game to play. In Roulette you place your bet on a number, row, line, or adjacent numbers. The standard Roulette wheel has 40 spots from 1 to 38 including 0 and 00. After bets are placed the Roulette wheel is spun and the ball is dropped rolling in the opposite direction of the wheels rotation. The ball will then stop in a number slot and that number is the winning number.
The player begins by placing a wager on the Pai Gow table. To do this, click on the chips at the bottom center of the game screen. This will automatically select the minimum bet amount. The wager amount can be increased by left-clicking on the chips at the bottom center of the game screen. The wager amount is decreased by right-clicking on the chips. Once the wager is placed, the player presses the Deal button. The dealer deals the player seven cards face up and himself seven cards face down. One standard deck of 52 cards plus one joker is used. The joker is not wild but can be used only as an ace or as a card to complete a straight, a flush, a straight flush or a royal flush. After the player has his seven cards, he must form two hands. The low hand must contain two cards and the high hand five cards. To do this, the player must select the two cards that he wishes to be in the low hand by left-clicking on them. Cards may be unselected by clicking them again. Selected cards will shift up out of the line of player's cards on the game screen.
Note: When forming hands, the rank of the five-card high hand must be higher than the rank of the two-card low hand. If this is not true a messagebox will be displayed asking the player to re-split their hand. Once the player has set both hands, pressing the Done button will end the hand. The dealer will split his cards according to fixed house rules and will then compare the player's hand rank with his own. To win the wager, the player's low and high hand must both rank higher than the dealer's low and high hand, respectively. If one of the player's hands is higher in rank than the dealer's and the other is lower or equal, this is a tie and the player's wager is returned. Otherwise, the player's wager is lost. If both hands are identical, the dealer also wins.
The hand rankings are as follows (from highest to lowest):
Hand Description-