Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is a modern rules version of the ancient Chinese game called "Pai Gow" that's played with domino type game tiles. In the 1800s, an Americanized version of the game called "Pai Gow Poker" was invented that combined the Asian game with Poker rules and used standard playing cards instead of the original tiles. More recently, in the mid-1980s, an updated version of Pai Gow Poker was developed for the California card rooms and another version was also made for Nevada casinos. Here we focus on the rules and strategy of the widely played Nevada style game. If you enjoy a challenging, slower paced game with a very reasonable house edge (about 2.6% against a skillful player), then you will probably like this one. Pai Gow is popular in casinos everywhere and can be played online for both free and real money.

The Nevada style casino game is played on a blackjack type table, with a 53 card deck (standard deck with a Joker). The Joker may be used as an Ace or as any part of a Straight or a Flush. The table layout (below) accommodates up to six players and a dealer. The object of the game is to beat the "banker". The banker is usually the dealer (but can sometimes be a qualifying player). The 53 card deck hand values are the same as traditional poker except that five Aces is the highest possible hand (higher than a Royal Flush) and A 2 3 4 5 is the second highest Straight (just under A K Q J T). Like most Poker games, Aces can be played as either high or low in Straights and Straight Flushes.

Two card hands are also played in the game. The highest two card hand is a pair of Aces. The lowest hand is 3, 2. (Consecutive denominations and two cards of the same suit, as in Straights and Flushes, do not add any value to these two card hands.)

Pai Gow Poker Rules and How to Play Procedure

First, all player bets are placed in the player number spots on the board. Then from an automatic shuffling machine, the dealer distributes stacks of seven cards to each of the players. The first player to receive cards is determined by a random number program with a lighted display in the center of the table (some casinos use dice to randomly pick first hands). The dealer then offers the "banker" job to each of the players. If all decline the opportunity to finance the game for that hand, the dealer serves as the banker.

All the players and the banker then "set" their seven cards into two face down hands, a five card "Highest" hand and a two card "2nd Highest" hand (often called the "High" and "Low" hands). The five card hand must always be higher in value than the two card hand. If a hand is accidentally or otherwise set with the two card hand higher in value than the five card hand, it is called a "Foul" hand and is an automatic loser. For the player to win, both of his two hands must be higher than the banker's two hands. The banker wins when both of his hands are higher than both of the player's. If the wins are split between the player and banker, the hand is a tie or "push". You will find that there are a lot of pushes in this game.

In Pai Gow Poker, exact tie hands are called "copies". As an example, both player and banker hold A,K two card hands or the same 6,5,4,3,2 straight as their highest five card hands. Both the two card hands and the five card hands are examples of copies. Pai Gow Poker Rules states that the banker wins all copies.

After all the player's hands have been set, the dealer turns all the banker's cards face up. The banker then sets his hand. Then in order, starting with the player who received the first cards, the dealer turns up the player's set hands to either declare a push or pay the winnings to either the player or the banker.

Pai Gow Poker Strategy and Tips

This hand setting strategy will make perfect, optimal plays for about 95% of the hand setting situations that you will face. For the other unpredictable 5%, your plays will either be perfect or near perfect. "Front2" refers to setting your two card second highest hand. "Back5" refers to your five card highest hand.

In online casinos and land based casinos where the dealers are also the bankers your best and only Pai Gow Poker strategy is to use the expert hand setting guide above. In this scenario the house has a natural copy advantage of 1.27% and charges a 5% rake on all winning hands. Because rakes are not collected on losing hands and ties, the average overall rake percentage drops to 1.57%. Together the copy advantage and rake account for a 2.84% house edge. Setting hands utilizing the optimal strategy can wither this down another .3% for an overall house advantage of 2.54%.

It is possible for a player to actually gain a slight edge in percentage rake casinos that allow players to be bankers. To get an edge you must follow a strict strategy of playing at a table with lots of players betting large amounts, be the banker every hand or every other hand and bet the minimum when you are not the banker. This strategy is effective because the bankers overall cost for the rake goes down relative to the number of players and the amounts they are betting. A lower overall percentage rake combined with the copy advantage and expert hand setting strategy results in a small advantage for the player.