How To Win Pai Gow Poker
One of the most popular casino games both online and in live casinos is Pai Gow Poker. Also known as Doubled-handed Poker, this game gives the player a rare opportunity to act as the bank, increasing their odds of winning. In this game the bank holds a 1.3% edge over the player during a hand, so acting as the bank is something that you want to do as much as the game you’re playing will permit.
Splitting Strategy
Pai Gow poker is exhilarating, but it is not easy for everyone. Players need a lot of tips to play, plus one has to organize their cards well if they want to walk away with the prize. The House Way is an excellent option for players who are just starting out, and often get bewildered when they are faced with a problematic card arrangement. The Basics of Pai Gow Poker Objective of the Game. The objective in Pai Gow Poker is for players to assemble hands that are stronger than the dealer in order to beat the house and win the bet with the help of seven cards. The only chance to win is to have both hands of higher value. When you win playing pai gow poker, you don’t get paid at a 1 to 1 rate. Instead, you get paid out at a 0.95-1 rate. So, if you bet $10 and win, you’ll get your original $10 stake back plus $9.50 for a total return of $19.50. Some casinos forgo the 5% commission and charge a flat fee per hand.
Another small edge that will increase your chances to win at Pai Gow is to use a simple two-pair splitting strategy that most casinos do not suggest. By remembering two simple splitting rules you can lower the house edge by 0.04%. First, two pair should always be split unless the total sum of the pair (4+4 for example) is 9 or less and you have a single ace or king. Second, two pair should always be split unless the total sum of the pair is 15 or less and you have a single ace card.
Pai Gow Bet Sizes
There are a few betting strategies for Pai Gow that will increase your odds of winning. The biggest way to impact your odds will be the difference in the size of the bets you make when you’re acting as the bank compared to the bet sizes you make when you’re acting as the player. The bigger your bet sizes when acting as the bank the better your odds will be to win at Pai Gow.
How much to bet when you’re the bank is up to you when playing pai gow. Betting the table maximum when acting as the bank, and the table minimum when you’re in a player position, would be the best mathematical way to maximize your odds. It’s not very practical to have that much disparity in your bets, so you don’t have to bet the table maximum, any amount that you’re comfortable with will be fine.
The idea is to increase the action when your chances of winning are higher. Increasing your bet in these two situations will give you a chance to get ahead of the game if the action goes your way. Any other player positions will give the 1.3% edge to the house and are best played with smaller bet amounts.
The only exception would be when you’re in a player position just before you get your chance to bank. Betting a bigger amount in this position will force the dealer to put up a bigger bet in the next hand when you bank (the dealer must match your bet from the previous hand every time you bank).
Bonus Bet in Pai Gow
Pai Gow isn’t a game that you can sit down and kill for a fast profit. With all the ties that occur the action is pushed a lot, so a good profit usually takes a while to accumulate. One way to speed up the profits in Pai Gow is the bonus bet. This option offers bigger odds on high-ranked hands, straights or higher. Depending on the hand you have different odds are paid out. A seven-card straight flush can make it a big day at the Pai Gow table at any stakes, and can pay as high as 8000/1.
Playing the bonus bet will give the house a bigger edge over you, but you can’t hit a big odds payout if you don’t play it. Playing the bet all the time will be a losing proposition over the long term, but if you can reduce the number of times you play it, and you manage to get lucky, it can be the difference between a mediocre or big day at the tables.
Some players try to keep track of hands that would have paid out bonus odds and then opt for the bonus bet after a string of hands that would not have paid. The probability of one hand having a bonus hand in it over any other is the same, but this method at least limits the amount of times you make the wager while still giving you a periodic chance to hit a bonus.
| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Players | 2–7 |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Card rank (highest first) | A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 |
| Random chance | High |
| Related games | |
| Chinese poker | |
Pai gow poker (also called double-hand poker) is a version of pai gow that is played with playing cards, instead of traditional pai gow's Chinese dominoes. The game of pai gow poker was created in 1985 in the United States by Sam Torosian, owner of the Bell Card Club.[1]
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a single joker. It is played on a table set for six players, plus the dealer. Each player attempts to defeat the banker (who may be the casino dealer, one of the other players at the table, or a player acting in tandem with the dealer as co-bankers).[2]
Pai Gow Poker Play
Winning condition[edit]
The object of pai gow poker is to create a five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand from seven cards that beat both of the bank's hands. The five-card hand's rank must exceed that of the two-card hand, and it is for this reason that the two-card hand is often called the hand 'in front', 'on top', 'hair', or the 'small', 'minor', or 'low' hand. The five-card hand is called the hand 'behind', or the 'bottom', 'high', or 'big', as they are placed that way in front of the player, when the player is done setting them.
Pai gow poker is closely related to hold 'em poker. This can be seen from the fact that the same hands are used to determine the winner as in hold 'em poker.[3]
Deals[edit]
The cards are shuffled, and then dealt to the table in seven face-down piles of seven cards per pile. Four cards are unused regardless of the number of people playing.
Betting positions are assigned a number from 1 to 7, starting with whichever player is acting as banker that hand, and counting counter-clockwise around the table. A number from 1 to 7 is randomly chosen (either electronically or manually with dice), then the deal begins with the corresponding position and proceeds counter-clockwise. One common way of using dice to determine the dealer starting number is to roll three six-sided dice, and then count betting spots clockwise from the first position until the number on the dice is reached.
If a player is not sitting on a particular spot, the hand is still assigned, but then placed on the discard pile with the four unused cards. In some casinos, such as the Golden Nugget and Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada, an extra 'dragon hand' is dealt if a seat is vacant. After all players have set their original hand they are asked in turn if they would like to place another bet to play the dragon hand. Generally the bet on the dragon hand can be the table minimum up to the amount the player bet on their original hand. The first player to accept the dragon hand receives it; this player is effectively playing two separate hands. Rules vary from casino to casino, but generally the dealer turns over the dragon hand and sets it using the house way. This is because the player has already seen the seven cards of their original hand, which could affect the way they would set the dragon hand.
Hand rankings[edit]
The only two-card hands are one pair and high cards.
Five-card hands use standard poker hand rankings with one exception: in most casinos, the 'wheel' (the hand A-2-3-4-5) is the second-highest straight. At most casinos in California and Michigan this rule doesn't apply, and A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest possible straight.
The joker plays as a bug, that is, in the five-card hand it can be used to complete a straight or flush if possible; otherwise it is an ace. In the two-card hand it always plays as an ace, except in several southern Californian casinos where the joker is wild.
Win reckoning[edit]
If each of the player's hands beats each of the banker's corresponding hands, then he wins the bet. If only one of his hands beats the banker then he pushes (ties) in which case neither he nor the banker wins the bet. If both of his hands lose to the banker then he loses.
On each hand, ties go to the banker (for example, if a player's five-card hand loses to the banker and his two-card hand ties the banker then the player loses); this gives the banker a small advantage. If the player fouls his hand, meaning that his two-card hand outranks his five-card hand, or that there are an incorrect number of cards in each hand, there will usually be a penalty: either re-arrangement of the hand according to house rules or forfeiture of the hand.
In casino-banked games, the banker is generally required to set his hand in a pre-specified manner, called the 'house way', so that the dealer does not have to implement any strategy in order to beat the players. When a player is banking, he is free to set the hand however he chooses; however, players have the option of 'co-banking' with the house, and if this option is chosen then the player's hand must also be set in the house way.
California casinos typically charge a flat fee per hand (such as 5 cents or one dollar) to play, win or lose. Other casinos take a 5% commission out of the winnings, which is usually known as the rake.[4]
Variants[edit]
There are a number of variations of Pai Gow poker that are popular in casinos today. These variations were mainly formulated in 2004 through 2009. Pai Gow Mania was the first variation to be created which allows for two side bets instead of the traditional one side bet per hand. Fortune Pai Gow is another variation which allows players to make a side bet on a poker hand ranking of three-of-a-kind or better, one of the most popular variations. Similar is Emperors Challenge, which also allows a side bet on a seven-card pai gow (no hand). Shuffle Master introduced a variation of the game in 2006, adding a progressive jackpot side bet, named Progressive Fortune Pai Gow. Part or all of the jackpot may be won by placing a side bet and landing one of the hands specified on the payout table; a combined seven-card straight flush wins the entire jackpot.[5]
Advantage play[edit]
How To Win Playing Pai Gow Poker
Advantage play refers to legal methods used to gain an advantage while gambling. In pai gow poker, a player may be able to gain an advantage in certain circumstances by banking as often as possible, taking advantage of unskilled players while banking, and dealer errors when not banking.[4]
History[edit]
Sam Torosian, owner of the Bell Card Club in Los Angeles, invented the game of Pai Gow Poker in 1985. The idea for the game came to Torosian after being told about the game Pusoy by an elderly Filipino customer. He figured that the 13-card game with players arranging three hands would be too slow, but a simplified two-hand version with only seven cards would be faster and easier for players to learn. The game quickly became popular and by the late 1980s was being played on the Las Vegas Strip, and eventually worldwide. Torosian famously failed to patent the game he invented after being given bad advice by an attorney he consulted, and noted poker author Mike Caro, both of whom told him that the game was not patentable.[1]
See also[edit]
Poker Pai Gow
References[edit]
- ^ abRichard Marosi (3 November 2002). 'Casino Boss Can't Cash In on Game He Developed'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
- ^Michael Shackleford. 'Pai Gow Poker'. The Wizard of Odds. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
- ^'How to Play Pai Gow Poker – Beginner's Guide'. Retrieved 2021-02-13.
- ^ abWong, Stanford (1993). Optimal strategy for Pai Gow Poker. La Jolla, CA.: Pie Yee Press. ISBN978-0935926170.
- ^'Pai Gow Poker Variants'. Play Pai Gow Now. Retrieved 21 December 2016.