How To Play Pai Gow
The goal is to create the highest five-card hand and the next highest two-card hand. “Copy Hand” means either a two-card or a five-card hand of a player, is identical in rank to the corresponding two-card hand or five-card hand of the banker. A Player may request that his hand be set according to the “House Way” which is a predetermined method of setting the hands. In this case, the Player will place their hand face down in the “High Hand” area.
Sit down at a Pai Gow table and you can play for quite a while on the same stake – while at the same time getting to move quite a bit of money around. Like any bet offered by a casino, Pai Gow side bets have a negative expectation–much more negative than the game of Pai Gow alone. Avoid them unless you feel like gambling even more than you already are. Each seat is numbered one to seven beginning with whoever the banker is. A number is randomly chosen to decide who gets dealt cards first, and the dealer hands out the cards in a counter-clockwise direction. There will be times when the player and the dealer will have exactly the same hand, and when all of the cards match this is known as a “Copy Hand” and the Banker will always win if there is a “Copy Hand”.
If you have two pair of tens through deuces, split them unless you have an ace. If this happens, play the two pair in the high hand along with the ace and move the next highest card to the low hand. Each player begins by making a bet that’s at least the amount of the table minimum. Once this happens, the players and the dealer each receive seven cards. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to play the game, this article has you covered. In addition to detailing the basic rules, we’ll also discuss side bets and some basic strategy.
Players are not permitted to expose or discuss their hands with other players. For instance, you have a six-card straight consisting of 4 of Hearts (4♥), 4 of Spades (4♠), 5 of Hearts (5♥), 6 of Spades (6♠), 7 of Clubs (7♣), 8 of Diamonds (8♦), and 9 of Clubs (9♣). Your five-card hand must consist of 9♣-8♦-7♣-6♠-5♥, while your two-card hand should have 4♥, and 4♠.
Pai gow Poker is a variation of pai gow, which are played on playing cards rather than traditional Chinese dominoes. The first game of pai gow poker originated in 1985 in the United States by Sam Torosian, a dealer at the Bell Card Shop in San Francisco, California. Your bets in Pai Gow poker are going to be negative regardless of your strategy, so don’t expect to turn a profit. Treat making a deposit to an online casino like spending money on entertainment. If you notice that you’re spending too much, you casino will help you set weekly or monthly deposit limits.
The aim of the game is to beat the dealer with both of your hands – the five-card ‘High Hand’ and the two-card ‘Low Hand’. It is up to you to divide your original seven-card hand into two hands that both have a decent chance of winning. The joker is a wild card, which may be used as an Ace for Aces, Straights and Flushes. When you’re dealt a hand that has a straight or flush in it as well as three of a kind, put a pair from the three of a kind that doesn’t break up the flush into the two-card hand.