Pai Gow Poker is based on an ancient Chinese game that has evolved over time into a modern entertainment favorite by many casino players.
Fred Wolf upgraded this game in the early 80s of the 20th century. Not only did he successfully keep the rules of the two games, but he also made money from it. He also registered a patent for “Pai Gow Poker”. This largely explains the fact that the game is little known even in gambling circles. Not all casino owners are willing to pay for the right to use an exotic game on their territory.
The rules of the game
Unlike no Limit Hold’em, the main goal of playing Pai Gow Poker is to defeat the dealer. Players do not compete with each other — there is a direct analogy with blackjack. Up to 6 Canadian players can sit at the Pai Gow Poker virtual table at the same time. At the beginning of the hand, everyone receives 7 closed cards. The players distribute the cards into the upper and lower hands. 5 cards are sent to the top, and the remaining two to the bottom. Bets are placed before the cards are dealt.
The Canadian players independently determine where to send which cards. After the distribution of hands, the opponents “lay out” the cards on a special section of the table. The dealer also shows his hand. Combinations are compared according to the rules of precedence adopted in regular poker. In the upper hand, you can collect combinations from the ace of the elder to the royal flush. In the lower hand of two cards, the maximum possible combination is, of course, a pair. The upper and lower arms are compared in turn.
If both of the player’s hands are stronger than the dealer’s, then he wins the whole pot. If the player and the dealer have won 1 hand each, then the bet is returned to the player. In case of defeat in both cases, the bank will go to the dealer. In rare situations, the dealer and the player show the same lower or upper hand.
Pai Gow Poker at an online casino
In some online casinos, there is a service according to which a player can set up automatic card splitting in the hands in the same way as a dealer would do. To install this feature, you need to click on the “House Way” button. But not all online casinos have Pai Gow Poker with such a feature. Therefore, if it is missing, the client will have to rely only on his own strength.
He can also use a certain strategy to play Pai Gow Poker to increase his chances of winning.
Payouts at Pai Gow Poker
After the player and the dealer have divided their cards, they compare the result according to the table with the poker combinations and find out whose combination is older.
To win, the user needs to beat both dealer’s hands. In this case, the winnings are paid 1 to 1 minus 5% commission in favor of the online casino.
If the player was able to beat only one hand, it does not matter whether it is the older or the younger, a draw is recognized. At the same time, if the combinations in the hands of the player and the dealer are identical, then the victory is awarded to the dealer.
Pai Gow Poker Game Strategies
On specialized foreign sites dedicated to Pai Pai Gow Poker and forums where fans of the game communicate, you can find very detailed tables of the basic strategy. They describe in detail how to act on certain cards. We will give you simplified rules, following which you will significantly reduce the advantage of the casino.
To begin with, the entire strategy of playing Pai Gow Poker can be reduced to one rule: “You must form the maximum combination on two cards that is possible with a stronger five-card hand.”
Very often it will look like this: a fairly weighty pair in the highest combination and one or two large cards in the lowest. Believe me, in such a seemingly unsuccessful scenario, you will often win on two hands at once.
You will also have to get used to the idea that large combinations (square, royal flush, straight flush) do not bring additional payouts, so they often need to be separated. Now let’s analyze typical situations below.
There are no pairs or combinations older than that
You should select the second and third strongest cards in the lower hand, and leave the strongest one in the higher hand. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are rare and have almost no effect on the advantage of the casino.
There is one pair in the cards
The pair should be left in the highest hand, and the two highest cards from the remaining ones should be selected into the lowest combination. There are no exceptions.
The two examples discussed above will occur to you in more than 60% of the hands while playing Pai Gow Poker. So these rules need to be memorized.
There are two pairs in the cards
Perhaps this is the most difficult case in which you have to make different decisions, depending on the circumstances. After all, a player can leave two pairs in five cards or divide one pair for each hand. As a rule, the older one of the pairs, the more often they have to be put into the younger combination.
Here are some basic guidelines for drawing two pairs:
- Always send a pair of aces to the lowest hand. Regardless of which cards form the other pair.
- Discard a pair of kings in the lowest combination if the second pair is sevens or older.
- If you have an ace with a weak card, divide kings with a pair of threes and above; queens with a pair of fives and above; jacks and tens with a pair of nines and eights.
- Always leave two pairs in the highest combination, if you can put an ace with any picture in the lower one. But separate two pairs of pictures if there is no ace-king in the lower one.
- Never separate small pairs (sixes and below).
- In all other cases, leave pairs together with the ace and any card. If there is no ace, divide the pairs into two hands.
There are one or two tris in the cards
The trixes are played out in different ways:
- Three of the ladies and less powerful cards should always be left in the older hand.
- Three aces should always be broken, leaving a pair in five cards and separating one ace with the highest card.
- The three kings should be divided in the same way if the highest card is a jack or lower.
- If there are two trixes, you need to select a pair from the older one into the younger combination.
In straight and/or flush cards
Streets, flushes and straight flushes also need to be played according to the situation:
- If there is only a flush or a straight in the cards, we leave the combination, and put the remaining cards in the lower hand.
- If there are two such combinations in the cards at once (flushes, straights or flush and straight), you need to save one of them by allocating the maximum possible cards to the lower hand. For example, if you have seven cards in order, you need to separate the two highest ones. Similarly, the flush should be sacrificed in favor of the straight, if the younger hand is strengthened in this way.
- In case of a straight or flush with one pair, the card from which is part of the combination, you need to act according to the situation. If you can leave a couple of pictures and put an ace with a picture in the lower hand, do so, forgetting about the straight or flush, in which only the queen or a weaker card can be separated.
- If a straight or flush comes across with two pairs, then you need to act according to the recommendations for drawing two pairs, and ignore the straight and flush.
- Straight and flush with three pairs, play according to the recommendations regarding three pairs, ignoring the five-card combinations.
- Straight and flush with tris do not need to be broken. Separate a pair or even an ace from them.
- Straight flushes and royal flushes are played as streets and flushes in all cases.
In full house maps
Usually, at a full house, the tris is left in the older hand, and the pair is taken out to the younger one. However, if the pair is very small and the side cards are very strong (the ace with the picture), then the full house can be left.
As you can see, even the simplified strategies of playing Pai Gow Poker do not look so simple. You may find recommendations that differ from ours on some points. Especially often there are discrepancies in the tips for playing two pairs or streets with flushes.
This suggests that many attempts have been made to simplify the complex optimal strategy for Pai Gow Poker. Unusual nuances of the rules (side bets and so on) may also be taken into account. And the disputes over some nuances still do not subside. In any case, the differences in the effectiveness of different versions are insignificant.