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The rules for Pai Gow Poker are practically identical whether you’re playing pai gow poker online or in a land-based casino. However, there are two small differences; one of them can cost you money. The first difference is the number of players. Online, it’s you against the dealer.
Getting better at Pai Gow Poker. Beating the house at its game is one thing that will excite you when playing any game in an online casino. When it comes to Pai Gow Poker, a good strategy will set you apart from a newbie player and might as well lower the house edge and make it easy for you to bag a win.
Pai Gow Poker. This is a casino gambling game based on the Chinese Domino game Pai Gow but played with playing-cards and poker combinations instead of with dominoes. It can be played by up to seven players. A pack of 52 cards plus one joker is used.
The following information on this page assumes you already know how Pai Gow Poker is played, as it is played in the casinos of Las Vegas. If you don't know how the game is played I suggest you first visit one of the many websites that explain the rules before proceeding any further.

The Pai Gow Poker at The Pogg has rules, analysis and a strategy calculator. The Casino-info.com site has a page of Pai Gow Poker rules and strategy. Pai Gow Poker Free has information on Pai Gow Poker rules, strategy and odds and a selection of places where you carn play online for fun.

Introduction

Pai Gow Poker is a variation of the Chinese domino game pai gow. The game is known for a slow rate of play and lots of pushes, resulting in low risk game. While a game of skill, most hands are obvious how to play, and it is not difficult to learn proper strategy for the rest of them. Every player plays against the same dealer hand, which causes the table to often win and lose together, resulting in a fun and social game.

History

Pai Gow Poker was invented in 1985 by Sam Torosian, owner of the Bell card club in southern California. However, his is a name few people recognize. While other have made millions inventing casino games, Sam received some bad legal advice that card games were not patentable, and never filed one for his game. When his game was a success at his own casino there was nothing to prevent competing casinos from offering the game as well, and they didn't have to pay Sam a dime.

Source: Casino Boss Can't Cash In on Game He Developed — Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3, 2002.

The Rules

A single 53-card deck is used, consisting of the usual 52 cards, plus one joker.
The joker is semi-wild. It may be used as an ace, or to complete a straight, flush, or straight flush, or royal flush. After the player makes a bet, the dealer will deal the player and himself seven cards each.
Standard poker ranking rules are followed with one strange exception — the A2345 straight (known as 'the wheel') is considered the second highest straight. Some casinos have dropped this ridiculous rule, but most still cling to it.
The player will separate his seven cards into a five-card high hand, and two-card low hand. The high hand must be of higher poker value than the low hand.
The five-card hand is ranked according to conventional poker rules. The only poker hand in the two-card hand is a pair or no pair, after which the individual cards determine the value.
After the player has set his hand, the dealer will turn over his cards and divide his hand in the same manner, according to specified rules known as the 'house way.'
The two high hands will be compared, and the two low hands, the hand with the higher poker value winnings. If the event of a tie, for example both two-card hands are ace/king, then the tie has go to the 'banker.'
If the player wins both comparisons, then the player will win even money on his bet, less a 5% commission. If the player wins one and loses one, then the bet shall push. If the player loses or ties both, then the player shall lose his wager.
Unlike most casino games, the player may bet against the dealer, and other players in pai gow poker. This is known as 'banking.'
The turn to act as banker is supposed to rotate around the table, but at some casinos it zig-zags between the dealer and each player in turn.
The player may always decline to bank (which usually happens), in which case the option will revert to the next player, or dealer.

Strategy

I'm very proud to present my pai gow strategy page. It contains simple, intermediate, and advanced strategies for both playing as the banker, against the banker, and combined. This page took months for my assistant JB to create so I hope you'll have a look. Monkey money slots 2 free download.

For your convenience, I also have my one-page simple pai gow poker strategy (PDF).

House Edge

The house advantage in Pai Gow Poker depends on partially on your skill setting hands but more on how much of the action you bank. I plan to publish some pai gow poker strategy in January, 2014. Until then, the following tables show the probability of each possible outcome and the expected value four ways — whether using the house way or optimal strategy and whether banking or the dealer is banking.

House way Strategy — Dealer Banker

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Win	0.95	2,402,491,783,820,756	0.291195	0.276635
Push	0	3,341,087,256,920,524	0.404958	0.000000
Loss	-1	2,506,879,990,473,120	0.303847	-0.303847
Total		8,250,459,031,214,390	1.000000	-0.027212

House Way Strategy — Player Banker

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Win	0.95	2,506,879,990,473,120	0.303847	0.288655
Push	0	3,341,087,256,920,524	0.404958	0.000000
Loss	-1	2,402,491,783,820,756	0.291195	-0.291195
Total		8,250,459,031,214,390	1.000000	-0.002540

Optimal Strategy — Dealer Banker

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Win	0.95	2,413,147,766,131,848	0.292486	0.277862
Push	0	3,337,551,044,510,696	0.404529	0.000000
Loss	-1	2,499,760,220,571,856	0.302984	-0.302984
Total		8,250,459,031,214,400	1.000000	-0.025122

Optimal Strategy — Player Banker

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Win	0.95	2,521,011,760,499,300	0.305560	0.290282
Push	0	3,330,840,908,447,708	0.403716	0.000000
Loss	-1	2,398,606,362,267,392	0.290724	-0.290724
Total		8,250,459,031,214,390	1.000000	-0.000442

The following table summarizes the expected value under all four scenarios. The 'difference' row and column show that banking, compare to not banking, increases expected value by 2.47%. The difference between following the house way and the theoretical optimal strategy, which I'm quite sure nobody knows, is 0.21%.

Summary

Banker

Pai Gow Poker Rules And Strategy