Pai Gow
Tutorial
Learn how to play Pai Gow
The original version of
Pai Gow used special dominos and dice. It's said to be a rather complicated game, played
slow enough to serve as a social event and is rarely seen in gaming houses outside of
Asia.
The modern, Westernized
version is played with a deck of 53 cards -- regular deck plus a Joker -- and uses
poker-like hands for ranking. It's still a complex game but the changes make it more
approachable, as indicated by its success in casinos throughout the world.
-
And it's still a
rather slow game with showdowns often resulting in ties. This serves as a fine
counterbalance to the faster playing casino fare, and it allows a player with a modest
stake to last longer at the table than would be possible with other games. -
-
HOW TO PLAY
Pai Gow is often a multi-player game where the deal rotates around the table much like
regular Poker. One of the traditional rules is that the dealer also acts as banker for
that hand. In online play all of this is simplified to the player-vs-house model.
Objective
Bets are placed and the player receives seven cards. From these seven cards the player
forms two hands: a two-card hand called the "low" or "front" hand, a
five-card hand called the "high" or "back" hand. The goal is to beat
the dealer on both hands. The back hand is ranked as in Poker with the exception that
A-2-3-4-5 is the second-highest straight beating K-Q-J-10-9. The front hand is singles or
a pair, with A-A being the highest.
There are a few
additional rules. First, your front hand should not beat your back. If it does, this is
called a "foul" and both hands lose. Second, the Joker can be used as a wild
card to complete a Straight, a Flush, a Straight Flush or a Royal Flush. Otherwise it is
treated as an Ace.
Betting
Betting in most online games is very simple in that you make a single opening bet and that
is the end of it. In some Pai Gow games there are separate bets for the front and back
hands, but this is unusual in on-line play.
If both hands lose to
the dealer, you lose your bet. If both hands win, you win even money. If one hand wins and
the other loses, it's a push. If your hands are the same as the dealer's, called
"copies", the dealer wins. Obviously that’s an attraction of playing
dealer/banker in multi-player games. In such games, you minimize your losses by betting
low when you are a player and being dealer/banker whenever possible.
If the player wins, the
house takes a 5% commission: you get $4.75 of a $5 winning bet.
There are a number of
issues related to the multi-player games when it comes to the dealer/banker question. Keep
in mind that none of this applies to typical single-player on-line play.
Dealer/Banker: In
multi-player Pai Gow games the bank rotates from person to person, where a player may pass
the deal if they choose. If you want to deal you must have enough money on the table to
broker all other bets made. If you are uncomfortable with the full risk of banking,
another player may co-bank with you as dealer and the two of you will split the wins and
losses. The house will bank if no player is willing to do it. If a player is banking, the
dealer can be a player, wagering as the banker asks. If a player is the banker then the
dealer will first compare their own hands to that of the banker and make the appropriate
payments. Then the dealer will take the banker's cards and compare them to the other
players, using the banker's money.
Payoff
All wins in Pai Gow are at even money, less the house's 5% commission.
Play Pai Gow at this casino :
Club USA
| 
