The Game of Paigow Poker

A fairly recent addition to the current library of casino games is Pai Gow Poker, a Poker-style game based on the Chinese domino game, Pai Gow. The play style is a bit more laid back and relaxed. Pai Gow poker is a good choice for endurance gamers who typically like to play casino games for extended periods of time without losing large amounts of money.

How it is played

In this Poker variant players use one full, 52-card deck along with one joker card. This Joker card is used as a wild card but comes with a few conditions for use. The joker may only be played as an ace, or to complete a straight, a flush or a straight flush. In most cases dice are rolled by the dealer to determine who will be dealt cards first.

Seven cards are dealt to a maximum of seven players at the table, including the dealer. From these seven cards players make two hands, one two-card hand and one five-card hand.  Naturally, the five-card hand is to be the highest scoring hand, the two-card will basically be the left overs. It should be understood that if a player’s best cards are thrown to the two-card hand they stand little chance of a win.

A unique part of Pai Gow Poker is that any of the players at the table can request to be the “Banker”. The object of the game is to beat the banker who may be the dealer or any of the players at the table. With this being the case, all players compare their hands with the Banker rather than the dealer, unless of course the dealer is the banker. The banker automatically wins all hands ending in a tie, has to pay any winning players from their own bank and gets to collect any losing bets. However, the casino will collect a commission, usually around 5%, similar to that in baccarat.

The same hand hierarchy in Poker applies to the Pai Gow variety with some exceptions. Ace, two, three, four, five stands as the second highest ranking straight or straight flush, standing between ace, king, queen, jack, ten and king, queen, jack, ten, nine. Five aces is the highest hand players can achieve, using a joker card as the fifth ace. As for the remaining two-card hand, of course any pair will beat two unmatched cards, the highest pair of course wins.

Tips

Depending on location, the rules of Pai Gow Poker may vary slightly. This can include how dealt hands are given to players and whether or not the joker counts only as an Ace or straight/flush completer or as a completely wild card.

It’s important to remember that the dealer will almost surely have the upper hand in terms of odds, because he will collect any bets for tied hands. To keep this advantage to a minimum players must all be banker an equal number of times, essentially thwarting the house’s advantage.