Top

Back to Gambling

How to play · Winning and Losing · Banking · Other Rules · Strategy

How to Play
Pai Gow poker, also known as Asian poker, is a cross between Pai Gow, the game of Chinese dominoes, and the American game of seven card poker. This game is played using a standard 52-card deck plus one joker. Six players can play at one time plus the dealer. Each player receives seven cards face down. Each player must arrange his seven cards into two hands. One hand, called the low hand, consists of two cards. The other hand, called the high hand, consits of the remaining five cards.

Card rankings are based on basic poker rankings. See the hand rankings for details (the one difference is that the highest straight flush is A,2,3,4,5). The joker is a special card - not a wildcard as it can be used only as an ace or as a card to complete a straight, a flush, a straight flush, or a royal flush. The object of the game is to form a high hand and a low hand that are both higher than the respective hands of the dealer.

The highest two card hand is two aces and the best five card hand is five aces (four aces plus the joker). A dice shaker containing three dice is used to determine who receives the first hand. The casino dealer will roll the dice and announce the total. The person in the seat position corresponding to the number on the dice receives the first hand. The dealer is number one. The player to the immediate left of the dealer is number two, the next player is three and so on. The dealer's number is one, eight, and fifteen. Even if not all positions are occupied, their seats are still counted.

It is very important that your five card high hand must beat your two card low hand. Otherwise, you automatically lose. Once you arrange your two hands, you place them both face down on the table (with the two card hand closest to the dealer). Once all players have arranged their hands, the dealer arranges his hand (according to the casino rules). The dealer then compares each of the players' hands to his hands.

For more details on how to play, see the Rules of Pai Gow Poker.

(top)

Winning and Losing
In order for the player to win, both of his hands must beat the dealer's hands. If only one beats the dealer, then it's a tie and no money changes hands. If one of your hands is higher and the other is identical (a copy hand), it's treated as a tie. The player loses if any of the following occur:

1. Both player hands are lower in rank than the dealer's respective hands.
2. Both player hands are copy hands.
3. One player hand is a copy hand and the other hand is lower in rank than the dealer's respective hand.
4. The player's high hand was set incorrectly and does not rank higher than his low hand.
5. The player does not set the hands properly - an example is setting a three card low hand and 4 card high hand.

If you win, you must pay the casino a 5% commission at the time of your win. You not pay commission if you lose. (top)

Banking
Casinos may allow players to be the banker. Each player, in turn starting from the dealer's right, has the option to be the bank or pass the bank to the next player (counterclockwise). If a player accepts to be the bank, a marker is placed in front of them. If no player accepts the bank role, the dealer will assume that role. In order to be the banker, you must have place a wager against the dealer in the previous hand (not another player playing the bank). Also, the player must have enough chips on the table to cover all of the wagers placed by other players at the table for that round. In some casinos, the player is not allowed to bank two hands in a row.

When a player acts as the banker, all other player hands are compared to the banker's hand instead of the dealer's. The player acting as the banker gets to roll the dice and is counted as position one. Whena player banks, the dealer will place a bet in the an amount equal to the player's bet on the preceeding hand. The banker can request that the dealer lower his wager or not wager at all.

When the player banks, all losing wagers are immediately collected in the middle of the table and these chips are used to pay off the winners. The banker must make up the difference if there are not enough chips. All chips left over in the middle are given to the banker after the dealer collects the 5% commission.

As a general rule, a player who bets as the banker has a slight edge over the rest of the players because he wins when both hands are copy hands. The player acting as the banker can also request the casino to cover 50% of the wagers made during a round of play (called co-banking). If a player acts as a co-banker, his hands must be set according to house rules. (top)

Other Rules
A player may surrender his hands after the dealers hands have been set.
If a player does this, he loses all of his bet. If a player plays two hands, he must set the two hands (low and high hands) with the highest wager before looking at the hand with the smaller bet.
The highest straigh flush hand is A,2,3,4,5 (not including a royal flush). (top)

Strategy
The following are tips on how to best set your hands based on what you are dealt: