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How to Play Pai Gow Poker

In the proud tradition of Americanizing casino games of other cultures comes Pai Gow Poker, a game based on the Chinese game Pai Gow. While the original Pai Gow was played using a set of 32-dominoes, Pai Gow Poker brings some basic principles of the domino game and puts them into the more familiar territory of the poker deck.

The Basics

In Pai Gow Poker, you are dealt seven cards which you must split-up into two hands, one five-card and one two-card.  In splitting up your hands, the one rule you have to follow is that the 5-card hand must be better than the 2-card hand (e.g. if you have only one pair, it must go in the 5-card hand). You then showdown against the banker (who can be the casino dealer or a player), and if both of your hands are better poker hands than the banker's corresponding 5 and 2-card hands, then you win!

However whenever two hands are equal, the tie goes to the banker. This isn't common for the 5-card hand, but can happen quite often for the two card hand.

If you both win one, it's a push and you take your money back, and if you lose both, of course, the banker gets your chips. If you make a mistake and your 2-card hand is better than your 5-card hand, both of your hands are deemed losing. Some casinos even charge a penalty for this, so watch out!

Pai Gow Poker is played with a 53 cards; the standard 52-card deck with the addition of a Joker. The Joker can be used as a wild to complete straights and flushes, but otherwise it just counts as an ace. So, for all intensive purposes, there are 5 aces in the deck and straights and flushes are a little more likely. Also, don't forget that the Joker can be used for straight flushes as well. The very first hand of Pai Gow Poker I ever played contained a straight flush with the joker, so I'm always careful to remind people.

Betting

Betting in Pai Gow Poker is fairly simple. The table you play at will have a set minimum and maximum bet, and you must bet an amount within those confines on each hand. Once you've bet, you don't need to wager anything else until the next hand.

The house makes money by taking a 5% rake on all player winnings. For example, if you bet $500 and won, the house would take out $25 for the rake and you would be left with $475 in winnings. This rake may seem high, especially to the low-percentage rakes used in Texas Hold'em, but with the frequency of pushes and long time duration of hands, the house does not collect on the rake nearly as often as it does in other raked games,

One alternative to the rake is charging a flat rate per hand, which is a more common practice in California casinos. In addition to the wager, each player must pay a charge of say, 25 cents, to play each hand, regardless of win or loss. However, the high number of pushes in Pai Gow Poker can make the flat rate a costly proposition. If you're playing at this kind of casino, bet as close to the maximum as you can afford, otherwise the flat rate will take away a larger chunk of your winnings.

Be the Banker

Pai Gow Poker is one of the few table games that give you a chance to play against other players, and even the dealer!

In most casinos, the banker will start out being randomly determined, and then will proceed around the table. To be the banker, you must have enough money on the table to cover a maximum bet from each player. Aside from the high bankroll requirements, there are many advantages to being the banker, the best of which is that you win all ties between hands, giving especially your two-card hand a good edge. Also, when you are the banker, the 5% rake is tacked on to the net sum of your earnings, rather than for each hand. For example, if you won two hands and lost two hands as the dealer, you would break even because your net earnings would be 0. If the rake was applied to each hand though, you would lose 5% off each winning hand, and end up losing money overall.

It pays to be the dealer.