Pai Gow Poker Strategy
As you may have guessed, all of the skill in Pai Gow Poker lies in how you split your hands. You can’t fold, you can’t raise, and you don’t have any information except the cards in your hand. There aren’t any other things you can control within a hand. You better split up your hands well.
Front or Back?
When talking about splitting up hands, the two-card hand is generally referred to as the “Front” while the five-card hand is referred to as the “Back.” The reason for this is that the two card hand is placed in front of the five card hand on the casino table.
When splitting your cards, remember the Back always has to be a better hand than the Front.
The House Way
The House Way is a way that casinos have their dealer’s split their hands. House Ways vary from casino to casino, but they tend to remain pretty similar. Looking at some house ways is a good way to develop some basic strategy.
The following is the House Way used by Golden Palace online casino:
- No pair, House Way will put the highest card in the back and the next two highest cards in the front.
- One pair, House Way will put the pair in back and the next two highest cards in the front.
- Two pair, House Way will put two pair in back, but will split them if:
- One pair is 7’s or greater and there is no ace.
- You have a pair of jacks or better and 6’s or better and there is an ace.
- You have a pair of aces and any other pair.
- Three pair, House Way will put the highest pair in front.
- Three of a kind, House Way will put three of a kind in back, but will break up three aces.
- A full house, House Way will split it except with a pair of 2’s, and an ace/king can be played in front.
- A full house with three of a kind and two pairs, House Way will put the highest pair in front.
- Three of a kind twice, House Way will always put the highest pair in front.
- Any straights, flushes, straight flushes, or royal flushes:
- House Way will always put the straight or flush in the back hand but will play as two pair if:
- There is any two pair and an ace.
- There is a pair of jacks and pair of 6’s.
- There is a pair of aces and any other pair.
- With a six or seven card straight or flush, House Way will put the highest possible hand in front while maintaining the straight or flush in back.
- House Way will always play a straight or a flush over straight flush to improve the front hand to jack or better.
- House Way will always play a straight or flush over royal flush to improve the front hand to king or better.
- House Way will always put the straight or flush in the back hand but will play as two pair if:
- Four of a kind, House Way will play according to the rank of the four of a kind:
- 2 through 6: Always keep together.
- 7 through 10: Split unless an ace or better can be played in front.
- Jack through king: Split unless hand also contains a pair of 10’s or higher.
- Aces: Split unless a pair of 7’s or higher can be played in front.
- Five aces: Split unless pair of kings can be played in front.
As you can see, the House Way is fairly complex, but even that can be improved upon. Two pair, for example, genuinely presents the most difficult decisions, and The Wizard of Odds has designed an easy-to-remember strategy for splitting two pair that takes .04% off the house edge. He recommends splitting two pair unless the sum of the paired cards (a pair of fours and sixes) makes a sum of 10) is 9 or less, and you have a king or ace to put in the front, or if the sum of the paired cards is 15 or less and you have an ace to put in the front.
Some online casinos (like Golden Palace), have a button that lets you split your hands according to the house way automatically, which can be great for beginners. Over time, you’ll develop your own variations to the House Way that you like to play with. The House Way is by no means perfect strategy, so feel free to play with your gut a little bit on borderline cases.
Play with High Rollers
One of the best and simplest ways to increase your profits playing Pai Gow Poker is often overlooked, because it is not direct, in-game strategy. It’s a table selection strategy.
Think about this. Your odds greatly increase when you’re the banker because you win in the case of ties. When you’re playing with multiple players, this can easily overcome the house edge enough to turn it into a player’s edge, where the odds are in your favor. When the odds are in your favor, you want to earn as much as possible.
However, as the banker, you can’t decide how much people bet. That’s why you have to find a good table. Look for a table where people are betting close to the maximum. Then all you have to do is just bet the minimum in between your turns as the banker. True, you do have to have enough money to cover all of these large bets, but if you sit down with a large stack and bet the minimum, you should be in pretty good shape.
Also, if you ever find a table with players that are declining to be the banker, get a seat there as soon as you can. These players will usually have short chip stacks compared to their bet size, and won’t be able to cover other bets as banker. This gives you an opportunity to be banker more often, which works heavily to your advantage.
Remember to play smart and win big with casino strategy from Gambling City!
