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Pai Gow Poker is a casino table game and is played with a standard 52-card deck plus one joker. The rules are fairly simple. After making a bet, each player is dealt seven cards and must make two poker hands: A standard five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand. The Pai Gow card game is played with 52 cards plus 1 joker card. A total of 53 leaves. A total of 53 leaves. The Joker can be used as an Ace, or any card to complete a straight or flush set, with 5 Aces (or 4 Aces and 1 joker) being the strongest. The rules of Fortune Pai Gow Poker will be familiar to those of you who like to play Pai Gow Poker online or at land-based casinos. Like the original game, Fortune Pai Gow Poker uses a 52-card deck and a joker. It’s a battle between you and the house to create two winning poker hands out of seven cards. Pai gow poker shares similarities with other poker games but uses a 53-card deck: the standard 52 cards plus the joker. It is played with a dealer and a maximum of 6 players around the pai gow poker table.

Pai Gow Poker Guide

We’re giving you the lowdown on Pai Gow Poker, hands-down one of the most popular real money table games and Ignition Casino. Played all around the world, this is a game of skill and guts, which is why it’s perfect for Ignition’s players.

What Is Pai Gow Poker?

Pai Gow is actually an ancient Chinese game of dominos – 32 to be exact – which later got appropriated for poker. It’s no cake walk either, but that doesn’t mean the poker version is difficult. Actually, it’s pretty easy. You just have to learn the fundamentals.

Thanks to Sam Torosian, owner of the California Bell Club cardroom, we now have a simplified version of pai gow uses playing cards instead of dominoes.

How to Play Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker uses the standard 52-card deck, plus a Joker. It’s you against The Dealer; after you place your bet, you each receive seven cards – yours are face-up, the Dealer’s are face-down. Your task is to split your seven cards into two hands, one with five cards and the other with two cards. Your five-card hand must rank higher than your two-card hand.

Once you’ve decided how to split your cards, the Dealer’s cards are flipped over and arranged, then the hands are compared. If both your hands are better, you win even money minus a 5% commission. If both the Dealer’s hands are better, you lose the wager. If one is higher and one is lower, the hand is a push and your bet is returned. Any tied hands go to the Dealer.

As with all table games at the casino, Pai Gow Poker comes with a house edge attached. That edge depends primarily on two things: Your skill at the game, and the method the Dealer uses to complete their two hands. This method is known as the “house way,” and you’ll need to tailor your Pai Gow Poker strategy accordingly. If you’re playing at a live casino, the house edge is also affected by whether you are the Banker or not. But as a rough guide, you can expect the house to have an edge of between 2.5% and 2.7% when you use at least a simplified strategy playing online.

While it’s always nice to find a big made hand in your seven Pai Gow Poker cards, you’ll be dealt a Pair or worse a shade more than half the time. Here are the chances of getting dealt each possible rank:

Five Aces 0.000732%
Straight or Royal Flush 0.137%
Four of a Kind 0.199%
Full House 2.72%
Flush 4.00%
Straight 7.29%
Three of a Kind 4.85%
Two Pair 23.1%
One Pair 41.7%
High Card 16.1%

The Rules

Them’s the rules: the standard hand rankings for poker apply, except for one twist. The second-best Straight you can make in Pai Gow Poker is the wheel (Five-Four-Three-Deuce-Ace), which is the lowest Straight possible in regular poker. Your two-card hand is either a Pair or High Card. And the Joker in this game is a “semi-wild” card that can be used to complete a Straight, Flush, Straight Flush or royal Flush; otherwise, the Joker is considered an Ace.

There are more rules to learn if you want to play Pai Gow Poker live. This is a banking game, meaning the player has the option of betting against other players, or even the Dealer. Players will take turns around the table acting as the Banker, although in most cases, they’ll decline the option and the turn will get passed around the table until it lands with the Dealer. You won’t have to worry about any of this at Ignition Casino – there are no other players at the table, and you’re always betting on yourself.

Optimal Strategy

Deciding how to split your seven cards is where Pai Gow Poker strategy comes in. Like Blackjack, this game has been “solved” by computers, and if you play an optimal strategy, you can narrow the house edge down as low as possible. However, the optimal strategy for Pai Gow Poker is more difficult to learn than it is for blackjack. A simpler, near-optimal strategy that’s easier to remember will get you most of the way there.

Whether you’re working with a simplified or an advanced Pai Gow Poker strategy, you’ll be separating your hands into 20 categories, depending on the seven cards you’ve been dealt. These categories are then listed in order of hand strength; you’ll choose the highest rank that applies to your cards, and follow the recommended instructions. It’s the same approach that you’d use to play Video Poker as optimally as possible.

The 20 categories for your Pai Gow Poker strategy are further divided into two sections: One, cards which complete a Straight, Flush, Straight Flush or royal Flush; and two, those which do not. The first section is relatively easy to handle, since you already have a made five-card hand at your disposal – remember, your five-card (high) hand has to be stronger than your two-card (low) hand. Here’s a simplified Pai Gow Poker strategy for this section.

1. Four of a Kind: Play the highest Pair possible in your low hand while maintaining your Straight/Flush.

2. Three of a Kind and a Pair: If you have a Pair of Sevens or better, put them in your low hand if you can maintain your Straight/Flush. If not, settle for putting Three of a Kind in your high hand.

3. Three of a Kind: Play your best kickers for the low hand while maintaining your Straight/Flush.

4. Three Pair: Play the highest of your Pairs in your low hand while maintaining your Straight/Flush.

5. Two Pair: This one’s a little tricky. Depending on the strength of each Pair, and what kickers are left over, you might want to put your better Pair in your low hand. Definitely do this if the face value of the two Pairs adds up to at least 17; for example, Kings and Fours (13+4) or Nines and Eights (9+8). Splitting your Pairs is less advised as their face value drops.

6. One Pair: Play the best low hand you can while maintaining your Straight/Flush – unless you have Queens through Nines, in which case play Ace-King in your low hand if possible.

7. No Pair: Play the best low hand you can while maintaining your Straight/Flush.

Working with cards that cannot make a Straight/Flush in Pai Gow Poker requires a few extra steps, because now you might have cards that fall into additional categories. Here’s what to do with your seven cards in these situations:

8. Five of a Kind and a Pair: Put two Aces in the low hand, and leave a Full House in the high hand.

9. Five of a Kind: Put two Aces in the low hand and leave a Set of Aces in the high hand.

10. Four of a Kind and Three of a Kind: If your Quads are at least two ranks higher than your set, split your Quads and put two of those cards in your low hand, leaving a Full House in your high hand. Otherwise, split your set.

11. Four of a Kind and a Pair: Put the Pair in your low hand.

12. Four of a Kind: This category requires a little more savvy. If you have Queens or better, split them up and put a Pair in your low hand. If you have Fours or worse, keep your Quads together in your high hand. Everything in between will depend on the strength of the kicker you can put in your low hand.

13. Three of a Kind and Three of a Kind: Split your higher-ranking set and put two of those cards in your low hand.

14. Three of a Kind and Two Pair: Put the higher Pair in your low hand.

15. Three of a Kind and One Pair: Put the Pair in your low hand.

16. Three of a Kind: Put the two highest kickers in your low hand, unless you have three Aces, in which case use an Ace and your highest kicker.

17. Three Pair: Put the highest Pair in your low hand.

18. Two Pair: Follow the same strategy as when you have seven cards that can make a Straight/Flush.

19. One Pair: Put your best two kickers in your low hand.

20. No Pair: Put your second- and third-best kickers in your low hand.

Even as a simplified strategy, this is quite a lot to absorb for newer Pai Gow Poker newbies. But most of these steps are pretty intuitive, and most of the time, you’ll be dealt seven cards that fall into one of these easier categories. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at following the strategy; then, if you choose, you can start on a more complex strategy by adding in some of the exceptions to these rules. For example, if you have seven cards that make a Straight/Flush and include both Three of a Kind and One Pair, and you have three Sevens and two Aces, you’ll only put the Aces in your low hand if your two kickers are Six-Five or worse.

Pai Gow Poker is a card game that first appeared in California in the 1980s; a blend of both eastern and western traditional gambling games that made for a fast-paced, high-action casino game. Today it is considered one of the biggest moneymaking card games for the casino industry across the world.

Pai Gow, also known as two-handed poker. Also, this remains as a casino game that involves elements of poker, Chinese Pai Gow, and other games. The game uses a standard 52-card poker deck plus one joker, which is either wild or semi-wild.

Players start by receiving seven cards in the pai gow poker game. Then, which they use to make two separate poker hands - one two-card hand and one five-card hand. The players do not play against each other, but rather each player is going against the dealer or 'house.'

If both of the player's hands beat both of the house's hands, then the player is paid out. Then, both of the dealer's hands beat both of the player's hands. Also, the casino wins and takes the player's money.

So, if the player wins one hand, the dealer wins the other than this is considered a 'push' and the player takes their initial bet back. In the case of a tie, the house is declared the winner.

The two-card hand is called the 'front' hand, and the five-card hand is the 'back' hand. The front hand is not allowed to be better than the backhand in pai gow poker. Also, with the hand rankings following standard poker hand rankings.

Just like any customized deck of cards game and uno game cards, there exists various rankings. Going from the lowest possible hand to the highest possible, these are:

• High card (worst)
• One pair
• Two pair
• Three of a kind
• Straight (five cards of consecutive value)

• Flush (five cards of the same suit)
• Full house (one pair plus three of a kind)
• Four of a kind
• Straight flush (five cards consecutively of the same suit) (best)

In general, the house takes no commission from a push hand and takes a 5% commission from winning hands, though this can vary per casino. This means that if you bet $100 and you win, the payout is $95.

If played correctly, Pai Gow Poker can have one of the smallest house edges of any casino game. In general, the house advantage is measured at about 2.5%. Specifically, below the averages of roulette (5.3%), slot machines (5%-10%).

Also, it includes other table games like Caribbean stud (5.2%), let it ride (3.5%), and three card poker (3.4%). Its odds remain commonly beaten only by craps (.6-1.5%), blackjack (2%), Baccarat (1.2%) and video poker (.5%-3%).

Pai Gow Poker is one of the newer card games in the casino world. However, its principles borrow liberally from a combination of two of the oldest games known to humans: poker and Chinese Pai Gow.

While its exact origins are unknown, poker dates back at least 500 years. Pai Gow, on the other hand, is even older. Pai Gow Poker at least dates back to the Song dynasty (960-1279), if not earlier.

It implied an originally played game using domino-like tiles and a complicated set of rules designed to mimic the Chinese social hierarchies of the time. Pai Gow means 'make nine,' which is essentially the structure of the ancient game.

Particularly, as the object is for players to group their tiles into sets of nine. It is possible that poker may also have some of its roots in Chinese tile games.

However, this link is not as well documented as its connections to the Persian card game of 'As-Nas,' which originated in the 1600s. As-Nas uses a unique set of cards that features five suits of five cards each: an ace and four 'court' cards.

Players then attempt to make combinations of these cards such as pairs, three of a kind, or a full house (a pair plus a three of a kind). Poker gets its name from the French game Poque, whose rules even more closely match those of the modern game.

Poque is itself a derivation of the German game pochen, which in turn comes from several renaissance-era gambling games like primero, brelan, and brag. While many of these games have different structures, a set of rules began needs standards.

This includes the adaptation of the classic 52-card deck, the standardization of hand rankings. Most, importantly the element of bluffing. Many people do not consider Pai Gow Poker to be a proper form of poker.

Because it does not give the player the ability to bluff. Then, making it in many ways more akin to gambling games like blackjack.

In 1985, the two games blended into Pai Gow Poker by a man named Sam Torosian. Torosian owned the Bell card club in Los Angeles. Even more, at the time the gambling options remain limited.

Due to outdated state amended laws, the only gambling allowed in the area where the card games draw poker, lowball, and panguingue. Torosian's business was slow, and he was looking for ways to rekindle interest in his casinos.

Accordingly, Torosian began casting about for new ideas when an elderly Filipino player told him about a game that he'd seen in China called puy soy. Specifically, this involved the players making and playing multiple different hands.

Primarily, Torosian adapted and simplified this structure. This cuts the action down to two hands that the player would play against the dealer's two hands. As soon as Torosian started dealing Pai Gow Poker in his card room, it was a hit.

His casino filled up and other owners soon followed his lead, quickly adding Pai Gow tables to their gambling floors. Las Vegas casinos began playing it in 1987, and Atlantic City added Pai Gow the following year.

Ironically, Pai Gow Poker has now migrated back east and has become popular in casinos in China, Macau, and the other regions where Pai Gow was first invented.

How To Play Pai Gow Card Game

Unfortunately for Torosian, he missed the opportunity to patent the game and profit off of his innovation. He received some legal advice that made him believe the game was unpatentable.

And, by the time he figured out that this was incorrect his window of opportunity for filing the patent had passed. Today Pai Gow is one of the most profitable casino games in the world.

It is hard to say exactly how much Torosian would have made on the game had he been able to claim credit for it.

However, popular estimates are that he would have made about $70,000 a month, or almost $30 million total. Other estimates go even higher, claiming that his patent could have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Torosian eventually closed the Bell card room and retired comfortably but not as comfortably as he could have. The most recent evolution of the game has come in the form of online Pai Gow Poker, which is available from many online casinos.

Online Pai Gow Poker introduced the concept of the bonus bet, which pays out based on their best seven card hand, as well as the 'house way' option that allows the players to have their hands automatically sorted for them.

The rules of Pai Gow are quite simple. Players start by placing a bet in front of them into the betting area. Different tables will have different upper and lower betting limits.

Consequently, with the lowest amounts potentially as low as a dollar a hand and the highest amounts reaching into the millions. Just like the war card game, as well as the spider card and golf card games, secret strategies help you win.

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All players and the dealer receive seven total cards and make the best five card and two card poker hands, with the front hand not having a value higher than the backhand.

This means that if a player had one pair and five unmatching cards. Then, the pair would have to go into their backhand. Now, their front hand would most likely contain their highest unmatched card.

If players don't follow this rule, then typically both hands come as 'dead', and their 'forfeited' hands. After players have set their hands, placing them in the designated areas on the table felt, the dealer reveals their hand.

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The dealer then pays out or collects from each player in turn.

A losing bet remains forfeited entirely, and a winning bet comes as paid out 1:1. The exception to this is the house rake, which tends to be about 5% of the bet. Also, all ties go to the dealer, further increasing the house's edge.

One way that players can shift the odds back to their favor is by banking whenever this option is available. When a player acts as banker, they become the de facto house.

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The banker plays against all the other players at the table, pays out their winnings, and collects their losses. In this case, all ties go to the player and the player is not subject to the same rake as when the house is the banker.

This role can rotate between the house and whichever players declare an interest though not every casino will allow it. Ultimately, banking implies not typically an option found in online Pai Gow Poker rooms.

Pai Gow Poker may be new, however, it has firmly established its place in the gaming landscape. It has made millions of dollars for players and casinos alike. Although, it didn't make nearly as much money as it should have for one man.

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Thus, Mr. Sam Torosian, the person that actually invented it. Head out to your nearest casino or jump online and you too can take part in Mr. Torosian's legacy. But, always remember to do so responsibly.