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This Chinese game initially took root among cutting edge gamblers in the U.S.; and then later on, pai gow took on a totally different form. Indeed, in the United States, this traditional dominoes game was substantially modernized, and in 1985, the businessman and gambling prodigy Sam Torosian transformed it into another branch of poker.
Pai gow, also known as double hand poker, has already been a popular online game for many years. However, outside the realm of virtual gaming, this game’s fortunes have fallen to a rather low ebb. Hence, the hype around online pai gow poker is rapidly growing and getting ever more intense with the flurry of Google requests for some tips on how to do online pai gow well. So in order to help you keep up with the latest online gambling trends, we’ve compiled some useful tips and suggestions that will educate you on how to approach pai gow online; and we are also going to disclose some key strategies and vital techniques for playing pai gow poker successfully.
So, here we go!
So if you’re now wondering, “What is pai gow?” we can now give you an explanation. Normally, pai gow poker is played with a standard 52-card check game and a joker. There are 6 players and a dealer in the game.
The player’s goal is to beat the banker, and the ultimate aim of the game is to set two poker hands out of the given seven cards. The two-card rank has to be exceeded by the rank of the five-card hand. These are called the high hand and the low hand, respectively. The former is ranked, as in regular poker. The only possible low hands you can have are a pair or no pair.
The card ranking is similar to traditional poker, but with one minor difference. The A2345 is the second highest straight, and this is called “the wheel.”
Once the player has composed the hand, the dealer discloses their cards, splitting them in a similar way. The player and the dealer compare two high hands, and the one with the higher rank wins.
The hand is a “push” when the dealer wins one of the hands and the player wins the other. The cards are sent to the bank and no money is exchanged, except for the obligatory 5% commission.
This is a substitute: in a high hand, it may become any card used for completing a straight or a flush. But once it can’t be used for either of the latter two, it’s always an ace instead. And in the low hand, it’s also used as an ace. Sometimes you may even find a few “individualist” casinos in California which use this card as a wild!
In this game, the bets are placed before the cards are dealt. There are pai gow tables where you can make a bonus bet (betting on whether you will make a premium hand or not). Pai gow experts strongly recommend not betting on the bonus, as the bonus bet is too high; in which case, you can end up putting yourself at risk of losing it all!
Another thing that distinguishes pai gow from traditional poker is that you can bet against other players and dealers. This is called “banking.” However, there is always the option of skipping banking, and rotating it to the next player instead.
Side bets are also available; however, they don’t influence the bet on the hand in any way. This kind of bet is an extra wager on whether you may get a Four of a Kind, Full House, etc.
Sticking to an optimal strategy, make sure you can reduce your risks in online pai gow poker. Unsurprisingly, the game already has artificial intelligence versions, and the machine has geared pai gow poker primarily towards encouraging players to adopt an optimal strategy. Applied to a pai gow poker game, this strategy enables the player to decrease the house edge as much as possible. Needless to say, following time-tested methods and techniques gets you to the top in pai gow poker; whereas implementing random, raw strategies merely drags you down the winner’s ladder!
One of the basic optimal strategies is to collect cards, so that the higher hand will outrank the lower one. So when players put their cards on the table and the low hand with two cards outranks the five-card one, the hand is fouled. But there are also some additional steps to follow when you play pai gow, and we have decided to share them with you here.
| Hand | What to Do |
| Five of a Kind & a Pair (Straight or Flush possibility eliminated). | A pair of Aces should be played in the low hand. |
| Four of a Kind & Three of a Kind (Straight or Flush possibility eliminated). | Divide Four of a Kind or split Three of a Kind. |
| Four of a Kind (Straight or Flush possibility eliminated). | • Don’t split 4s, 3s, and 2s. • Leave 5s and 10 high or better together. In other cases, split. • Leave 6s and Queen high or better together, otherwise split. • Never split Jacks, 10s, and 9s with Ace high. • Aces, Kings, and Queens are always to be split. |
| Three of a Kind & Three of a Kind (Straight or Flush possibility eliminated). | A pair from the higher hand to be played. |
| Three of a Kind & Two Pair (Straight or Flush possibility eliminated). | The higher pair from the five-card hand to be played. |
| Four of a Kind (Straight or Flush possible). | Get the highest Straight or Flush and leave the pair of Aces in the low hand. |
| Three of a Kind & One Pair (Straight or Flush possible). | Get the highest Straight or Flush and leave the pair of Aces in the low hand. |
| Three of a Kind & One Pair (Straight or Flush possible). | Make it a pair of 7s or better in the low hand and play Straight or Flush in the high one. |
| Three of a Kind (Straight or Flush possible). | The two-card hand is played to leave a Straight or a Flush in the five-card hand. |
| Three Pair (Straight or Flush possible). | Play the Aces in the low hand. |
The house edge is quite low if you know how to combine your optimal hand. It may even go as low as 2.8%! However, if a casino decides not to charge 5% commission, then the edge is about 1.3%.
Before wagering any real money, you can try playing a free version of the game instead. The popularity of pai gow poker online is constantly growing, and the rules hardly differ at all from the real-life version. Try it now to experience the real thrill of the game!
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