The following basic playing strategy for Pai Gow will give you some pointers on how to form the two hands. Start with step #1 and work your way down the basic strategy chart until you find your hand. PAI GOW POKER BASIC PLAYING STRATEGY. Play These Dominoes as the High Hand. Step #1 King hand or one of the pairs (rank 2-12).

• Pai Gow Poker Rules
• Pai Gow Poker Rules Strategy
• Pai Gow Poker Optimal Strategy
• Pai Gow Poker Strategy Chart Example
• Pai Gow Poker Hands

Pai Gow Poker strategy can be simple or complicated depending on how much effort you’re willing to put into the game.

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The game of Pai Gow poker itself is straightforward but to play with the optimal pai gow strategy it takes study and work to memorize the rules to minimize the house edge. After you make your bet, you’ll receive 7 cards. You’ll need to arrange those cards into two separate hands – a 2-card hand and a 5-card hand.

If you’re playing the game in a land-based casino, your results will be influenced partly by the amount you wager when you serve as the banker (your odds change slightly). You won’t serve as banker when you play online. So, online Pai Gow Poker strategy focuses entirely on the manner in which you split your 7 cards.

Below, we’ll categorize strategy into two parts: basic and advanced pai gow strategy. If you only learn basic strategy, you’ll be able to bring the house advantage down extremely close to the floor (2.66%). If you learn advanced Pai Gow Poker strategy, you can shave an extra few hundredths of a point off the edge.

Basic Pai Gow Poker Strategy

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to your 5-card hand as the “back hand” and your 2-card hand as the “front hand.”

• If your 7-card hand only has a single pair, you’ll need to keep it in your back hand. Place your two highest cards in your front hand.
• Basic strategy for two pairs is simple. Split them and put the lower-ranking pair in your front hand.
• If you’re holding 3 pairs, put the highest-ranking pair in your front hand.
• If your 7-card hand has a 3 of a kind, keep them together and put your two highest cards in your front hand.
• If you have two 3’s of a kind, put a pair from your highest-ranking set in your front hand.
• If you have a 3 of a kind and 2 pairs, put the highest pair in your front hand and leave the full house in your back hand.
• If you’re holding a full house, move the pair to your front hand.
• Splitting a 4 of a kind depends on the rank. If you have Jacks through Aces, split them. If you have 7’s through 10’s, split them unless you’re holding an Ace or King. If you are, keep the four together and move your high card over to your back hand. If you’re holding anything below 7’s, keep them together.
• Splitting a hand that contains a straight or flush will depend on whether you have pairs.
• If you’re not holding a pair, or if you’re only holding one, put your two highest cards outside the straight or flush in your front hand.
• If you’re holding two pairs, ignore your straight or flush and split the pairs (keep the higher-ranking pair in your back hand).
• If you have a 3 of a kind with a straight or flush, put a pair in your front hand.

Optimal / Perfect Pai Gow Poker Strategy (How The House Plays It)

Again, if you play according to basic pai gow poker strategy, you’ll cut the house edge almost to its floor, the lowest house edge you can get in the game. However, there are a few tweaks you can make to the Pai Gow Poker strategy we’ve described above that will slice the edge even further.

Pai Gow Poker Rules

The tweaks focus on how you treat two pairs in Pai Gow and we’ve put together a guide on the way the house splits two pair in pai gow that you can follow if you want to play it just like the house does. it.

Normally, you would simply split two pairs and place the lower-ranking pair in your front hand. Let’s refine that strategy. Keep the two pairs together in your back hand if the following circumstances apply:

• If their ranking sum is less than ten and you’re holding either an Ace or King.
• If their ranking sum is less than sixteen and you’re holding an Ace.

By “ranking sum,” we’re referring to their aggregate value. For example, if you have a pair of 5’s and a pair of 9’s, their ranking sum would be 14. In that case, if you’re holding an Ace, move the Ace to your front hand and keep the two pairs in your back hand.

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The game of Pai Gow originated in Ancient China. Translated it means “making nines”. The game is played with 32 specially designed dominoes containing red and white colored spots and the objective is to make two hands of the highest value possible from four dominoes.

The game is played on a blackjack size table with up to 7 players and a dealer. Players make their bet and the set of the 32 dominoes are shuffled and placed in eight stacks of four. Three dice are rolled to determine which player will receive the first stack of four dominoes and then the rest of the stacks of the dominoes are distributed clockwise around the table. The dominoes are even dealt to each vacant player position and are left there until the hand is played.

Players then “peek” at their dominoes and arrange two of their dominoes into a high hand and the remaining two into a low hand. To win both of the player’s hands must be higher value than the banker’s corresponding hands. The player losses if both hands are of lower value. If one hand is higher and one is lower, it is a push and no money changes hands. Payoffs are even money less a 5 percent commission that the casino collects. Players also have the option to be the banker.

In order to play Pai Gow Poker you need to become familiar with the individual dominoes, be able to recognize the ranking pairs, and know how to form the two best hands from the four dominoes.

The chart lists the top ranking 20 hands that consists of 16 pairs and four combinations. The #1 hand consisting of the dominoes 1-2 and 2-4 is called the King pair and it beats all other hands. Each following pair or hand is one value lower than the hand preceding it.

If you are dealt one of top 16 ranking hands in the chart you usually play them as the high hand and the other two dominoes form the low hand. If you don’t have on these 16 rankings, you look to see if you have rank 17 to 20 (comprising dominoes 6-6 or 1-1 with a domino totaling 8 or 9) and play them as the high hand.

If you have none of the 20 ranked hands shown in the chart, then the best hand you can form is one that totals 9 (you add the spots on each domino to arrive at the total of the hand). Like baccarat, if the total of the hand exceeds 9, you subtract 10. For example, dominoes 6-6 and 1-6 total 9 not 19. Dominoes 1-6 and 1-1 also total 9.

The two dominoes 1-2 and 2-4 (they are the ones that make up the King Hand) have a unique feature when they are played individually. Each domino can be played as either a 3 or 6 – whichever makes the best hand. For example dominoes 2-4 with 1-3 would total 7 rather than 0 because you can count the 2-4 domino as a 3.

Pai Gow Poker Rules Strategy

Pai Gow Poker Optimal Strategy

In the event that both the banker and player are holding hands of equal numerical value, the hand having a domino from a high pair (disregarding dominoes from the king pair)

wins.

It is advisable to be the banker as much as possible because the banker wins all ties when the ranking dominoes also tie. If both low hands equal zero, the banker automatically wins that tie. However, to be the banker you must have enough bankroll to cover the total amount bet by every other player.

The following basic playing strategy for Pai Gow will give you some pointers on how to form the two hands. Start with step #1 and work your way down the basic strategy chart until you find your hand.

PAI GOW POKER

BASIC PLAYING STRATEGY

Play These Dominoes as the High Hand

Step #1 King hand or one of the pairs (rank 2-12)

Step#2 Domino 6-6 with a domino that totals 9 (eg. 3-6)

Step #3 Domino 1-1 with a domino that totals 9

Step #4 Two dominoes that total 9 with one being 6-6, or 1-1 or 4-4.

Step #5 Play the highest ranking domino

1. in the high hand if the high hand totals 8 or 9 or
2. play it in the low hand

If you don’t know or are not sure how to form the hands, then turn your dominoes face up and ask the dealer to form the two hands the “house way”.

For more details about Pai Gow and in particular more advanced playing strategies please consult these books.

Pai Gow Poker Strategy Chart Example

Pai Gow Poker Hands

Pai Gow by Bill Zender