Online Pai Gow Poker

Online Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is the American version of traditional Chinese Pai Gow. Instead of playing with Pai Gow tiles, a standard 52-card deck is used. Players are gaming against the banker who is either the house or one of the other players. The lowdown on the Pai Gow Poker, make two hands out of the seven cards your dealt, one 5 card hand and a 2 card hand. The larger of the two hands is referred to as the top and the smaller hand is called the bottom. The deal goes down in 7 piles of 7 cards each with four cards left over, this happens regardless of how many players are at the table.

Players are positioned from number 1 to 7 and then a dice is rolled to determine who goes first. Play goes counter-clockwise. If a spot at the table is not filled the 7 card hand sits unused. Hands are a straight-forward, the only pairs and high cards are available to the bottom hand, the top hand goes by standard poker rankings. Joker is wild in Pai Gow Poker, it can be used to fill out a flush in the high hand otherwise it serves as an ace in both.

Pai Gow Dealer Advantage

In Pai Gow Poker the house has a 2.5% advantage over the player. That means the paigow player will win 47.5% or the time compared to the 52.5% of the time the house will come out of things victorious. However when the player is the banker (dealer) the game is close to even.

This fact means that most simple strategy for increasing the odds of winning at Pai Gow Poker is to be the banker as frequently as possible.

When the player is the banker the house edge is reduced to approximately 1.25% (or 51.25%). These numbers assume that the player will split his hands in the same manner as the house (the house way).

When the player is banking the playing field is nearly even. This it true because of the advantage the banker has from winning ties. Also there is another factor, the 5% commission that is paid by the banker on winning hands, gets charged after losses are settled against winnings.

This Pai-Gow Poker strategy is based the manner in which the house arranges the cards, meaning the rules that determine how the dealer will split his seven cards into the best possible two hands. It is a pretty safe assumption that the casinos always arrange the cards in a manner that is close to optimal. The rules will probably vary slightly from casino to casino.