Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker isn’t like your traditional game of poker. Instead, it is the perfect marriage between American poker and Chinese dominoes.

A maximum of seven players can play the 52-card deck. The joker is wild, but it can only be used to create a flush, straight, straight flush, or can be used as an ace. The players play against the dealer, but each player has to put up a stake.

More about Pai Gow Poker rules and tactics below.

Pai Gow Poker Rules Made Simple

When the dealer deals, each player receives seven cards. All players can view their cards, but the dealer doesn’t.

The players can divide their cards into two hands. One hand has five cards and the other has two cards. The card values are the same as they are in traditional poker, except for the ace and numbers two through five, which is the second highest kind of straight flush or straight. The highest hand you can get is five aces, which includes the joker. In the two-card hand, a pair beats a hand with two cards that don’t match, but there are no other possible combinations.

The player should organize the cards so that the hand with five cards has a higher value than the hand with two cards. If the hand of two cards has a pair of aces, the hand with five cards must have at least two pairs. Players can’t say anything about their hands during the game.

Each player places both hands face down. The dealer exposes all their cards, but the players can’t touch the cards in their hands. The dealer will arrange their cards into two hands of two cards and seven cards just as the players have already done.

The players then expose their cards. The player’s hand of five cards is compared to the dealer’s hand of five. The player’s hand of two cards is then compared to the dealer’s hand of two. After this, this is what occurs:

• When the player beats the dealer with both hands, the dealer plays the amount the player staked.
• When the player wins a hand and the dealer wins the other hand, it is a “push.” This means there is no payout.
• When both hands are won by the dealer, they win the player’s stake.
• When there is a tie, the hand is won by the dealer. If one hand is tied and the other hand is won by the dealer, the dealer wins. If the player wins a hand and the other is tied, it’s a push.

It is obvious that the dealer has the advantage when playing online Pai Gow Poker.

Side Bets Offer a Chance for Bigger Winnings

There is only one online casino game developer that offers a side bet for online Pai Gow Poker and that’s Microgaming. Microgaming is a major developer that many online casinos use.

Online Pai Gow Poker can be a lot of fun. When you have a good handle on the Pai Gow rules, you can create strategies that work for you. One of the ways to become accustomed to the game and develop strategies is to try online casinos that give you no deposit bonuses or welcome bonuses that you can apply toward Pai Gow.