Basics of Pai Gow Poker

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.

The object of the game is to beat the “banker”. The banker can be the dealer, another player at the table or a team made up of the dealer and a player.

Pai gow poker is compatible with mobile phones, Windows and Mac devices. So, choose your preferred device and load up the game on your browser before starting the play.

Making the First Move

To start playing pai gow poker, you need to place a bet according to the table minimum.
After all bets are made, all players at the table are dealt 7 cards. With these 7 cards, you need to form two poker hands: a 2-card poker hand and a 5-card poker hand.

The 5-card hand is often referred to as the bottom, high, behind or big hand. The two-card hand is known as small, on top, low, minor, or in front hand.

Understanding Your Hands

Basically, 5-card hands follow the standard winning poker hand rules. 2-card hands are simply pairs and high cards. The best 2-card hand is a pair of Aces, and the worst is a hand with 3, 2.

The joker can double up as an Ace or wild card to complete a Flush, Straight, or a Straight Flush.

Playing Your Cards

When creating these two hands from your 7 cards, make sure your 5-card hand has higher cards than the 2-card hand. For instance, if you’re dealt A-A-4-6-7-10-J (and you don’t have a Flush), put the Aces in your 5-card hand, not the 2-card hand. If your 2-card hand has the highest cards, it’s a foul, and you lose automatically.

Once you have your two hands in the order you like, place them on the table with the 2-card hand in front and the 5-card hand at the back. This is where they get their nicknames.

Determining the Winner

All players' hands are judged against the banker’s. If both of your hands are better than the banker's, you’re the winner. If only one of your hands beats the banker’s, that round is considered a draw or push, in which you neither win nor lose.

However, if both of the banker's hands are better than yours, you lose your bet. You will also lose if you tie with the banker.

Beating the House

The house maintains its advantage in pai gow poker in several ways. The house edge for a regular player (not a banker) varies from an average of 2.5% to 2.8%. Part of that edge comes from players losing a tie to the banker (around 1.3%). The rest comes from the commission taken on winning hands.

A failsafe pai gow poker strategy is to take on the role of banker. Your chances of winning will increase: the house edge falls to around 1.4% if the casino allows you to bank half of your hands, and even more if you’re able to bank more hands.