Pai Gow

Game Basics

Pai Gow poker is commonly referred to as simply " Pai Gow ", which is wrong, as " Pai Gow " alone is a completely separate game.  Pai Gow poker is played with one 52-card deck and a Joker and it is a very popular gambling game which was first played in the casinos from Las Vegas in 1987, and has known a great success among gamblers ever since. 

Pai Gow Poker is an entertaining variation of poker, but the rules can seem complex to the beginner. Pai Gow hands are formed by matching up the tiles in certain ways that incorporate pairs or other special sets of numbers. The rules say that the joker can only be used to complete a straight, a flush, or a straight flush (in the 5-card hand), otherwise it is always treated as an ace.  Players win if their seven-card hand contains combinations of cards shown on the Table of Pay posted on the future Pai Gow table. 

Since Pai Gow is a game where players are playing against a casino the casino has always an edge over the player, even though it is a small edge. Because Pai Gow poker is played with a joker, five aces is the highest 5-card hand, beating even a straight flush.  It is my opinion that Pai Gow Poker is a great game to play, and hopefully you will share that opinion as well.

Rules

The name "Pai Gow" is sometimes used to refer to a card game called Pai Gow poker (or “double-hand poker”), which is loosely based on Pai Gow.  The idea of Pai Gow Poker, as mentioned above, is for both of your hands to be better than both of the dealer's hands. Pai Gow Poker has slightly different winning hand combinations than other forms of poker.  Next, the Players are each given seven cards with which to make two separate poker hands

The Rules Play begins by making a wager. The object of the game is to create two Poker hands out of the seven cards in your hand; a five-card Poker hand and a two-card Poker hand. 

One of the rules of Pai Gow poker is that the player's front hand (the one with 2 cards) may not beat his back hand.  The five card hand is ranked according to standard poker rules.  The two card hand follows the standard poker rules as much as any two card hand can, with AA being the best and 2 - 3 being the worst. 

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