How To Play Pai Gow Poker Online

With its origins in China Pai Gow Poker is a new addition to both online and land based casinos. The game has also been well received in both American and European casinos. The term Pai Gow in Mandarin means ‘Makes Nine”. The game combines North American poker and offers its players a good chance of winning. The great thing about the game is that players are not betting against each other but rather against the house. The Chinese version of Pai Gow is played with dominos and the US version is played with a deck of cards.

The table is suited for only six players at a time and the house assumes the role of the bank. The banking position can move during the game and its up to the player whether to move it or not. The player can hold the banking position for only two turns at a time. This term will be explained in more detail further into our review.
The goal of the Pai Gow Poker is to make two poker hands with the seven cards you are dealt. Both hands have to be higher then the bankers hands in order for there to be a pay out.

How to Play Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is played with a typical deck of 52 cards and one joker card that can be served as a wild card to make straight, flush and straight flush hands. The dealer will shuffle the deck and will deal the cards out from left to right. The dealer will then will roll three dice to determine which player will dealt the first hand.
Each player will receive seven cards that they need to make into two poker hands. One hand will be made out of two cards and this is called the low hand. The five cards remaining are called the high hand. You can see below for our description of standard poker hands.

Low hands are pretty standard and are ranked from the high card and goes up to two pairs. It is only possible to go as high as a pair as you only have two cards to deal with.

The high hands are a little more complicated. Players will arrange the cards so that they can have any type of poker hand from a high card to a royal flush. See below for standard poker hands.

Note: Players must ensure that the higher hand is higher then the low hand. If a player was to play Ace King for the low hand and only have a queen as a high card in the high hand they would not qualify.

Banker Role
Once all the cards have been flipped over its up to the banker to sort the cards into the high and low hands. The players will then compare hands from left to right versus the dealer.

In order to win at Pai Gow Poker players must beat the dealer with both high and low hands. If only one hand beats the dealer then it is considered a push and the players ante bet is returned. If you have the same hand as the dealer its considered a copy. Only the banker can win on a copy hand, so its ideal to be a banker.

Pai Gow Poker Hands

Pai Gow Strategy
The best edge for Pai Gow Poker is to be the banker as many times as possible. This is due to the fact that the banker will win all copies on the table. This puts the odds in the bankers favour.