Paigon Poker
Play the game that boasts its origins from China. The game was played with Chinese dominoes. The Westernized version is the Pai Gow Poker. It is also called. Pai Gow Poker has become one of the most popular casino table games. It involves the player competing against the banker to make the better low and high hand than the house. Pai Gow (or PaiGow) Poker is played with a standard deck of cards plus a Joker. Arrange your seven card hand into 5-card and 2-card hands and try to beat the dealer. Play Pai Gow Poker Online in 2021 - We've found you the Top 10 Pai Gow Poker sites, with the largest real money games & exclusive bonuses up to $£€1,500.
Welcome to Pai Gow Poker Online! We focus on the popular casino game Pai Gow. We are one of the most comprehensive websites covering the subject Pai Gow and it’s popular searches like Pai Gow Poker and today, Pai Gow Poker online. We are enthusiasts of the game and this site is devoted show you how to play Pai Gow Poker like a pro!
We cover all sorts of Pai Gow topics including strategy, tips, advice, history, etiquitte and more including a detailed explanation on how to split two pair, about being the banker, a list of common pai gow mistakes to watch out for and details about playing pai gow poker online. You can also play a Pai Gow Poker game without downloading any software or installing any programs to your computer. We also mention the top online casinos to play pai gow for free or for real money, the choice is yours! Welcome to the site and enjoy the content!
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Welcome to our Pai Gow Poker site!
Pai Gow Poker is based on an older Asian game called Pai Gow. The original game was invented centuries ago and used tiles (they looked like dominos). In order to make the rules easier to understand for a Western audience, the tiles were abandoned for playing cards.
Today, Pai Gow Poker is played with one standard deck of playing cards combined with a single joker, and the game is one of the most popular at the online casinos. Hands are ranked according to conventional poker hands, which makes determining the winner intuitive for most U.S. gamblers.
On this site, we’ll provide a detailed overview of the rules, Pai Gow Poker strategy that will maximize your chances of winning while reducing the house edge as much as possible, and a whole lot more. Most novices who observe the game without knowing the rules become confused. However, you’ll discover that Pai Gow Poker is not only relatively simple, but fun to play.
How To Play Pai Gow Poker
In land-based casinos, Pai Gow Poker is played between the dealer and up to six players. When you play the game at online casinos, you are the only player. Each hand begins after you choose the amount of your bet (according to the table limits). Seven cards are dealt to you face up and seven cards are dealt to the dealer face down. We have a more comprehensive guide on how to play Pai Gow if you want to go through the finer details.
To play, you must choose two of your seven cards and place them in a separate 2 card hand. The dealer does the same with his 7 cards. At this point, your hands are turned face up and compared against the dealers. You compare your five cards to the dealer’s 5-card hand and the the two cards you isolated will be compared to the dealer’s 2-card hand. Your bet is riding on the outcome of both hands. The goal in Pai Gow is to win both hands. You can learn your chances of getting different hands by looking through the odds of Pai Gow and of course reading our tips and strategy articles.
If the dealer’s 5-card hand and 2-card hand beat your hands (respectively), you’ll lose your bet. If both of your hands individually outrank the dealer’s hands, your bet is paid out even money (i.e. 1:1), less a 5% commission.
If one of your hands outranks the dealer’s corresponding hand (for example, your 5-card hand beats the dealer’s 5-card hand), but your other hand loses, your bet is pushed back to you. If one of your hands wins, but the other hand ties the dealer’s hand, you’ll lose your bet. If it sounds confusing, it isn’t really. Read our pai gow tips for advice on how to play your hands to maximize your odds of winning and how to split up your hands.
There are two more important rules of Pai Gow Poker…
First, your 2-card hand cannot outrank your 5-card hand. If you’re playing the game at an online casino, the software will prevent you from proceeding until you fix the problem. If you’re at a land-based casino, you’ll typically lose your bet based on your committing a “foul.” Be wary.
Second, you’ll recall that the game is played with a single joker. The joker can be used to make straights or flushes (and of course, straight flushes). Otherwise, it represents an Ace.
Pai Gow Poker Strategy
Optimal strategy for playing Pai Gow Poker is complex for two reasons. First, some land-based casinos allow you to assume the role of “banker.” However, not only is this becoming less popular in the largest casinos, but few top-tier online casinos allow it. So, we’ll ignore the “banker” component when discussing playing Pai Gow poker online.
Second, the largest influence on reducing the house edge is the manner in which you split your cards. And therein, lies the complexity. Because there are so many possible hand combinations, you would need an enormous pai gow hand chart to play the “house way.” Even if you had the chart in front of you while playing, the game would proceed at a snail’s pace.
To keep things relatively simple, we’ll provide a few rules of thumb. If you adhere to them, you’ll come very close to achieving the minimal 2.66% house edge on Pai Gow Poker.
Here they are:
- If you’re holding one pair, keep it within your 5-card hand and isolate your two next highest cards.
- If you’re holding two pairs, keep the highest ranking pair in your 5-card hand and isolate the other one.
- If you’re holding three pairs, isolate the highest ranking one.
- Don’t split a three of a kind.
- If you’re holding a full house, isolate the pair.
- Don’t split straights and flushes unless you’re holding two pairs.
- With a four of a kind, look at the card ranking. If you’re holding twos through fives, don’t split them. If you’re holding sixes through nines, split them unless you have a King or an Ace. If you have a King or Ace, keep the four of a kind intact. If your four of a kind is made up from tens or face cards, split them unless you have an Ace.
If you can remember the above rules, you’ll shave the house edge on Pai Gow Poker as closely to 2.66% as possible. You can also take a look through the odds playing pai gow or even test them out yourself playing a pai gow poker game.
Best Online Casino To Play Online Pai Gow Poker
We recommend that you visit Bovada Casino to play Pai Gow Poker. They offer fantastic gambling software, but also allow you to play the game directly within your browser. Their customer support is top-notch and available by email or phone 24 hours a day. You’ll also be impressed by their bonus structure. When you join Bodog Casino and make your first deposit, they’ll give you a 10% bonus match instantly up front. While that’s a lower match than many online casinos offer, you’ll receive your bonus within 30 minutes of making your deposit and you don’t have the huge slew of terms and conditions that can instantly void your bonus at many casinos. Plus, they let you meet the 15x wagering requirement with most of their games and they constantly offer the best odds of any online casino.
Take a moment to visit Bovada Casino and play Pai Gow Poker. You’ll understand why they are one of the most popular gambling sites online.
Pai Gow Poker Rules
Many of you have played Pai Gow Poker at the best online casinos, but are you playing with a proper strategy? Despite the claim that Pai Gow Poker is a game of luck, there are strategies that you can use to improve your odds of winning.
Pai Gow Poker Strategy
Today, we will look at the basic strategy for playing your hands in Pai Gow Poker. Note that this strategy is based on you playing your hands as the player. It does not account for live Pai Gow games where you can play as the banker.
Playing Uncordinated Hands
There are going to be many times where you will receive a hand that’s completely uncoordinated. With these hands, you don’t have as much as a pair for either hand. When this happens, you have to play two high card hands and hope that the dealer has a bad low hand.
First, you will take your highest card and add your four lowest cards together. This is your high hand. You’ll take your second and third highest cards to make your low hand. For example, if you have A-K-J-9-7-5-2, you’d play A-9-7-5-2 for high and K-J for low.
Pai Gow Poker Hand Rankings
One Pair Hands
Another common hand is where you only have a single pair and nothing else in your hand. In this case, the pair will be your high hand. Take your two highest kickers and play them as your low hand. For example, if you have A-Q-10-8-8-6-2, you’d play A-Q for low and 8-8-10-6-2 for high.
One pair hands are scoop capable when you have a medium pair and at least one card of queen or higher in your low hand.
Two Pair Hands
The hands that will be the trickiest to play in Pai Gow Poker are hands with two pair. That’s because you’re often going to split your pair. Splitting pairs is where most people get tripped up in this game.
First, let’s look at the three types of pairs. Low pairs are deuces through sixes. Medium pairs are sevens through tens. High pairs are jacks or better.
Here are the times where you will be splitting two pair, regardless of what your other cards are:
- Anytime one of your two pairs is aces.
- When you have two high pair.
- When you have one medium and one high pair.
In the following scenarios, you will also split two pair provided you do not have an ace in your hand:
- One low pair and one high pair.
- One Low pair and one medium pair.
- Two low pairs.
- Two medium pairs.
In all other cases where you have two pair and an ace in your hand, you will play your ace and the second-highest non-pairing card as your low hand and the two pair for high.
Playing Trips in Pai Gow Poker
Playing trips, aka three of a kind, is easy in this game. In most cases, you will play trips for your high hand and your two highest kickers for the low hand. The only exception is when you have trip aces. In this case, you will split the trips and play one ace as part of your low hand.
Flushes and Straights
Hands with a straight or flush are usually going to play themselves. In the majority of cases, you’ll play the straight or flush as the high hand. For the times where you have a seven-card straight or a seven-card flush, you will play the two highest cards as your low hand.
Pai Gow Poker Odds
The one exception for playing a flush is when you have a flush along with two pair. When this happens, you’re going to break the flush and split the pair according to the rules for splitting pairs.
Quads
You might be tempted to automatically play quads (four of a kind) as a high hand, but that’s not the case. When you have quad jacks or better, you’re splitting the hand into two pair. The same applies to medium quads, provided that you don’t have an ace in your hand. If you do, you will play the quads. For low quads, you will play them together.
Five Aces
As counterintuitive as it sounds, you’re almost never going to play five aces together. Instead, one ace and the joker will become your low hand and you’ll play trip aces for high.
The exception to this rule is when you have a pair of kings and five aces. Then, you’ll play the kings for low and five aces for high.
This Strategy Helps, But Not By Much
The above strategy is a great strategy to use to help improve your odds at winning in games where the dealer is always the banker. This applies to most Pai Gow Poker games at real money online casinos. However, the edge you gain with this strategy isn’t massive. It only improves your odds by about 0.21%. The general house edge when using this strategy is around 2.5%
Where this strategy helps is in games where the player is the banker. In those games, the house edge is reduced down to less than a half of a percent. However, you will find few online Pai Gow games offering player banking. However, it is still great to know when you play in live Pai Gow Poker games.