Pai Gow Moments

As I promised in the last post, I will pick up exactly where I left off in the House Way description of Dicedealer.com:

Make the low hand as high as possible. This includes playing the high domino in the low hand when given the choice. Exceptions:
 
If the low hand does not have a value of at least long 3 (a total of 3 with the long domino or higher) and a 7 or higher is possible in the high hand then make the high hand as high as possible. This includes playing the high domino in the high hand when given the choice.

If the two hands total 8-9 or more then play the high domino in the high hand.
2, 5, 6, 12: play 7, high 8.
High 8, low 8, high 4, any 7: play 2, high 5.
High 10, low 10, high 6, any 7: play 6, high 7.
High 10, low 10, high 6, low 8: play 6, high 8.
High 10, low 10, high 6, any 9: play 6, high 9.
High 10, high 8, 11, low 7: play 7, high 9.
High 4, low 4, gee (mixed 6), 5: play high 7, 9.
2 or 12, any 6, 5, gee: play 7, 9.
High 6, low 6, 11, gee: play 7, high 9.
High 8, low 8, any 7, 9: play high 5, 7.

At first glance, these combinations may seem to be too many and too complicated for one to understand and remember.  Through practice and use, it is not impossible.

In one of our posts, we talked about the House Way.  This is the means by which the house is expected to play.  The problem is, some casinos have different House Ways.  Here is one common way casinos follow this rule.  It would do you good to know about it.  I have lifted this version of the House Way from Dicedealer.com, where you can actually play pai gow tiles online.

Always keep pairs together except:
Split supreme pair with 6-4, 6-5, or 6-6.
Split 2s or 12s to make 6-8 or better. Also split with 9&11.
Split 9s with any two of 2,10,12.
Split 8s with any two of 2,10,11,12. Also split with 9&11.
Split 7s with any two of 2,10,11,12.
 
Play 2 or 12 with a 7,8, or 9. With both a 2 and 12 play the 12 in the high hand. Play high 9 over wong and gong and gong over wong except:
 
Play wong over gong when fourth tile is 11.
Play wong over high 9 when fourth tile is 11.
Play gong over high 9 when fourth tile is any 4 or when third and fourth tiles are low (mixed) 8 and 5.

Due to space constraints, I would have to spread this topic into two posts.  Don’t worry, I will make sure that the next post will pick up exactly where this one has left off.  In the meantime, do go over these rules and tips again and again until you think that you know them by heart.  Then you can move on to the next half.

In the past few posts we have been looking at strategical points as presented by Fortune Palace.  Here is the last installment, which talks about the House Way and the Bonus Bet as offered in their casinos.  Enjoy!

The House Way

The House Way is the set of instructions each casino gives its dealers on how to set their seven card hands. Most online casinos offer a House Way button so that you can automatically take advantage of this set of rules.

What’s important here is understanding that the House Way isn’t set to win all the time, but to keep losses down so that the casino wins in the long term. In other words, the House Way is a safety option, probably best suited to new players and low-risk punters.

Another important point is that some House Way buttons (ie at Golden Palace) automatically play the hand once it’s set. Others (Spin Palace, Ruby Fortune) set the hand but give you the option of whether to play it that way or not. This may not seem much but it affects your overall strategy.

The Bonus bet

If you bet on the bonus, then you’ll win up to 8000 times your stake if your seven cards contain a bonus hand (Straight or above). The payouts are big, but don’t come anywhere near the odds against, so the house edge is substantial.

This won’t suit low and medium risk punters. However, if you’re a high-roller, and prepared to take the risk, the Bonus bet adds enormously to the fun and excitement of Pai Gow Poker.

It’s the way we play!

Here is the second installment of Fortune Palace’s Optimal Pai Gow strategy.  With this post, hopefully you will be able to complete and apply this optimal strategy for winning at pai gow poker.

2 pair:
Always split, unless:
1. Two pairs of 6s or below - don’t split.
2. The hand contains an ace - play the ace behind.

3 pair:
Always play the highest pair in front.

3 of a kind:
1. If three Aces, play a pair of Aces behind and Ace high in front.
2. Otherwise, play the three of a kind behind and the remaining high cards in front.

Straight, flush, straight flush:
Set the back as whichever hand gives the better front.

Full house:
Set the three of a kind behind and the pair in front.

2 sets of 3-of-a-kind:
Split the higher set into a pair and a single  - play the pair in front and play the smaller 3-of-a-kind behind. For example, with K,K,K,10,10,10,5 you should play K,K and 10,10,10,K,5.

Four of a kind:
1. If 2 to 6, play it behind.
2. If 7 to 10, split into pairs, unless a pair or an ace and a face card can be played in front.
3. If J to K, split into pairs, unless the hand also contains a pair of 10s or higher.
4. If Aces, split into pairs, unless a pair of 4s or higher can be played in front.

Royal flush:
1. Play behind.
2. If Royal flush with two pair, split as per two pair rule.
3. Split, if an A, K or a pair can be played in front and a straight or flush behind.

Five Aces:
1. Split, unless a pair of Ks can be played in front.

For every game there is more than one way to win.  The same thing goes for pai gow poker.  Many players have come up with their own strategy – both experts and budding players alike.  In order to be good at pai gow poker, you either have to adopt one existing strategy or if you’re that good, come up with your own winning one.  Here is one strategy presented by Fortune Palace for its players.  They call it the optimal pai gow strategy.

Basic Strategy

The temptation for players of Pai Gow poker is to see hands in straight poker terms. The secret to winning Pai Gow poker is in remembering that you have to win both hands in order to win the bet. The player’s basic strategy in Pai Gow poker is therefore to set the two-card hand (front) as high as possible, whilst still leaving a higher five-card hand (back).

If this isn’t possible, and would leave you with two weak hands, set a ’stopper’ or ‘blocker’ by setting the back hand as high as possible and leave a weak front hand. This won’t win, but will hopefully stop the bank winning, giving you a chance to bet again.

If your hand is just single cards (ie nothing - no pairs, straights, flushes) all you can do is set your 2nd and 3rd highest cards as the front.

If you have a single pair, put the highest two single cards as your two-card hand eg if your hand is K,10,10,9,5,3,2, split them into K,9 and 10,10,5,3,2.

These rules cover the majority of hands you’ll be dealt.

(to be continued)

In the last post we had a quick look at pai gow poker, its background and some basics. If you are someone who likes playing poker and are into variations and new things, then you would most definitely get into pai gow poker.

To make it easier to understand, pai gow poker is simply a variation of 7 card stud. To add a twist, it also has elements of pai gow tiles. Perhaps one of the main differences of pai gow poker from conventional poker is that it makes use of 53 cards instead of the usual 52. The additional card is the joker. Having the joker makes it possible to get 5 of a kind. What are the implications of this hand? In conventional poker, the highest hand would be a royal flush (5 sequential cards in the same suit, ten to Ace). In pai gow poker, though, since we have the 5 of a kind, this beats the royal flush. Ask any poker player who has tried pai gow poker and he will tell you that the 5 of a kind hand ups the excitement another level.

With some poker variations, you know that not all the cards in the hand are used to determine who the winner will be. In pai gow poker, all 7 cards are utilized. The dealer deals 7 cards to all the players face down. Once this is done, the cards are split into two hand – the high hand (5 cards) and the low hand (2 cards). Once a player has split his cards he is not allowed to touch them.

Over the years, as pai gow tiles continued to become popular in the East, some of the concepts leaked to the rest of world.  The result was two-fold.  One was that pai gow tiles were taken up by a number of enthusiasts.  That is what we have been talking about in the past months.  The other result is that the tile game evolved into something similar yet different as well.  This is what we know now as pai gow poker.

So how did pai gow poker come into existence?  Historians have traced the first games of pai gow poker back to the 1800s when the Chinese immigrants brought the tile game over.  However, perhaps due to the lack in equipment, cards were used instead of tiles.  Though pai gow poker has been around since that time, it wasn’t till the 1980s that it was offered in the casinos.

The objective of pai gow poker is to complete two winning hands that would beat the banker’s two hands.  In pai gow poker, each player is dealt 7 cards.  He has to make a hand out of 5 cards – this is called the high hand.  The remaining two cards also form a hand called the low hand.  The rankings of the hands are then played just like you would in customary poker.

How does one win?  If both the low and high hands are better than the banker’s hands, the player wins.  If the banker’s hands are better than both the player’s high and low hands then the banker wins.

In the next few posts let’s look at this game in some more detail.

There are a lot of options available to the buyer of pai gow tiles.  On the Internet alone, you can find so many different choices to suit your preferences.  Perhaps you are thinking, tiles are tiles, what is the difference?  It is basically the look of the whole set, the material, and even the weight.  Let us look at some pai gow tile sets that are on sale online.

At Kardwell.com, they offer supplies for most any gambling endeavor.  They have a whole line of pai gow supplies which you can view on their page: http://www.kardwell.com/pai-gow.html.  Anyhow, they have some pai gow tiles sets, the first of which is housed in a brown vinyl case.  The case itself has a handle which allows you to carry your tiles from one place to another easily.  The tiles themselves are of casino quality and have a high gloss black pearl finish.  The dots on the tiles are red and white.  For this set, you have an added bonus of three dice and a pai gow button.

Their second set that they have is in a nicer case – a wooden box that is stained a deep brown.  There are Chinese characters on the slide out top of the box.  The tiles are essentially the same as the ones available in the vinyl case.  Personally, though, I favor the wooden box.

In any case, there are other sites out there which sell pai gow tiles.  Though many of them are black pearl – which I personally prefer – you might be able to find something else if your inclination leans towards something different.

Though there are some casinos both online and offline that offer pai gow tiles on their roster, there are still some people who want to play this game at home with friends.  Much like poker home games, pai gow “home games” can be a lot of fun and make an afternoon or an evening extra interesting.  So how do you go about setting up a pai gow game at home?  Of course first you need supplies before you can start inviting people.

Just like poker, you would need buttons to play pai gow.  You can get dealer buttons, action buttons, and banker buttons.  They are normally rectangular in shape and are often found in a pearl white finish.  You would also need pai gow dice.  You can find them in sets of three, with a wide variety of colors.  To complement these, you would need to get pai gow cups.  Common finishes would be silver and gold.

In order to play pai gow you would need a table to set things up.  It is really just like any other card game.  Depending on your preferences and your budget, you have a variety of options when it comes to the table.  If you have spare cash you might want to have someone make a table for you.  Yet it is possible to use any flat surface as well.  You just need to buy the layout for the surface.  It’s like a table top with the layout for the players.

Last but not the least, you need the tiles.  We’ll look at tiles in more detail in the next post.

On the outset, it may seem to a beginner that pai gow is merely like a game of dominoes.  Or maybe once one begins to grasp the basic rules, you would think of poker or similar card games.  In reality, though, pai gow is a unique game on its own.  Here are some tips to get you started.

Once you get your tiles, the first thing that you should look for is a pair.  In pai gow, pairs have the highest ranking.  It should be no problem spotting them as you should just look for tiles with the same markings.  If you do not have pairs among your 4 tiles, the next thing that you should look for is a Teen or a Day tile with a 7, an 8, or a 9.  One winning possibility with these tiles would be one Teen or Day tile with a 7 – this would form a High 9.  An 8 with a Teen or a Day would form a Gong.  A Teen or Day tile with a 9 would form a Wong.

Of course, not all hands that you get will yield a pair of any of the combinations above.  When this happens, just bear in mind that the dots on the tiles represent the numerical value of the tile.  In pai gow, when the dots are more than 10, the numerical value is the number when the 1 is dropped.  With no High 9s, Wongs, Gongs, or Pairs, the number which is closest to 9 wins.