Optimal Pai Gow Strategy
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)