The Basics of Pai Gow Poker
The rules of pai gow poker are derived from the Chinese pai gow combined with the hand rank rules of poker. Thus, instead of dominoes used in Chinese pai gow, pai gow poker uses a deck of 52 cards. A joker is also added into the deck. The joker may represent an Ace, or can be utilized as a wild card to create a flush or a straight.
A pai gow poker table can have as many as six players. There is also a banker, who may either be a casino personnel or another player. The player/ banker should have enough cash to pay all wins at a table since poker, like blackjack, is a dealer-player match and not a player-versus-players match as it is in non-pai gow derivative poker games.
The play starts off after each player has placed one's bet. The banker then deals face down 7 stacks of cards. Each stack contains 7 cards. This distribution is an absolute rule, and remains the same irrespective of how many players are at a table. The remainder of the deck--- four cards--- will not be part of the game.
Three dice are then spun to determine which player is to make the first bet. The round of betting proceeds then from left to right.
Players are to form two hands out of their seven cards. One hand must consist of five cards, and the other hand, two cards. Winning five-carded hands are determined based on poker's hand ranking system. There are two possible ways that the two-carded hand can win: with highest card, or with a pair.
The hand with two cards must be set in front of the hand consisting five cards. For this reason, the two-carded hand is also referred to as front hand, and the five-carded hand as back hand.
In pai gow poker, the front hand must always be lesser in rank value than the back hand. Otherwise, the player fouls, and when the player fouls, the player loses one's bet.
To win, all of the player's hands must rank higher than those of the banker's. If all of the player's hands are slighter than the banker's, the player loses.
Where the player beats any one of the banker's hands only, it is declared a tie. But where the player ties up with the banker on both hands, the player loses. The situation where the player has both hands at a tie with the banker is referred to as copy.
Pai gow poker is a unique variant of poker since it is a product of the combined rules of two games: pai gow, a Chinese game, and poker. Instead of dominoes as used in pai gow, pai gow poker uses standard deck of cards added with a joker. Instead of trying to beat an entire table of players, the player deals with the banker in this game by having two winning hands.