Pai Gow

Posted by salim14 on September 29th, 2010

Pai Gow is a Chinese gambling game, played with a set of Chinese dominoes. Pai Gow is played in unsanctioned casinos in most Chinese communities. It is played openly in major casinos in China, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.?

The traditional Asian game pai gow is played with tiles that look like dominoes. In order to make it easier an American version was introduced by using standard playing cards and the ranking of hands was developed after poker hands. Thus the new game Pai Gow poker was developed.

Pai Gow poker is played with a standard 52-card deck and one joker. The joker can be used as an ace or a wild card to complete a straight, a flash or straight flash only. The game is played on blackjack-size table with up to six players and a banker. The players are required to play against the banker. In most cases the casino acts as the banker although players can choose to bank the game if they wish. This would require having enough money to cover all of the other players bet. The casino collects five-percent commission on all winning bets.

To start the game, the players make their bets according to the table minimum. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals out seven stacks containing seven cards. After the dealing the banker shakes a cup containing three dice to determine who gets the firsthand.

Players look at the seven cards and set them into two-card hand and five-card hand. There is place marked on the table to place your hands. The two-card hand is placed in front and the five-card hand is placed behind it. If both of your hand beats the banker's two hands you win . If one of your hands beats the banker and one loses it is push and there are no winners. If either of your hands has the exactly same value as the banker's hand has , it is a tie which is also called a copy and the banker will win in this case.

When you are setting your hands , your five-card hand must have a higher value than your two-card hand. If you make a mistake and the two-card hand is higher then it will be a 'foul' you lose automatically. When the casino acts as banker the dealer must sent their hands according to the certain rules called the 'House Way'. If you are not sure about how to set your hands, you can ask the dealer to set it according to the 'House Way' rules. This will keep you safe from making a mistake.