Foul Hands in Pai Gow
May 14, 2008
Sometimes you can have better cards while playing Pai Gow and still end up losing. I’m talking about foul hands, and even if you beat the bankers hands you will be denied payment and lose your wager. In order to win at Pai Gow you have to be able to beat both of the banker’s hands with both of yours. As most of you know you have to set seven cards into two separate hands of two and five cards. A hand is considered foul when hands either have the wrong number of cards in them, or the...
Banker in Pai Gow Poker
March 13, 2008
Pai Gow Poker is a casino game that is played with up to six players and the banker, each of which is dealt seven cards. There are no draws. Each player arranges cards into two poker hands, one of five and the other of two cards. To win, both your five-card hand and your two-card hand must beat the banker’s corresponding hands. Winning one and losing the other is a push. Normally it’s the dealer who is the banker, but in Pai Gow Poker any player can be the banker. A small plastic...
What is Pyramid Poker
March 7, 2008
Mark Pilarski was recently asked if he had ever heard of an abbreviated game of Pai Gow poker that uses less than the traditional seven cards? Below was Mark’s reply: Pai Gow Poker is a seven-card poker game played with a standard 52-card deck and a joker. The art of the game is to skillfully arrange your cards into two poker hands, one of five cards and the other of two. To win, both your five-card hand and your two-card hand must beat the banker’s corresponding hands. When setting...
Pyramid Poker Strategy
March 7, 2008
For those of you who don’t know, Pyramid Poker is a simplified version of Pai Gow poker, where, instead of seven cards, three cards are dealt to each player. Once both the dealer and players are dealt their three cards, the players arrange their hands so each has a two-card hand and a one-card hand. As in Pai Gow Poker, the one-card hand must have a lower value than the two-card hand. The hand rankings are just the same as in poker except there are no straights or flushes with the two-card...
Pai Gow Poker
March 7, 2008
The Americanized version of Pai Gow is called Pai Gow Poker. In this game you play with cards and poker hand rankings instead of Chinese dominoes. The game is played with a standard 52-card deck plus a single joker. Each player is playing against the banker, which may be the casino dealer or one of the other players at the table. The goal is to create a five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand out of the seven cards in you receive. The five-card hand must rank higher than your two-card...
Fortune Pai Gow Side Bet
February 19, 2008
Fortune pai gow side bets pay a bonus based only on the player’s hand. For purposes of the bonus it does not matter how the player arranges his cards and whether or not he beats the dealer. A relatively unique feature of this bet is that if any player gets at least a four of a kind then all other players who placed the side bet get an envy bonus (because they envy the person who got the good hand). The side bet must be...