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 two card low hand has a higher value than the five card high hand.

Let’s take a look at an example. The banker could have a pair of 4’s for his two-card hand and a pair of 8’s for his five-card hand. You could have a winning hand like a pair of queens and kings, but put the kings in the two-card hand instead of the five-card hand.

Even though both of your pairs would have beaten both of the dealer’s, you fouled the hand by putting the stronger pair up front. If the two-card hand is higher in value than the five-card, then your hand is foul an it’s a loser.

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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 marker called a chung is put on top of the cards indicating who the banker is for that hand.  If you want to be the banker then you just need to tell the dealer before the cards are dealt and he’ll place the chung in your betting circle.

You do hold an advantage of being the banker because you win copy, which is when the player and the banker have the same hand in either five or two cards.

The bad thing about being the banker is that you have to have a rather large bankroll in order to book all of the action for each of the players.  If your hand is a loser then you are going to have to pay all winning bets, including the dealer’s.  Another bad thing is that you can only be the banker for one hand, then it returns to the dealer.   The house also still gets the five percent commission on each winning bet, even if you are the banker and not the dealer.

It is smart to be the banker.  Since the banker wins all ties, you might as well take advantage of being the bank and lowering the house edge as much as possible.  Do pay attention now to the size of your bankroll.  If it is limited, then you should only bank the game when you are the only player at the table.

The reason for playing against the dealer is that the dealer’s wager will be only the amount of your last bet. Consequently, you won’t be at the risk of losing any more money than you would be as a regular player.  You can also request the dealer play for the table minimum.

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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 your hands, remember your five-card hand must have a higher poker ranking than your two-card hand. Winning one hand while losing the other is a push or tie, where you neither win nor lose.Your question describes a nifty little game called Pyramid poker, a simplified version of Pai Gow poker, where, instead of seven cards, three cards are dealt to each player. Pyramid poker also uses a standard 52-card deck but does not include a joker.

Both the dealer and player are each dealt three cards, which are arranged into 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 as in poker except there can be no straights or flushes with the two-card hand, and aces are always high.

Once the player sets his two hands, the player’s one-card hand is compared to the dealer’s one-card hand, and then the player’s two-card hand is measured against the dealer’s two-card hand. In order to win, both hands of the player must be higher than both of the dealer’s. If only one hand is higher and the other loses, then the bet is a tie, or push. You lose only if the dealer wins both hands.

If hands are of equal face value — say for instance you both have a Queen in your one-card hands — it’s called a copy, which automatically goes to the dealer, giving the casino a built-in house edge of approximately 3.5%.

Although you can find Pyramid Poker in some of the larger gaming jurisdictions, it’s not yet here in the woods of Northern Michigan, but I have given it a kitchen table workout. It’s fun, and faster than Pai Gow Poker, and probably worth adding to my play list amongst friends, but that 3.5% casino advantage by way of copies is a bit steep for me.

If you are looking optimal playing strategy for pyramid poker check out this article.

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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 hand, and aces are always high.The following is the optimal player strategy for Pyramid Poker.

If you’re dealt three singletons, play the middle-valued card as the one-card hand, except play the lowest card as the 1-card hand with any of the following hands: 2, 3, and any card 5 or higher, or 2, 4, and any card queen or higher.

With a pair and a loner, normally play the pair in the 2-card hand, except with any of the following:

With a 2 to 4 loner and a pair of jacks or higher, or…………….

with a 5 to 7 loner and a pair of queens or higher, or ……………

with an 8 or 9 loner and a pair of kings or higher, or …………..

with a 10 or jack loner and a pair of aces, split the pair, one in the 2-card hand and the other as the 1-card hand.

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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 one. The two-card hand is the “in front” or “on top” hand while the five-card one is “behind” or “bottom.”
The dealer shuffles the cards and disperses them in seven face-down piles of seven cards, with four unused. There are no straights, flushes, or anything else with your two-card hand, just one pair and high cards. Five-cards use the standard poker rankings that apply to regular poker. The joker can be a wild card that is used to complete a straight or flush, but otherwise it counts as an ace.

You need to beat the banker’s hand with both of your two hands in order to win, if you win only one hand and lose the other then you push, and if you lose both hands then you lose your bet. The banker’s edge comes in that all ties go to the banker.

When the casino is banking the game, there is normally a specific manner in which they are required to set their hand. However, when a player is the banker he is free to set his hand how he chooses and try to implement a strategy. If the player decides to co-bank with the house then he must set his hand the house way.

Most casinos take a flat 5% commission which may seem high, the game is slow-playing and there are a lot of pushes, so the house doesn’t win as much money as with other games.

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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 at least $5 to qualify for the envy bonus. The return on the side bet is maximized at $5 because the envy bonus is fixed. The winning hand is paid relative to the size of the wager, however. The following table displays the winning hands, the number of combinations, the probability, what it pays to the winner, and the envy bonus. Note that a straight is more probable than a three of a kind and thus pays less. A hand that can be arranged to form both a three of a kind and a straight is scored as a three of kind.

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