Do you prefer playing Pai Gow Tiles or Pai Gow Poker? Pai Gow Tiles is played with dominoes and Pai Gow Poker is played with playing cards. Pai Gow tile is slow in comparison to Pai Gow Poker. But playing with tiles has its own charm, uniqueness and experience. Here you will find the hand rankings of Pai Gow Tiles and Pai Gow Poker.
The basic scoring of pai gow hands is rather simple to understand. For most hands, you can simply add the total number of pips (or dots) on your two dominos. As in baccarat, only the number in the ones column of the total counts; if you have 21 pips between your two dominos, then you have a hand worth 1 point. Face Up Pai Gow Poker is played with a standard 52 card deck, including a Joker, for a total of 53 cards. The rank of each card used in Face up Pai Gow Poker, in order of highest to lowest rank, shall be: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Ace also may play as the lowest card in the straight Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5. Pai Gow Poker Strategy 1. When dealt only one pair, keep it in the five-card hand and move your two highest cards to the two-card hand. When dealt three pairs, put the highest-ranked pair in the two-card hand. When dealt three of a kind, keep it for the five-card hand and place your two.
Pai Gow Tile
Recall the Basics
Before you understand the rules and hand ranking just recall the Pai Gow Tile game. There are 32 dominoes used in Pai Gow, which are mixed or shuffled by the House Supervisor. The dominoes are placed in eight stacks of four each. The Player/Dealer and up to seven players are dealt one stack (four dominoes). The object of the game is to set the dominoes into two hands (front and back, two dominoes per hand) for the best ranking combination. If they are lower, the Player/Dealer wins. When the Player/Dealer and players have the same ranking combinations, the Player/Dealer is the winner.
Rules Of Pai Gow Tiles
- The game is played with 32 dominoes, each with two sets of dots. Some dominoes, such as the 3:6 and 2:5 (“top:bottom” format), appear only once. Others, such the 6:6 and 1:5 appear twice. Even though some dots are red while others are white, the color is irrelevant.
- The goal of Pai Gow Tiles is identical to the goal for Pai Gow Poker: to beat the dealer (or technically, the banker when the dealer isn’t banking).
- At the beginning of a hand, the banker will mix the 32 dominoes and arrange them in 8 stacks of 4.
- The players (up to 7 besides the banker) will choose their bets.
- Then, dice are rolled to determine the distribution of the 8 stacks of tiles – each player receives 1 stack.
- Your job is to arrange your 4 tiles into two hands. Each hand will contain 2 tiles. Each tile (or domino) has a value based on its two sets of dots.
- If both of your hands beat the banker’s hands, you’ll win and your bet is paid even money.
- If both of your hands lose against the banker’s hands, you’ll lose your bet.
- If you win one hand while the other hand loses, you’ll push and your bet is returned to you.
- If you win both hands, the banker will collect 5% of your winnings as a commission. This is one of the reasons it’s an advantage to act as the banker.
Hand Rankings
Hand values are calculated by adding the dots on the dominoes and dropping the tens place. As an example a hand comprised of 3:4 and 4:5 would be scored as “6”. Here’s the math: 3:4 equals 7 and 4:5 equals 9. 7 plus 9 equals 16. Drop the tens place digit and you’re left with 6.
A nine is the best hand possible (with a few exceptions )
Days, Teens, Gongs, and Wongs
A 1:1 tile is called a Day.
A 6:6 tile is called a Teen.
If you pair up either of them with an eight (i.e. 2:6, 3:5, 4:4, etc.), the resulting value is 10, not zero. The hand is called a Gong and outranks a nine.
If you pair up either with a nine (i.e. 3:6, 4:5, etc.), the resulting value is eleven, not one. The hand is called a Wong. It too, outranks a nine.
A 1:2 tile and a 2:4 tile are both known as Gee Joon tiles. They can represent a value of 3 or 6, depending upon which yields the best score. For example, suppose that you have a 1:2 tile paired with a 4:5 tile. Normally, with the 1:2 tile representing 3, the hand would be scored as 2 (3 plus 9 equals 12, drop the tens place digit). However, because the 1:2 is a Gee Joon, it can represent 6, giving the hand a score of 5 (6 plus 9 equals 15, drop the tens place).
The Pairs
Among the 32 Pai Gow Tiles, there are 16 possible pairs (as example, a hand comprised of a 2:3 tile and a 1:4 tile). A pair always beats a non-pair hand, regardless of the dots. The ranking of pairs is as follows, starting from the highest score to the lowest score:
- 1:2 and 2:4
- 6:6 and 6:6
- 1:1 and 1:1
- 4:4 and 4:4
- 1:3 and 1:3
- 5:5 and 5:5
- 2:2 and 2:2 (vertical)
- 2:2 and 2:2 (horizontal)
- 5:6 and 5:6
- 4:6 and 4:6
- 1:6 and 1:6
- 1:5 and 1:5
- 4:5 and 3:6
- 2:6 and 3:5
- 3:4 and 2:5
- 2:5 and 1:4
Pai Gow Poker Hand Rankings
Most Pai Gow Poker hands are ranked according to traditional poker rules. You’ll remember that the game is played by splitting 7 cards into two separate hands: a 2-card hand and a 5-card hand.
- The 2-card hand- The best hand you can have is a pair of Aces (or an Ace and a joker). From there, pair rankings descend to a pair to 2’s. If your 2-card hand does not contain a pair, a high card wins. A pretty easy to rank your pai gow poker 2 card hand.
- As you probably realize, flushes are irrelevant within your 2-card hand. In descending order of value
- The best 5-card hand you can have is 4 Aces and a joker (which is the same as 5 Aces).
- You can also have a royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house flush, straight, 3 of a kind, two pairs, single pair and high card.
- There is one notable exception to traditional poker rankings. Pai Gow Poker hand ranks distinguish an Ace-K-Q-J-10 as a higher-ranking straight than an Ace-2-3-4-5. From there, the highest card of a straight determines its value. For example, a Q-J-10-9-8 outranks a 9-8-7-6-5.
- Five Aces – A-A-A-A-Joker
- Royal Flush – 10-J-Q-K-A of the same suit
- Straight Flush – Five cards of the same suit ranked in order (for example, 5-6-7-8-9 of clubs)
- Four-of-a-kind – Four cards of the same rank (for example, 7-7-7-7) The highest-ranked cards would win should the dealer and player both have four-of-a-kind.
- Full House – Three-of-a-kind and one pair. Ties are broken by the highest-ranking three-of-a-kind (for example, Q-Q-Q-7-7 beats a J-J-J-10-10)
- Flush – Five cards in the same suit, regardless of ranking (for example, 3-6-8-10-J of diamonds)
- Straight – Five cards of different suits ranked in order (for example, 5 hearts – 6 clubs – 7 diamonds – 8 hearts – 9 spades)
- Three-of-a-kind – Three cards of the same ranking (for example, 5-5-5)
- Two Pair – Two sets of pairs (for example, 10-10 and 4-4)
- One Pair – Two cards of the same ranking (for example, 3-3)
- High Card – If no one has at least a pair, then the highest-ranking card wins (for example, A-10-5-4-2 beats Q-10-7-4-2)
Some Pai Gow Poker Examples
If you are dealt an Ace of Hearts, Joker, Queen of Hearts, 9 of Clubs, 10 of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds and King of Hearts, here are some hands to think about:
- Highest hand: A/Hearts-Joker-Q/Hearts-Q/Diamonds-9/Clubs (Two Pairs)
Second highest: K/Hearts-10/Clubs (High Cards). With this example, the chances of beating the dealer’s highest hand are great, but maybe not the second-highest hand. This results in a push, or tie, which extends your playing time. - Highest hand: A/Hearts-Joker-9/Clubs-10/Clubs-K/Hearts (One Pair)
Second highest: Q/Hearts-Q/Diamonds (One Pair). With this example, the highest hand would probably not beat the dealer’s, but the second-highest hand probably would. Again, another push, but nothing lost. - Highest hand: 9/Clubs-10/Clubs-Joker-Q/Diamonds-K/Hearts (Straight)
Second highest: Q/Hearts-A/Hearts (High cards). The Straight would almost certainly win, and there is a good chance that a Queen and Ace as the high cards would beat what the dealer has for the second highest hand.
You need to compare both of your hands to both of the dealer’s hands to determine whether you’ve won, lost, or pushed.
by Manthra KoliyerPosted on 04 Feb, 2021
Pai Gow Poker is a popular form of poker game which is also known as double-hand poker. This game was created in 1985 by Sam Torosian, a Bell Card Club owner in the United States. The game is played with a 52 card deck and a joker. The joker card can be used as a wild card to form a straight or flush. Otherwise, it is considered an Ace.
Objective of the game
Pai Gow Poker Winning Hands
The objective of the game is to defeat the banker or casino, hence all players bet against the casino.
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How to play Pai Gow Poker?
A cup consisting of three dices is shaken at least three times by the casino before finalizing who would receive the first card. Though this practice was followed in the past, now a Random Number Generator (RNG) technique is used.
Each player has to make the bet and after that, players are dealt seven cards. Using these cards, players must make two poker hands. A five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand. In the two-card hand, the joker card alwaysacts like an Ace.
The five-card hand must be higher than the two-card hand. The game with the five-card hand is called the ‘behind,’ ‘bottom,’ ‘high’ etc. while the two-card hand is called ‘in front,’ ‘small,’ ‘minor,’ ‘low’ etc. If two players end up having the same hand, then it is considered to be a tie and the casino wins in thatround.
After all the wagering, the hand of the player is compared with that of the casino. If both the hands that the player has are better than the oneswith the casino,then the player wins. If one hand is better and the other is not, then it is considered a draw. If the casino has a better hand than the player, then the former wins.
Hand Rankings
In Pai Gow Poker, there are only two-card hands, namely, one pair and a high card. For the rankings of the five-card hands, the standard poker hand rankings are used.
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