Asian Pai Gow Poker Online

• Published: March 5, 2014
• Comments
• 

Traditionally Pai Gow Poker was an Asian gambling game played with tiles. It was adapted for American land casinos using playing cards instead of tiles. With the emergence of online casinos, software providers began to include Pai Gow Poker in their portfolios. Online Pai Gow Poker is played with decks of 53 cards each, with the extra card being a joker. In most casino poker variants the player and dealer make one hand each. However, in online Pai Gow Poker they make two hands each.

After you make the ante bet, you will be dealt seven cards face up. The dealer will be dealt seven cards face down. You have to make two hands with the seven cards dealt to you. The larger hand has to be five cards and the smaller hand of two cards. You have to ensure that the two card hand has to have a lower hand ranking than the five card hand. The ranking for the five card hand is the same as that for normal poker. The ranking for the two card hand is as follows. The highest ranking is a pair, followed by the ranks of the cards. It is important to note that there are no straights or flushes. The joker can be used as a wild card only for making a straight or a flush in the five card hand. Otherwise it is used as an ace.

Online Pai Gow Poker offers two mechanisms for splitting the cards into the two hands. The manual way is more challenging and meant for expert players. In this option you click the cards that you want in the two card hand. The second way is the house way. The software automatically splits the cards in the optimum manner. This takes away from the challenge of the game. The following strategy is recommended for real money players. Use the manual way first and then confirm your selection using the house way.

After you make your selection, the dealer’s cards are exposed and split using the house way. Your five card hand is compared with the dealer’s five card hand and your two card hand is compared with the dealer’s two card hand. The dealer wins tied hands. If both your hands are higher ranked, you will be paid even money less a 5% house commission. If both your hands are lower ranked, then you will lose your wager. In the other eventualities the bet will push.