Your Guide to Pai Gow Odds

Pai Gow is a Chinese gambling game played with a set of 32 Chinese dominos found in casinos around the world. Now it is also used to refer to a card game called Pai Gow Poker (or double-hand poker). 'Pai Gow' loosely translates to 'make nine'. This reflects the fact that, with a few exceptions of high scores, the maximum score of a hand is nine. If your two tiles don't form a pair, their value is determined by the total number of pips on the tiles (dropping the tens digits if any).

In the card game Poi Gow Poker, 52 cards plus a single joker are used (the joker is only to be used as an ace or a card that completes a straight or flush), playing with six individuals and a dealer. Each player attempts to beat the banker, by creating a 5 card poker hand and a 2 card poker hand from seven cards. These two hands must beat both of the banker's hands.

What are the odds in Pai Gow Poker?

With the dealer winning approximately 30% of the time it is important to understand the odds involved with Pai Gow. The player will win both hands about 29% of the time, and the player and dealer will draw hands approximately 41% of the time. There are 154,143,080 combinations in Pai Gow Poker. Each combination has a different probability of you receiving it.

There is a very high probability of you as a player receiving a pair (0.4166) or possibly even two pairs (0.2307) in a deal. You are least likely to receive five aces (0.00000732), a royal flush (0.0014), or a four of a kind (0.002).

In the mid-range of probability, is a full house at 0.0272, a flush at 0.04, a straight at 0.0729, and a three of a kind at 0.00485. understanding these odd will help you formulate a Pai Gow Poker strategy.

How can you get better odds playing Pai Gow?

A hand-setting strategy could increase your chances of winning in Pai Gow Poker by 0.15%, which, over a long session, could make a real difference. Playing Pai Gow by the following rule could bring the house edge down to 2.69% when the dealer is the banker.

• 1. When dealt a single pair, keep it in the five-card hand. Move your two highest cards to the two-card hand.
• 2. When dealt three-of-a-kind, keep it for the five-card hand and place your two highest single cards in the two-card hand.
• 3. When you're dealt a full house, move the pair to the two-card hand and keep the three of a kind for the five-card hand.
• 4. When you're dealt a hand that has a straight or flush in it with no pairs or a single pair -- keep the straight or flush. Put the two highest cards in your hand that are not part of the run or flush in your two-card hand.