Pai Gow Poker Strategy
- Pai Gow Poker uses the standard 52-card deck, plus a Joker. It’s you against The Dealer; after you place your bet, you each receive seven cards – yours are face-up, the Dealer’s are face-down. Your task is to split your seven cards into two hands, one with five cards and the other with two cards.
- The rules below summarize strategy for Pai Gow Poker. 'Sum of ranks' refers to the card values. The sum of ranks of a pair of 4s and a pair of 8s is 4+8=12. No Pair: Place the highest card in the 5-card hand and the next two highest cards in the 2-card hand. One pair: Place the pair in 5.
The Pai Gow Poker strategies on this page are designed to be used against the Foxwoods house way. They may or may not be as effective against other house ways.
Optimal Pai Gow strategy
Learning how to win at Pai Gow Poker comes down to understanding three basic elements and combining them to suit your own personal style:
- Pai Gow strategy - general rules for setting any seven card hand;
- The House Way - the way the casino instructs its dealers to set their hands;
- The Bonus bet - betting on your hand, regardless of how you set it.
1a. Strategy for most hands
The temptation for players of Pai Gow poker is to see hands in straight poker terms. The secret to winning Pai Gow poker is in remembering that you have to win both hands in order to win the bet.
The player's basic strategy in Pai Gow poker is therefore to
set the two-card hand (front) as high as possible, whilst still leaving a higher five-card hand (back).
If this isn't possible, and would leave you with two weak hands, set a 'stopper' or 'blocker' by setting the back hand as high as possible and leave a weak front hand. This won't win, but will hopefully stop the bank winning, giving you a chance to bet again.
If your hand is just single cards (ie nothing - no pairs, straights, flushes) all you can do is set your 2nd and 3rd highest cards as the front.
If you have a single pair, put the highest two single cards as your two-card hand e.g. if your hand is K,10,10,9,5,3,2, split them into K,9 and 10,10,5,3,2.
This strategy will cover the majority of hands you'll be dealt and is a good way to get to grips with the basics of the game.
1b. Advanced Strategy
Latest Pai Gow bonuses 2
Check out the latest bonuses available to Pai Gow players.
See all Pai Gow bonuses »2 pair
Always split, unless:
1. Two pairs of 6s or below - don't split.
2. The hand contains an ace - play the ace behind.
3 pair
Always play the highest pair in front.
3 of a kind
1. If three Aces, play a pair of Aces behind and Ace high in front.
2. Otherwise, play the three of a kind behind and the remaining high cards in front.
Straight / Flush / Straight flush
Set the back as whichever hand gives the better front.
Full House
Set the three of a kind behind and the pair in front.
2 sets of 3-of-a-kind
Split the higher set into a pair and a single - play the pair in front and play the smaller 3-of-a-kind behind. For example, with K,K,K,10,10,10,5 you should play K,K and 10,10,10,K,5..
Four of a kind
1. If 2 to 6, play it behind.
2. If 7 to 10, split into pairs, unless a pair or an ace and a face card can be played in front.
3. If J to K, split into pairs, unless the hand also contains a pair of 10s or higher.
4. If Aces, split into pairs, unless a pair of 4s or higher can be played in front.
Royal Flush
1. Play behind.
2. If Royal flush with two pair, split as per two pair rule.
3. Split, if an A, K or a pair can be played in front and a straight or flush behind.
5 Aces
Split, unless a pair of Ks can be played in front.
2. The House Way
The House Way is the set of instructions each casino gives its dealers on how to set their seven card hands. Most online casinos offer a House Way button so that you can automatically take advantage of this set of rules.
What's important here is understanding that the House Way isn't set to win all the time, but to keep losses down so that the casino wins in the long term. In other words, the House Way is a safety option, probably best suited to new players
and low-risk punters.
Another important point is that some House Way buttons automatically play the hand once it's set. Others set the hand, but give you the option of whether to play it that way or not. This may not seem much, but it affects your overall strategy.
3. The Bonus Bet
Playing Bonus or Fortune Pai Gow gives you the opportunity to stake an extra bet on the Bonus. If you bet on the bonus, then you'll win up to 8000 times your stake if your seven cards contain a bonus hand (Straight or above). To see exactly how much you can win, check out our Pai Gow odds and payouts table.
The payouts are big, but don't come anywhere near the odds against, so the house edge is substantial.
This won't suit low and medium risk punters. However, if you're a high-roller, and prepared to take the risk, the Bonus bet adds enormously to the fun and excitement of Pai Gow Poker.
It's the way we play!
This page is an introduction to how to play Pai Gow Poker, and it’s also a beginner’s tutorial for Pai Gow Poker strategy. I’ll write additional articles about Pai Gow Poker in the future which will go into more detail about the game and its strategies.
Pai Gow Poker is a poker-based game based on an ancient Chinese domino game called pai gow. The two games have some superficial similarities, but make no mistake, they ARE different games.
- 100% up to £1000
- 100% up to $300
How to Play Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is not a true poker game. Like most casino games, in pai gow poker, you’re playing against the dealer, not against the other players. In a true poker game, you’re not playing against the dealer at all, you’re playing against the other players.
Pai Gow Poker is always played with a 53 card deck–a standard deck of cards with the inclusion of a joker as a wild card. The goal is to beat the dealer by putting together a better hand.
In a game of Pai Gow Poker, everyone is dealt seven cards. Each player then makes two poker hands out these seven cards–a five card hand and a two card hand.
The poker hand rankings that are used in Pai Gow Poker are the standard poker hand rankings explained on this site’s poker strategy page, with one exception–a straight of ace to five is considered the 2nd highest straight possible. (That straight is called a “wheel.”)
The dealer also arranges her hand into a five card hand and a two card hand, but she doesn’t use her judgment when arranging her hands. She uses a set of prescribed rules called “the house way.” (See the similarities to blackjack?)
The player’s goal is to win BOTH hands, in which case she wins even money less a 5% commission.
If the player wins one hand but loses the other, the hand is considered a push, and her bet is returned.
Pai Gow Poker Strategy Betting
One rule that all Pai Gow Poker players must follow is that when they arrange their hands, they’re forbidden from arranging their two card hand in a way that would make it a better hand than their five card hand. A player who arranges her hands in this way automatically loses; this is considered a “foul.” It’s not cheating, even though it breaks a rule–it’s just a dumb way to lose your money playing Pai Gow Poker.
Another quirk of Pai Gow Poker is that the player has the option of being the banker. If the player opts to be the banker, she needs enough of a bankroll to cover the bets at the table, and she also has to arrange her hands according to the “house way.” But a player can’t opt to bank every hand; the option rotates around the table. Most players don’t choose to be the banker at all anymore.
Pai Gow Poker House Edge
According to the Wizard of Odds, the house edge for a player who knows how to arrange her cards correctly in a game of Pai Gow Poker is 2.73%. The house edge for the banker is only 0.20%, so it’s a good idea to be the banker when you have the option. If you play the game long enough, and you choose to be the banker every time you get the chance, the overall house edge for the game is only 1.46%, making Pai Gow Poker a pretty good casino game, percentage-wise.
How to Arrange Your Hands in Pai Gow Poker
If you want to get the detailed specifics for the correct Pai Gow Poker strategy, find a copy of Stanford Wong’s book Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker. He goes into a lot of detail about the math of each situation and how to make the right decisions.
Another option is to visit Michael Shackleford’s site and just copy the “house way” even when you’re the player. You can find that link, labeled “Wizard of Odds”, in the paragraph before last.
But my preferred approach to Pai Gow Poker strategy is to apply a little bit of thought to each hand. This isn’t the mathematically correct approach every time, but I figure that even if I use perfect strategy, I’m still playing a negative expectation game, so why not?
According to Andrew Brisman, author of American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways, the best you can hope to achieve by playing perfectly at Pai Gow Poker is to shave 0.3% off the house edge. I’m not willing to study hard to gain 0.3% on a game that’s still a negative expectation game, so I’ll just relate the simple strategy for how to arrange your hands in Pai Gow Poker that Brisman shares in his book, and it boils down to a single sentence.
Arrange your hand so that you have the highest possible two card hand possible while still not having a two card hand that’s better than your five card hand.
This makes a lot of sense if you think about it. It doesn’t do you any good to have a full house for your five card hand if your two card hand is going to lose, because you won’t win any money. You’re better off with a three of a kind in your five card hand and a pair in your two card hand, because then you’ve at least got a chance of winning some money.
Pai Gow Poker Strategy
You shouldn’t arrange your cards in such a way as to almost guarantee a push, in other words.
Pai Gow Poker Strategy Betting
Like most casino games, there are more nuances and details I could share about Pai Gow Poker, but this is meant to be an introduction to the game and its strategies, so I’ll leave the other details for future articles on the subject.