Rules Pai Gow Poker

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Pai Gow Poker is a combination of the old Chinese game Pai Gow and the American Poker game. This poker game is played with 52 cards and a joker. The joker is used to round of an ace or a straight or flush. The point of Pai Gow Poker is getting the best hand, either the casino player or the bnak holder. Every player can ask to be bank holder. If this happens, the hands of the casino players are compared to those of the bankholder instead of the dealer. The bankholder is involved in the rules; he pays all the winners from his own money and receives all the lost proftis. The new bankholder wins all the ties. The game can sometimes take hours because the game can be bery slow because of the number of ties per game.

How is Pai Gow Poker played ?

Every player must put the amount of money they enter in the middle of the table. The Croupier then throws the dices to decide who will receive the first cards. Once this is decided, every casino player receives 7 cards with which 2 pokerhands have to be formed. One with 2 cards, the low hand, and one with 5 cards, the high hand. The 5 canrd hand are the 5 best cards. These have to be higher than the 2 card hand. To win this game, both hands must be higher than those of the bankholder. If the hand of the casinoplayer is the same as the one of the bankholder, it’s a tie and the bankholder wins.

The payment

A casino palyer must win both hands before getting paid. All profits must be paid at once minus a commission (5 percent). No commision has to be paid if the casino player lost. If both hands of the dealer win, he will go home with the profit. All other combinations result in “push”. The house benefit with Pai Gow Poker is 2.5 percent.

The Pai Gow Poker hierarchy is the same as with regular poker

- Five Aces: ace-ace-ace-ace-Joker.
- Royal Flush: 10-jack-queen-king-ace of the same sort.
- Straight Flush: five cards of the same sort in order (for example, hearts 6-7-8-9-10).
- Four-of-a-kind: Four cards of the same value. If the croupier and the player both have a Four-of-a-Kind the one with the highest numbers wins.
- Full House: Three-of-a-kind and a pair.
- Flush: Five cards of the same sort, no matter the order.
- Straight: Just like a ‘Straight Flush’ but the cards are not of the same sort. So five different sort of cards that follow each other.
- Three-of-a-kind: Three cards with the same value.
- Two Pair: Two pairs.
- A Pair: Two cards with the same value.
- High Card: If none of the casino players have a pair the one with the highest value wins.