Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker, sometimes called Asian Poker or Double Handed Poker, is a combination of Chinese dominos (Pai Gow) and American poker. It was first introduced in California in 1986

Pai Gow Poker is played with 53 cards, a standard 52-card deck plus one joker. The joker can only be used as an ace or as a wild card to complete a straight, a flush or a straight flush.

The Banker

In Pai Gow Poker you play against the banker, regardless of how many other players are at the table.
In most cases the casino acts as the banker although players can chose to bank the game if they wish to.
This would require having enough money to cover all of the other player's bets.
The casino also collects a five- percent commission on all winning bets.

The Deal

To start the game, the players make their bets according to the table minimum.
The dealer shuffles the cards and deals out seven stacks containing seven cards.
This is done no matter how many players there are.
The Banker shakes a cup containing three dice to determine who gets the firsthand.
The player looks at their seven cards and sets them into a two-card hand (also called the Low hand or the Front hand) and a five-card hand (also called the High hand of the Back hand).

Splitting Cards

Pai Gow Poker places only one restriction upon splitting the initial seven cards: the five-card hand must have a higher poker rank than the two-card hand.

Ranking The Hands

Pai Gow Poker uses the same Hand Rankings as normal poker. For more information, see Hand Rankings

Determining The Winner

The player's two hands are compared with the dealer's two hands to determine the winner.
If both the player's five-card hand and two-card hand has a higher poker ranking than both the dealer's hands, the player wins.
If both of the dealer's hands beat both of the player's hands, the dealer wins.
If either the player or the dealer wins only one of the two hands, the game is a push and neither the dealer nor the player wins.
When either the five-card hands or the two-card hands rank exactly the same, the equal hands are called "copies" and the dealer wins all copy hands.