Pai Gow

ImprovinNewbie · #1 02-27-2007, 03:05 PM

i may have just been invited to the home pai gow game at the chinese restaurant my friend works at. is pai gow a beatable game? how much do you think is luck and skill? im trying it out on bodog for free and its pretty wierd. any advice?

Edenfield99 · #2 02-27-2007, 03:33 PM

I have no idea but try www.paigow.com
Two of my friends just visited China and I asked them to get me a set of pai gow tiles, I ended up with a pack of cards with pandas on them!!

MTUCache · #3 02-27-2007, 05:09 PM

http://wizardofodds.com/paigowpoker

Great page on Pai Gow.

I personally don't know too much about it, but it looks like there's only a slight house edge if you play optimally, and that's if the dealer plays optimally. If you play optimally and the dealer has no idea what he's doing, you'd actually have the edge in the game.

Of course, seeing as how you don't have all that much experience, I wouldn't bank on you playing "optimally".

Beatable? Yes.
Right now? Probably not.

Fun? If alcohol is involved.

flatline · #4 02-27-2007, 06:32 PM

I'm not sure how a home pai gow game would be run, but if you are just taking turns being dealer, then it is certainly beatable with optimal play. I'd be interested to hear how the game is run.

Small Fry · #5 02-27-2007, 07:24 PM

Assuming it's the card game it's really pretty basic. Get dealt 7 cards and make two poker hands - one 5 card and the other 2 card. 5 card hand cannot rank lower than the 2 card hand. you play against the bank / house and compare 5 card hands and 2 card hands. To win both hands must beat the banks / houses. You lose if both your hands are worse. One better one worse results in a push

Basically you always want to make the highest 5 card hand possible. So if you got dealt four 5's you wouldn't split them so each hand had a pair of 5's. There are exceptions. Unless a player runs pretty hot it can get rather boring if played optimally as there can be a lot of pushes. If you know what you're doing it can be favorable to be the bank though.

Lottery Larry · #6 02-27-2007, 10:40 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Assuming it's the card game it's really pretty basic. Get dealt 7 cards and make two poker hands - one 5 card and the other 2 card. 5 card hand cannot rank lower than the 2 card hand. you play against the bank / house and compare 5 card hands and 2 card hands. To win both hands must beat the banks / houses. You lose if both your hands are worse. One better one worse results in a push

[/ QUOTE ]

One worse and one tie results in a loss, OP.

[ QUOTE ]
Basically you always want to make the highest 5 card hand possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true, but we'll say you covered it in your "There are exceptions" comment.

ImprovinNewbie · #7 02-28-2007, 12:24 AM

yea i hear that dealer is passed, but new players on limited rolls can not be dealer (ive only heard about the not being dealer thing from that friend who played their first time without being dealer). the story she told is that she put 5 on a hand and basically ran the table over (ran totally hott im guessing) and made that 5 into 150. sounds sick but after playing for free on bodog i could see there being a LOT of luck in this game. you cant push the edge of a winning hand since betting is over before you even get cards.

so far i try to make fairly even hi and lo so ill most likely win or push and not lose. if i get 2 little pairs ill keep them in the high and try to high card the lo. if i get two big pairs ill split them. this is as far into it as i am. straights and flushes and a dealt boat (you would keep 3 of a kind and move the lo pair) all play gthemselves. anytihng im missing?

Small Fry · #8 02-28-2007, 08:39 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Assuming it's the card game it's really pretty basic. Get dealt 7 cards and make two poker hands - one 5 card and the other 2 card. 5 card hand cannot rank lower than the 2 card hand. you play against the bank / house and compare 5 card hands and 2 card hands. To win both hands must beat the banks / houses. You lose if both your hands are worse. One better one worse results in a push

[/ QUOTE ]

One worse and one tie results in a loss, OP.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, forgot about that outcome.

[ QUOTE ]
Basically you always want to make the highest 5 card hand possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true, but we'll say you covered it in your "There are exceptions" comment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for being kind...lol. Figured with the others pointing to some sites he could do a little research on his own.