Pai Gow. What are people writing down.

[kassdog]

I've never played pai gow before but also notice that everyone sitting at the table is writting stuff down. Now my understanding of pai gow is that the past cards dealt make no difference on what will happen next so why write things down.

[modnareno]

Their understanding is that they can track the patterns in the past hands to predict the future.

[Leibniz]

I've never seen people writing things down in Pai Gow. Are you sure you aren't mistaking it for Baccarat? People typically write down hands in that game. Some casinos even have electronic signs that display the previous outcomes (similarly to roulette).

[SheetWise]

You must be talking about Pai Gow Poker since you mention cards. I'm not aware of any "historical" strategies in Pai Gow Poker -- although any number of "cancellation" progressions might require pen and paper. There are many strategies in Pai Gow that try to exploit patterns (none of which work, to my knowledge).

[Photoc]

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Their understanding is that they can track the patterns in the past hands to predict the future.

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Not in Pai Gow.

Baccarat they think this, certainly not any form of Pai Gow (poker or tiles) from what I've ever seen.

[kassdog]

I'm drucnk right now so sorry if thsi doesn't make snesen. But it may be baccart but even if tis isn't it still pointless. Doesn't baccarat still shuffle after every deal. But I'll check next time to see which it is.

[Leibniz]

Baccarat can be deallt with any number of decks, but typically is dealt from an 8-deck shoe. Since this is the case, each hand isn't independent of the others, since by removing a card from the shoe it will affect the outcome of subsequent hands. However, there is no effective way of "counting" cards in a game of baccarat. Furthermore, the players aren't writing down specific cards, but instead the overall outcome of each hand.

Basically, there is no statistical pattern that could be detected by keeping track of hands of baccarat. If that were the case, the casinos certainly wouldn't let players keep track of them with pens and paper. Blackjack counters get enough heat for simply observing what is openly observable. My guess is that they allow this in baccarat, to play into people's superstitions and anything that keeps a person at the table in a -EV game is good for the casino.