The challenge is to beat both the high and low hand of the dealer’s. We will get more into how to set your hand later.Īfter betting (more on how to bet later) and setting your 2 hands, you place them face down in the two appropriate spaces on the table layout in front of you and wait for the dealer to reveal his/her cards. As an example you cannot use an ace in your 2 card hand with a king high in your 5 card hand. One main difference is that in Pai Gow Poker you are playing against the dealer’s hand only, while in a live poker game you are playing against all the other players at the table and not the dealer at all (who gets no hand to play and only deals the cards.)Īnother major difference is you are playing a seven-card hand, splitting your dealt cards (there is no re-draw) into two hands your best 5 card hand (high hand) and your best 2 card hand (low hand), therefore your 2 card hand cannot be higher than your 5 card hand. While it is a poker game, it is far less intimidating than sitting down at a live poker room game. Today, Pai Gow Poker is a table game, increasing in popularity in many casinos around the country.
The Chinese word origin meant “make nine.” The conversion to a poker game happened around 1985 in a California Card Room. The game of Pai Gow originated in China more than a century ago and was played at that time with tiles, like Dominoes, and dice.
