Pai Gow Poker Live
Many of you have played Pai Gow Poker at the best online casinos, but are you playing with a proper strategy? Despite the claim that Pai Gow Poker is a game of luck, there are strategies that you can use to improve your odds of winning.
Another trait of some live pai gow poker games is that players may take turns being the banker. You being the banker dramatically shifts the house edge. Let’s Walk Through a Couple of Hands. Both casinos offer live dealer games and could join on to the live dealer pai gow poker bandwagon, as long as the traffic keeps on coming to the great game of pai gow poker at their casinos. If we don’t keep on playing regular pai gow poker at places like 888 Casino and Bet365 Casino, we’re never going to see the live dealer pai gow poker. Where to Play Pai Gow Live Pai Gow Poker is the seventh most commonly played casino game in North America. It can be expected that any casino you walk into, other than miniature slot halls or local bar type establishments, has at least one Pai Gow Poker table available to play at.
Pai Gow is based on an old Chinese dominos game that was later converted into poker for those who prefer cards. Today, you can find it in online and land-based casinos, and it is played with a traditional 52-card deck. Learning more about the Pai Gow card game can help you enjoy the time you spend playing, and it may even boost your winnings, too. The game of Pai Gow Poker is also an online game that has a live dealer. The main objective of a live dealer is that players get the chance to play against a real person and not a computer machine. This makes the game much more real and challenging to a player thus increasing their interest of the game.
Today, we will look at the basic strategy for playing your hands in Pai Gow Poker. Note that this strategy is based on you playing your hands as the player. It does not account for live Pai Gow games where you can play as the banker.
Playing Uncordinated Hands
There are going to be many times where you will receive a hand that’s completely uncoordinated. With these hands, you don’t have as much as a pair for either hand. When this happens, you have to play two high card hands and hope that the dealer has a bad low hand.
First, you will take your highest card and add your four lowest cards together. This is your high hand. You’ll take your second and third highest cards to make your low hand. For example, if you have A-K-J-9-7-5-2, you’d play A-9-7-5-2 for high and K-J for low.
One Pair Hands
Another common hand is where you only have a single pair and nothing else in your hand. In this case, the pair will be your high hand. Take your two highest kickers and play them as your low hand. For example, if you have A-Q-10-8-8-6-2, you’d play A-Q for low and 8-8-10-6-2 for high.
One pair hands are scoop capable when you have a medium pair and at least one card of queen or higher in your low hand.
Two Pair Hands
The hands that will be the trickiest to play in Pai Gow Poker are hands with two pair. That’s because you’re often going to split your pair. Splitting pairs is where most people get tripped up in this game.
First, let’s look at the three types of pairs. Low pairs are deuces through sixes. Medium pairs are sevens through tens. High pairs are jacks or better.
Here are the times where you will be splitting two pair, regardless of what your other cards are:
- Anytime one of your two pairs is aces.
- When you have two high pair.
- When you have one medium and one high pair.
In the following scenarios, you will also split two pair provided you do not have an ace in your hand:
- One low pair and one high pair.
- One Low pair and one medium pair.
- Two low pairs.
- Two medium pairs.
In all other cases where you have two pair and an ace in your hand, you will play your ace and the second-highest non-pairing card as your low hand and the two pair for high.
Playing Trips in Pai Gow Poker
Playing trips, aka three of a kind, is easy in this game. In most cases, you will play trips for your high hand and your two highest kickers for the low hand. The only exception is when you have trip aces. In this case, you will split the trips and play one ace as part of your low hand.
Flushes and Straights
Hands with a straight or flush are usually going to play themselves. In the majority of cases, you’ll play the straight or flush as the high hand. For the times where you have a seven-card straight or a seven-card flush, you will play the two highest cards as your low hand.
The one exception for playing a flush is when you have a flush along with two pair. When this happens, you’re going to break the flush and split the pair according to the rules for splitting pairs.
Quads
You might be tempted to automatically play quads (four of a kind) as a high hand, but that’s not the case. When you have quad jacks or better, you’re splitting the hand into two pair. The same applies to medium quads, provided that you don’t have an ace in your hand. If you do, you will play the quads. For low quads, you will play them together.
Five Aces
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As counterintuitive as it sounds, you’re almost never going to play five aces together. Instead, one ace and the joker will become your low hand and you’ll play trip aces for high.
The exception to this rule is when you have a pair of kings and five aces. Then, you’ll play the kings for low and five aces for high.
This Strategy Helps, But Not By Much
The above strategy is a great strategy to use to help improve your odds at winning in games where the dealer is always the banker. This applies to most Pai Gow Poker games at real money online casinos. However, the edge you gain with this strategy isn’t massive. It only improves your odds by about 0.21%. The general house edge when using this strategy is around 2.5%
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Where this strategy helps is in games where the player is the banker. In those games, the house edge is reduced down to less than a half of a percent. However, you will find few online Pai Gow games offering player banking. However, it is still great to know when you play in live Pai Gow Poker games.