Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is a variation of poker that is played with a 53-card deck that is made up of a standard deck of 52 cards plus one Joker. This game puts the players against the dealer only, not other players. The player is dealt seven cards, which must be set into two poker hands: a five-card hand and a two-card hand. Once this is done, the player’s two hands are compared with the dealer’s two hands to determine the winner.
The bank pays the winner (minus a 5% commission) and the game ends. The poker hands for this game are shown in the table below:

 

Before each game, the deck is shuffled and seven cards are dealt to the player and to the dealer. Both now set their hands into a five-card hand and a two-card hand. There is really only one rule applying to setting your cards, the five-card hand must have a higher poker rank than the two-card hand. The Joker has its own special rule as well, it can only be used as a wild card to complete a five-card flush, straight, or straight flush. In other circumstances, the Joker counts as an ace. The winner of each hand is determined by comparing the hands. If both of the player’s hands beat both of the dealer’s hands , then the player wins, if the opposite is true, then the dealer wins. If one hand of either the player or the dealer wins and the other loses, it’s a tie and the game is over with no winner. This s truly a great RTG game!