Pai Gow Poker
About
Pai Gow poker is a poker game which combines poker and the game Pai Gow, which used to be played with special dominos and dices. Pai Gow is an ancient Chinese game, full of symbols and fascinating enigmas. Games combining poker and Pai Gow seem to have started forming in the mid 19th Century. Only a hundred and more years later, in the 80's, has Pai Gow poker appeared in Californian card-rooms. The Las Vegas casinos adopted the game the following year, and casinos elsewhere have followed since.
Pai Gow is a "one on one" game, in which a player does not play against the other players around the table but against the dealer. Each player, including the dealer, receives seven cards. With these he must make up two hands, one hand consisting of five cards and the other consisting of two cards. The aim in the game is to have two hands that are higher ranking than the dealer's two hands.
The ranking of hands is Pai Gow is similar to the regular poker ranking. The game is played with 52 regular cards plus one joker. The joker can function as a limited "wild card": it can either replace an Ace or replace any card that completes a hand to be a straight, straight flush or royal flush. Pai Gow is played on a Black Jack sized table. There is a maximum of six players to a game.
Perhaps due to its Far Eastern roots, Pai Gow is a relatively slow game, different from most speedy casino games. It is a game easy to learn and know well. You don't need to have large amount of money to join a Pai Gow game. It is a game of low money risk: you will never lose huge sums of money in Pai Gow. On the other hand, your winnings will not be huge as well.
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