What is Paw Gow Poker Articles | Poker

By: Richard Bleuze

What is Paw Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is a variant of American seven card poker.  Paw Gow Poker is played with a standard 52 card deck and a joker, but differs from the typical seven card game in that you play against a banker, not against the other players at the table.

Each player in PawGow Poker is dealt seven cards with which he must make two hands based on poker rankings -- a front hand of two cards and a back hand of five cards. The five card hand must outrank the two-card hand.

You win the poker game if you defeat the banker on both your front and back hands.  You lose the poker game only if the banker beats you on both hands.  In Paw Gow Poker, a "copy," or "push", always goes to the banker.

I see no reason why a Paw Gow Poker player would not want the house to set your hand correctly, mostly because the casino advantage on the game will be lower if they do, and, if you are someone new to Pai Gow Poker, you are prone to make two typical novice errors.  Generally, you risk failing to see a five card flush, and/or you risk incorrectly setting your hands when dealt two pairs.  Generally, two pair hands appear fairly often in Paw Gow Poker, and setting them correctly is very important.  I recommend that if you are playing two pairs: One, if your hand has either an unmatched Ace or King, keep the two pairs in your five card hand.  Or if you have neither, then play the lower ranking pair as the two card hand.

So what is the house edge by having the house set your hand?  As a rule, it is two and a half percent.

Now, let us talk about that 2.5% for just a moment.  Generally, you will note that it is higher than my general recommendation to "never give the casino higher than a 2% edge."  However, with Paw Gow Poker being a slow game, this is very good.  Pai Gow Poker is known as as really slow poker game; sometimes no more than 40 hands in an hour are actually played to completion. 

Here is why 2.5% is not such a bad play.  If you were to play Pai Gow Poker at $5 a hand, 40 hands an hour, giving the house 2.5%, you would lose, over the long run, just $5 per hour as compared to say mini-baccarat at $5 a whack, and even though the house edge is only 1.17%, if you were to play just the banker hand, by seeing 200 decisions an hour, you would have an hourly loss of $11.70.

Pai Gow Poker, even as a beginner and allowing the house to set your hand, is pretty cheap entertainment! Especially, for $5 an hour.

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