Pai Gow is a fun and simple domino game that was created centuries ago in China. It is still popular among gamblers playing it in land-based casinos and at online gambling sites. To try your luck, learn how to play Pai Gow and its versions!
Pai Gow is a Chinese gambling game. Being one of the most popular games in the world, it can be found in casinos in China, Canada, the US, and some European countries. Pai Gow is an old game with its roots going back to the Song Dynasty. The latter began in 960 and ended in 1279, so it is quite difficult to tell exactly when Pai Gow was born.
Pai Gow is a domino game played with Chinese dominoes or tiles. Typically, players need 32 tiles to play the game and a minimum of two players. In most casinos, players compete against the dealer in Pai Gow games. While playing a video version of Pai Gow at online casinos, players can use the latest online live casino bonuses.
There is also Pai Gow Poker, a game that was inspired by Pai Gow. It follows similar rules but is played with cards instead of tiles.
How to play Pai Gow with tiles
So, how to play Pai Gow? As we have already mentioned, the game uses a player-dealer position. The aim of the game is to beat both hands of the dealer using two hands – the lowest one and the highest one. To form their hands, both player and dealer use Chinese dominoes a.k.a. tiles with white, black, or red pips symbolizing different numbers.
The game starts clockwise around the table. Tiles are arranged into 8 stacks of four tiles, each face-down. Then, players and dealers receive one stack of tiles to use for making two hands of two tiles each. One hand should have the lowest possible value, and the other hand – the highest possible value. These hands are called front hands and rear hands respectively.
- If the player’s rear and front hands rank higher than the dealer’s rear and front hands, the player wins the bet.
- If the player’s rear and front hands rank lower than the dealer’s both hands, the player loses the bet.
- In case of only one player’s hand (rear or front) ranks higher than the dealer’s, there is a tie or “push”.
The name “Pai Pow” means “making nine” and it shows another important rule of the game. Thus, the maximum score for a hand is nine in most Pai Gow games.
Pai Pow Poker: a variation of the Chinese game
Pai Gow Poker is another popular game that is often mixed with Pai Gow. Actually, Pai Gow Poker is loosely based on the ancient Chinese domino game. As it is no less popular than its predecessor, let’s take a brief look at its rules to understand how to play Pai Gow Poker.
Most Pai Gow Poker games are played with a deck of 52 cards and one Joker. The aim of the game is the same as in Pai Gow: to beat the dealer. To do so, players are dealt seven cards each. All participants must use these cards to make two hands: the low (back) hand consisting of 2 cards and the high (front) hand of 5 cards.
- If the player’s back and front hands rank higher than the dealer’s rear and front hands, the player wins.
- If the player’s back and front hands rank lower than the dealer’s both hands, the player loses.
- In case of only one player’s hand (back or front) ranks higher than the dealer’s, there is a tie.
Pai Gow Poker uses a common classification of poker hands. Note that there is a Joker and it is used like Ace or like a filler for Straight or Flush. It means that Pai Gow Poker players can make a unique hand of five aces, which is the highest possible five-card hand in the game.
