The History of Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker first originated in China and was a tile game similar to dominoes. The dealer separated the tiles into groups, and the roll of the dice allotted the groups.

It is the Chinese immigrants who came to work in the mines and the railways brought Pai Gow to United States in the 1800s.

Modern Pai Gow Poker

Today Pai Gow Poker is a combination of the old Pai Gow tile game and the traditional poker game. This is a double-handed poker game, based on the ancient Chinese game, and was created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf. It was in the mid 1980s that the modern Pai Gow Poker first appeared in Californian casinos.

Casino Pai Gow Poker and The Basics of How to Play

Pai Gow Poker is played in most casinos today. Here the players play against the banker.

Pai Gow is played with a regular set of fifty-two cards and one joker. The joker acts as a wild card and can be played as an ace when producing a flush, straight or straight flush.

Bets are placed before dealing, like in other poker games.

Cards are then dealt into seven piles of seven cards, leaving four unused cards each time.

A cup of three dice is shaken by the banker to determine who begins.

The first player divides his hand into a five-card and a two-card hand. The five-card hand is also called "high hand" and the two-card hand is known as "low hand". The value of the high hand has to be higher than the low hand.

The player wins if both hands are better than the dealer's hands.

If one hand wins, then it is considered a "push" and no one wins.

If the value of one of the player's hand the dealer's hand is the same, it is a tie. This is called a "copy". All such copies provide a win for the dealer.

Online Pai Gow Poker

You will find Pai Gow Poker being played on online casinos just like other poker games. When playing for the first time you can play on free games to learn all the rules of pai gow poker before playing for real money.