The rules of Pai Gow Poker at U.S. online casinos

Posted under Online Casino Games, Poker Games by Online Casino Keeper

Poker online is the game, that has a great number of variations. Today people can not only play traditional versions, which are incredibly popular, but also some other variants of this game. And one of them is Pai Gow Poker at U.S. online casinos, which is ofter refered to double-hand poker. In fact, it is a combination of Pai Gow, which is an old Chinese game played with the domino and usual poker. The result of such mixing is quite an interesting and thrilling game, which attracts thousands of gamblers. Do you want to know Pai Gow poker rules and to start playing it? If you do, then in this article you will find everything concerning the rules of Pai Gow Poker.

Pai Gow Poker was invented in the USA by two men Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf, who introduced it in their own casinos in the early 1980s. Now you can play it at top online casinos, which has its advantages in comparison with playing in traditional casinos. Pai Gow poker online offers good winning odds and certainly requires for hard thinking.

So let’s take a look at the rules. This game is played against a dealer, even if there are several people playing, with a standard 52 deck of cards with one joker left. After you place an ante bet, the limits of which are different in every online casino, you are dealt seven cards. Your next task is to form two hands. One of them will consist of five cards like in a poker, and the other – from two cards. The main purpose is to make two hands, which will be stronger that the ones of a dealer. In different sources you can meet different names of these hands, like top and bottom, high and low, front and behind, and we will use top and bottom names, where top is a hand from five cards and a bottom is from 2 cards.

So the hand of five cards is refered to the combinations of poker from Flush Royal to a Pair. And the hand of two cards can consist of either a pair or two cards of high value. Anyway, the rule says that a bottom hand should never be higher than a top one, as in this case it will be a failure, and you will lose the game.

Now let’s see what possible combinations you can get and how you may act in this or that case.

-The first case is when you have no combinations at all. Then you can place a second and a thrid card into a bottom hand and rely only on luck.
- If you have only a pair, you should leave it in a top hand, and pick up the highest two cards and place them to two card hand.
- If you have two pairs, then everything is obvious, as you choose the highest pair and leave it in a top hand, and the lowest goes to the bottom one.
- In case if you have Three of a Kind, you leave this combination in a five card hand, and pick up the highest two cards for a two card hand.
- Full House provides you with the opportunity to play Three of a Kind combination in a top hand, and a pair in a bottom one.
- Four of a Kind should be treated like two pairs, and you leave the strongest in a top hand, and the lowest goes to a bottom one.

These are perhaps your main decisions, which may cause some difficulties in a card distribution.

So when you are satisfied with the choice, you and a dealer opens up the hands and compare them. If both your hands are stronger than a dealer’s, then you win all money except a 5% tax. If one hand is higher and the other is lower, then it’s a push, and you take only one bet and lose the other. And you lose the game, when a dealer manages to collect better hands.

So now you are familiar with the rules and even know some tips of the game, so you can boldly start playing. It is definitely worth trying, as you will get only positive emotions and will be satisfied with yourself!