Casino Poker Strategy: Pai Gow
From all the choices of Poker-style games found at UK online casinos, Pai Gow Poker offers one of the lowest house edges at 1.50%. This makes it an attractive choice to play as it means the odds for winning are pretty favourable to the player in comparison with other Poker games typically found in casinos' selections of table games.
With an immediate strategic advantage of a low house edge, the next factor to consider is how best to play any given to get close to perfect play.
An easy strategy, and one that's hard to improve on, is to simply play your dealt cards the ‘house way' i.e. arranging the ‘high' and ‘low' hands using the same rules prescribed for the dealer to follow when arranging their hand.
The vast majority of online Pai Gow Poker games at the UK online casinos we recommend are programmed to follow Atlantic City rules, so we'll focus on the house way for that game to illustrate how you should arrange hands to implement this strategy. Naturally, do not assume that the online casino you might wish to play runs its Pai Gow under the same rule authority, so if you are intent on using this ‘house way' strategy correctly make sure you check your chosen casino's game rules to know what its ‘house way' is.
The House Way Strategy for Atlantic Rules Pai Gow:
| Hand Includes | House Way Arrangement | ||||||||
| Five Aces (4A +Joker) | Play three Aces in the high hand and two in the low, unless your remaining two cards are a pair of Kings. If this happens, play all the Aces in the high hand with the pair of Kings as the low. | ||||||||
| Four of a Kind + Three of a Kind | Play two of the Three of a Kind in the low hand. | ||||||||
| Four of a Kind + a Pair | Play the Pair in the low hand. | ||||||||
| Four of a Kind |
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| Full House + another Pair | Play the highest Pair in the low hand. | ||||||||
| Full House | Play the Pair in the low hand. | ||||||||
| Straight, Flush, Straight Flush, or Royal Flush: | Appropriate play depends on how the value of the two other cards held and if a Joker is held: If a Full House can be made, use the Full House rule. If Three of a Kind can be made, play the Pair in the low hand. If three Pairs can be made, use the Three Pair rule. If two Pairs can be made, use the Two Pair rule. If no, or only one Pair can be made, play the highest hand possible in the low hand, while keeping at least a Straight in the high hand. |
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| Two Three-of-a-Kinds | Play a Pair from the higher Three of a Kind as the low hand. | ||||||||
| Three-of-a-Kind | Always play the Three of a Kind in the high hand unless they are Aces, in which case play a Pair of Aces in the high hand and one Ace in the low. | ||||||||
| Three Pairs | Play the highest-ranking Pair in the low hand. | ||||||||
| Two Pairs | This is the most complex rule and divides possible Pairs into four sets: Low Pairs (2-6), Medium Pairs (7 -10), High Pairs (J-K) and Pair of Aces. If you hold two Low Pairs, or a Low and Medium Pair, split them between the hands, unless you also hold a single King or Ace, which is played in the low hand. If you hold two Medium Pairs or a Low and High Pair, split them, unless you also hold a single Ace to play in the low hand. If you hold two High Pairs or a Medium and High Pair, always split. If you hold a Pair of Aces and any other Pair, always split. |
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| One Pair | The two highest value single cards (i.e. excluding the Pair) in the hand are played in the low hand. | ||||||||
| No Pair | The second and third highest value cards are played as the low hand. | ||||||||
