Online Pai Gow Poker Tips

More so than with most casino games, Pai Gow Poker is a skill game. That is not to say that luck does not play a roll, but it does mean that your decisions are crucial in determining whether or not you will be a winner. Some decisions will have straightforward solutions but others will be anything but obvious. Instead of relying on your instinct to direct your decisions, learn how to play properly by following our simple tips. We will always have to put our fate in the hands of luck to some degree but it is our responsibility to take the reins for the things we have control over.

Know Your Budget

The Wong Optimal Pai Gow Poker Strategy, named after its creator Stanford Wong, is the ideal way of playing Pai Gow Poker. For a beginner or intermediate player, though, it is far too complex to be particularly useful. Instead, we will go over some of tips that show the best ways of splitting up the more ambiguous hands. The first, though rare, is how to handle five aces. Unless you have a pair of Kings as well, you should always split this hand up into three Aces in the high hand and a pair in the low hand. These are two monster hands and incredibly difficult to beat.

The next situation to look at is the Straight Flush with a pair, which has the same strategy as a Straight or a Flush with a pair. Only put the pair in the small hand if it doesn’t wreck the Straight Flush or Straight. For two pairs, only split the pairs if they are Jacks or higher, or if you have an Ace or a Joker. For a hand that doesn’t even have a pair, you should leave the top card in the high hand but stick your second highest card in the low hand. It’s hardly a sure thing, but it’s the best you can do in a bad situation. Finally, for a Three of a Kind, you should keep all three cards in the high hand unless they are Aces, in which case you should stick one of the Aces in the low hand.

Play as the Banker

In Pai Gow Poker, the banker position rotates around the table. Players can decline the opportunity, but doing so is a huge mistake. Remember, the banker always wins copies which gives him a statistical advantage. These don’t appear all of the time, but the 1% - 2% statistical edge is significant. There is only one catch – you need to have enough cash on hand to cover the bets from the other players at the table. If you have a small bankroll, this is a huge problem – otherwise, it is a great opportunity. The more you wager as the banker, the more you can offset the house’s edge for the rest of the game when you are not banking. The general rule of thumb is that you want to bet 6x to 14x as much money when you are banking as when you are not.