Casino Player October 2022

While it’s tempting to simply load the best hand in back and then put whatever remains up front, the practical effect of doing this will be to tie many hands that you could win, and lose quite a few that you might tie.

What Beats What? Pai gow poker is played with one standard deck including one joker that can be used only as an ace, or to fill in straights or flushes.You and the dealer/banker each receive seven cards,and arrange them into two poker hands.Five cards are in a“back”hand;two cards are in a“front”hand.Both of your hands must beat the banker/dealer hands (front must beat front, back must beat back) for you to win. If one hand wins and the other loses then it’s a tie. Hands with equal rank are called copies; the banker wins all copies.The five-card back hand must have a higher value than the two-card front hand. Bets are paid 1:1.The casino charges a 5 percent commission on wins.

Here are a few more:

Q ◆ J ♠ 10 ♥ 9 ♥ Joker A ◆ 7 ♥ would beA ◆ Q ◆ / J ♠ 10 ♥ 9 ♥ Joker 7 ♥

Improve Your Front Hand While it’s tempting to simply load the best hand in back and then put whatever remains up front, the practical effect of doing this will be to tie many hands that you could win,and lose quite a few that you might tie. For instance, four queens shouldn’t necessarily be loaded in the back hand.The other cards determine if a quad should be split.Do you have another pair to put up front? How about an ace-and-something. If yes, then keep the queens together. But if no, then split the quad and put two queens up front.

2 ♠ 4 ♥ J ♠ K ♣ J ♥ 7 ♣ J ♣ would be K ♣ 7 ♣ / J ♣ J ♥ J ♠ 4 ♥ 2 ♠

Q ♥ J ◆ 10 ◆ 9 ♥ 8 ♣ 8 ◆ Q ♣ would be 8 ♣ 8 ◆ / Q ♥ Q ♣ J ◆ 10 ◆ 9 ♥

5 ♠ 5 ♣ 5 ◆ 9 ♣ 9 ♥ A ♠ 6 ◆ would be 9 ♣ 9 ♥ / 5 ♠ 5 ♣ 5 ◆ A ♠ 6 ◆

4 ♠ 4 ◆ 7 ♥ 7 ♣ Q ◆ K ♠ K ♣ would be K ♠ K ♣ / 7 ♥ 7 ♣ 4 ♠ 4 ◆ Q ◆

The general rule is to always look for ways to get a pair or an ace-and something (preferably ace-king) in the front hand even if it weakens your back hand.Moreover,when you have multiple pairs, let’s sayA ♣ A ♠ A ◆ J ♥ J ♠ 5 ♥ 5 ♣ , always put the strongest pair up front. In this case it’s the jacks. But if one of those aces was a deuce (no full house), then it would be aces up front, and the jacks and fives behind. When you have a possible straight or flush, again the temptation is to load a beautiful hand in back.But consider this combo… K ♥ Q ♥ J ♥ 10 ♥ 9 ♥ K ◆ Q ♠ It’s sooooo tempting to play the straight flush, but the pair of queens should go up front and the kings in back. Now here is a tricky one: A ◆ Joker 8 ◆ 10 ◆ J ◆ A ♥ 8 ♠ You might want to complete the flush with the joker,but it’s better to put the eights up front and the three aces (one of them the joker) in the back hand. This one is even trickier:K ♠ 10 ♠ 10 ♥ 4 ♠ 9 ♠ A ♥ J ♠ Don’t break the flush this time because you have only one pair, and you can put an ace-ten up front. But note that this is borderline. Some casinos (most notably Foxwoods) would set this with the tens in back and the A-K up front. Radically different? Yes, but that’s the charm of pai gow poker. Of course, if you have a single pair with no other combinations,then the pair goes in back, and the two highest free cards go up front. If you have no pair, then the highest card goes in the back and the second and third highest go up front.

The house edge for pai gow poker is about 2.5 percent when you don’t “bank” the game. However, many properties allow you to finance and play the dealer’s side.That’s right. In some situations,you can take on a dealer’s advantages and risks.We’ll cover banking in another column, and we’ll wrap up here by mentioning branded versions of the game that don’t charge commissions. Instead, they push (tie) selected hands that the dealer might otherwise lose. Fortune Commission Free Pai Gow Poker and EZ Pai Gow Poker both have a house edge of about 2.5 percent. ♠ Basil Nestor is author of The Smarter Bet Guide to Poker , The Smarter Bet Guide to Blackjack , and other comprehensive gambling guides,which can be found onAmazon.com.

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