Author: horse-racing-free-tips

Today’s lesson will deal with setting your hand. We’ve already got the game flow down. In another article, we’ll go over strategy a bit more. Setting your hand is the main function in Pai Gow. Don’t worry if you don’t know how Pai Gow hands rank, because that’s the next part of this series.

In Pai Gow, the Ace can be used at the front or end of the deck. For instance, it could be used as Ace, two, three or Queen, King, Ace. The Joker can be used as an Ace or to complete a straight, flush or straight flush.

Once you have your seven cards, I find it’s best for beginners to sort their cards from highest to lowest or lowest to highest. If you’re playing Pai Gow online, this might already be done for you. Remember, we’re going to be creating two hands from these seven cards-the highest hand, which is five cards and the 2nd highest hand, which are the remaining two cards.

When you make your hands, the highest hand must actually be the highest hand. For instance, let’s say your hand is: J J 3 4 5 Q Q.

You couldn’t make your 2nd highest hand be QQ, because the highest hand would be JJ 3 4 5 and it wouldn’t actually be the highest hand.

Let’s keep that example going. Part of the strategy in Pai Gow is figuring out how best to set your hands. In our example, we could do something like JJ QQ 3 and 4 5 or something like JJ 3 4 5 and QQ. So, we’d either have two pair and nothing or one pair in each hand. Remember, if you can win at least one of the hands, you keep your cash.

Once you have decided how to set your hand, you place each of the two hands on their appropriate space on the table. Online Pai Gow players will have this done for them.

I can’t reiterate this enough: don’t take setting your hand too lightly. It’s a strategic game. Ideally, you want your second highest hand to be as high as possible, so you can at least force a push.

If your second highest hand won’t have a pair, put the two highest ranking cards in there-out of what’s left. Let’s say your hand is: J J A Q 4 8 3.

For the above hand, we’d want to keep the pair of Jacks in the highest hand. That leaves us with the Ace, Queen, 4, 8 and 3. It would be best to take the Ace and Queen and put those two cards in the second highest hand.

Now that we have a basic understanding with setting hands, it’s time to go over hand rankings. We’ll do that in the next article.

When we last left off, I had just started talking about the Banker in Pai Gow, which you can opt to play if you desire. Today, I’ll go more in detail about this fascinating part of the game.

All players in Pai Gow are betting against the bank. This isn’t to be confused with the dealer, because in Pai Gow, the bank could be a player. When it’s a player’s turn to be the bank, that player can accept or decline. Should the player decline, the house will always accept in place of the player.

To beat the Banker, both of your hands must beat the Banker’s hands. Any “copies,” which is a fancy name for hand ties, goes to the Banker. Some players work to just win one of the two hands, because that’s a push and no money exchanges hands.

An example of a “copy” would be your 2nd highest hand and the bank’s 2nd highest hand consisting of a Jack-Queen. The bank wins all copies.

Depending on the casino, the option to be the banker could rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise. If the table is full, you’ll get the opportunity to be the banker once per seven hands, because the dealer is included in that rotation. The casino earns a 5% commission from all winning hands.

The option to be the banker goes position to position. If the current offering position is vacant, the house gets to be the bank.

In order for you to be the bank, you’ll need enough money to cover all the bets on the table. If you really want to bank, but can’t afford it, the casino may offer to co-bank with you. Ask your dealer if this is an option. However, be advised that when you co-bank, you must set your hand in accordance with house rules.

Also, when you bank, the dealer will bet too. Don’t worry; the dealer isn’t going to dump all the chips of the casino on the table. The dealer’s bet will be equal to your last wager. If the amount is more than you’d like to bank against, see if the house will reduce it to the table minimum. It is possible.

Keep in mind that depending on the software, these little nuances can be lost when playing Pai Gow online. Also, banking may have less significance, because you don’t have any other players at the table.

Once the hand-when you are the banker-is over, the losers are taken and the winners paid. The house takes a 5% vig out of your net winnings. For instance, let’s say you paid out $200, but took in $500; your net winnings would be $300. The 5% vig that you’ll pay would be $15.

Being the banker is something you want to do as often as possible. In the long run, it’s the moneymaker. Again, another reason why you want other people at the table if you’re going to play Pai Gow online.

In the next part of our series, we’ll talk about setting your hand in Pai Gow.