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Gaming Guru
Give Pai Gow Poker a Chance23 June 2020
The game has been around a somewhat long time and it does have a faithful following, although nothing like the following of blackjack, craps or roulette, the three most popular table games in the casinos. The game is simple but it does require players to play their hands properly. The deck has 53 cards which includes one joker. The joker can be used to make a flush, straight flush or straight. If it can’t be used for these hands, the card becomes an ace. Each player and the dealer are dealt seven cards. Seven spots are always dealt whether a player is playing such a spot. You could have one player against the dealer and all seven spots would still get cards. There will be four cards left over from the deal and the dealer collects those cards and he will also collect cards from spots without players. Each player must create two hands with those seven cards, a five-card hand and a two-card hand. The player’s five-card hand must be able to beat the player’s two card hand. To win a decision over the dealer, the player must beat both the dealer’s five-card hand and his two-card hand. When the players have set their hands they put the hands face down and the dealer plays his hands. If the player beats both of the dealer’s hands, the player wins. If the wins one hand and loses the other hand, it is a tie and no money changes hands. If the player and the dealer have the same two-card hand or the same five-card hand that becomes a “copy” hand which the dealer wins. The dealer is also called the banker. Players can also bank the table but such banking players must have enough money to cover all the bets on the table. If a player has the money then banking the game is a good idea. Each casino has rules for when a player can bank. On winning hands the player must play a 5 percent commission – which I show the casino gets its edge of approximately 2.7 percent. Essentially that is the game. Many hands are ties, in fact close to 41 percent. That means the game tends to be somewhat slow – and that is a good thing. Now there are other aspects to the game that are not necessary for you to play; in fact, you should never bother with these other aspects. Many casinos will have jackpot bets such as the Dragon Bet, where you must put up more money in order to win jackpots. These bets come in with high house edges and are not worth wagering. Stick with the traditional game. Finally, if you have the least (even the very least) trouble setting your hands, just ask the dealer. He will tell you how to set the hands “the house way.” And that, my friends, is how to set your hands. I think you will find Pai Gow Poker to be a fun game to play. All the best in and out of the casinos! Frank’s web site is www.frankscoblete.com. His books are available from smile.Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, kindle, e-books and at bookstores. This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Recent Articles
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