Pai Gow Poker Pai Gow Poker (read “Pie-Gow”) is an interesting version of poker, and to play it you have to be both skillful and lucky. In Pai Gow Poker, a player plays with two sets of playing cards, not just only one, and bets whether his sets of cards are better than those of the dealer. Traditionally, a game begins with placing a bet. Then, each player gets seven cards in two sets, in one set there are five cards and in the other there are two cards. The dealer also gets seven cards in two sets of five and two. The set with five cards is called a “High Hand” and the set with two cards is a “Low Hand”. To continue the game, your high hand must be bigger than your low hand. As we wrote above, in Pai Gow Poker your both sets of cards have to be better than the dealer’s sets. It is important to know that you do not have to arrange your cards by yourself as many online casinos may do this for you. If you want them to arrange your cards, just click “House Way.”

        Pai Gow Poker has quite different combinations of cards that win than other types of poker. First of all, in Pai Gow you play with a deck of 53 cards. That extra card is a joker or Wild Card. You can use the joker only as an ace or to complete: a Straight, a Flush, or a Straight Flush. Next, you should know that if you have the same value of cards as the dealer, it is the dealer who wins. We are sorry to write that, but that is a rule!

These are the combinations of cards that win in Pai Gow Poker, from the highest to the lowest:
    * 5 Aces (plus a joker as Wild Card)
    * Royal Flush
    * Straight Flush (5 cards, all with diamonds, clubs, spades or hearts, in order: e.g. Q-J-10-9-8)
    * Four of a Kind (4 cards of the same sign: e.g.  J-J-J-J-7)
    * Flush (any 5 cards, all with diamonds, clubs, spades or hearts)
    * Straight (5 cards in the order: e.g. 9-8-7-6-5)
    * Three of a Kind (3 cards of the same sign: e.g. 5-5-5-K-9)
    * Two Pair (2 sets of cards of the same sign: e.g. A-A-J-J-3)
    * Ace
    * King
    * Queen
    * Jack

If you want to know the explanations for the other combinations, enter our Video Poker web page. However, you should remember that a Straight value is different for Pai Gow and traditional poker. In traditional poker, a straight of Ace -2-3-4-5 is the lowest straight while in Pai Gow it would be the second-highest straight just after a straight of Ace-King-Queen-Jack-10.