Pai Gow Poker with Ante

I recently ran across a Pai Gow Poker game that had a twist and was wondering if I should play cause I am not sure about the house's trick. Basically, you place your bet (which to me seemed like and ante) and once you receive your cards you have a choice to play or not. If you decide not to play you surrender your bet but if decide to play you have to increase your bet by the same amount as the initial. At first thought, this seems to work against the house as when I surrender I only lose half of what the house could otherwise gain but if after looking at my cards and deciding to play (because I believe I have a winning hand) the house loses more than what it could have gained. I am very curious the math behind this. Is it really that good for me as I think?

Where was this?

Stanford Wong discussed surrender in Pai Gow Poker in his book Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker. PGP with surrender was once offered at the old Sahara (now SLS) casino.

The ability to surrender 50% of your bet on a commission game after seeing your cards (with no other adjustments) reduces the house edge from about 2.8% to 1.2% if the player knows the surrender strategy. Surrendering half your main bet (or folding the ante to not play the play bet) is optimized by the following strategy:

Fold hands of:
1. a pair of 10's with 98 or worse top.
2. a pair of 9's with 10-8 or worse top
3. a pair of 7's or 8's with J-high or worse top
4. a pair of 4's through 6's with a queen-9 or less top.
5. a pair of 2's or 3's with K-8 or less top (keep all hands with a pair with a K-9 or better top).
6. Any Pai Gow hand.

I would play PGP with surrender every day of the week.

The house would have trouble making money.-- especially if you were allowed to tuck a folded PGP hand under the insurance bet.

Quote: Paigowdan

Stanford Wong discussed surrender in Pai Gow Poker in his book Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker. PGP with surrender was once offered at the old Sahara (now SLS) casino.

The ability to surrender 50% of your bet on a commission game after seeing your cards (with no other adjustments) reduces the house edge from about 2.8% to 1.2% if the player knows the surrender strategy. Surrendering half your main bet (or folding the ante to not play the play bet) is optimized by the following strategy:

Fold hands of:
1. a pair of 10's with 98 or worse top.
2. a pair of 9's with 10-8 or worse top
3. a pair of 7's or 8's with J-high or worse top
4. a pair of 4's through 6's with a queen-9 or less top.
5. a pair of 2's or 3's with K-8 or less top (keep all hands with a pair with a K-9 or better top).
6. Any Pai Gow hand.

I would play PGP with surrender every day of the week.

The house would have trouble making money.-- especially if you were allowed to tuck a folded PGP hand under the insurance bet.

Great info, Dan, thanks!

Second call for location of surrender game?