How would you teach someone Pai Gow?

You have a 2 hour plane ride to Las Vegas. You want to teach someone to play Pai Gow (tiles). Your student knows what casino gambling is about. He understands and plays basic strategy at blackjack; he knows there are no slot machines that are "due". So what do you do to allow him to play Pai Gow in a way where he isn't just randomly setting the tiles or having the dealer set his hand. Or is there not enough time in 2 hours to teach someone enough for them to play Pai Gow "properly".

If you were trying to teach someone Pai Gow Poker, and they already knew the ranks of poker hands, you can teach them PGP in less than 10 mins. If they DIDN'T know the ranks of poker hands, you would HAVE to teach them, if for no other reason than to keep them from fouling their hand without realizing it. And of course if they didn't know the ranks of the cards, you would really have to start at square one explaining the ranks of the cards.

But with Pai Gow, do you really have to know the ranks of the tiles? I think I would not worry about explaining the ranks of the tiles. I would explain to put tiles that look the same together. I would explain the mixed pairs, then if you have no pairs, look for a 8 or 9 and explain Wongs and Gongs. Finally I would say try to make 9, and if you can't, use your instincts on the best 2 totals for your two hands.

Would that method work? Is there a better way to explain how to play the tiles in such a relatively short amount of time? Is it really important to know the ranks of the tiles?

i do agree that if time is tight, you could skip the rank. rank is only important in another game that uses the tiles calledl "Tin Gow", which is similar to bridge.
in pai gow, pairs are easy to recognize. so all you have to do is to memorize the gongs and wongs, and then the mixed 9s, 8s, 7s and 5's, plus the 3 and 6 and your are done.

2 hours.....no way

Quote: EnvyBonus

You have a 2 hour plane ride to Las Vegas. You want to teach someone to play Pai Gow (tiles).

Does Someone want to learn to play Pai Gow (tiles)? If so, why by the time of this two hour plane ride has he not learned what you want to teach him? Does he need a refresher course or a review at the last minute?

If you intend to play Pai Gow (tiles) together ... have him better prepared and perhaps not taught by you because if he knows all about casino gambling and blackjack its because he has taken the time to learn it.

I think this would be a good ask-the-wizard and also should be covered in the WoO page on tiles.

2 hours is plenty of time if you have a set of tiles and a student who wants to learn.

You have enough time to get basic strategy down, and like you said, the ranks will be the only thing not memorized. But there are plenty of cheat sheets available that can be used for ranks.

I think it is important for the person to at least have a resource on how the ranks work. I don't have them completely memorized, but I have it pretty close.

I have taught one nurse at work pai gow poker, then she got a phone ap and has worked on it. I then did the same for tiles. I would say she had a basic proficiency after 2 hours of tiles but made enough errors that I cautioned her against playing with real money at the casino. She now has a phone ap for tiles and is practicing on her breaks at work. I don't know how many hours I played on WoO before I put up real money but I am sure it exceeded 2.

Great question! I have done this several times. Here's my approach.

1. The nature of the game. Split 4 tiles into 2 hands of two tiles each. There's only 3 ways to do it, so how hard can it be? Both hands compete with the dealer. W-W, L-L, or push. Just like Pai Gow Poker, but you can't foul your hand. It helps if the student has played some Pai Gow Poker.

2. The deck. 32 tiles = 16 pairs. Just like a deck of cards has 4 each of 13 ranks. Pairs are the highest way to set two tiles. Emphasize the mixed pairs, and provide a cheatsheet if necessary.

3. What's the "value" of a pair of tiles? Pairs are the best. Other hands: add up all the pips and discard the tens digit. Just like baccarat. Best hand is 9, worst is 0. It helps if the student is familiar with baccarat.

4. Special tiles #1. The 2 and 12 tiles (snakeyes and boxcars) can be used to make 10's and 11's. Better than 9, worse than pairs. The student doesn't need to hear about Gongs and Wongs, 10's and 11's gets the point across better.

5. Special tiles #2: Wild tiles can count as either 3 or 6.

6. Strategy. Set your hand for maximum opportunity or protection against a dealer's average hand of 5/9. The way I approach this step varies based on who I am teaching. For someone with a math or engineering background, I'll get into bell curves and maximizing the area under the curves. For others, I'll generally start with making the high hand a high-9 or better if possible, otherwise maximize the low hand. This gets it right about 90% of the time, and you can try to teach the more subtle aspects of strategy as you go.

7 (Optional). The rank of the tiles. The only reason to know this is the tiebreaking procedure, which only occasionally comes into play, and is really not THAT big of a deal even when it does. I played for about a year before I bothered to learn and apply the tile ranks. Here's how I teach it now: Special tiles are best, and you just have to learn them: Wilds, 12, 2, high 8, high 4. Then identical/symmetrical tiles, from largest to smallest. Then identical/nonsymmetrical tiles, from largest to smallest. Finally mixed pairs, from largest to smallest.

8. (Extra super duper optional). The names of the tiles. I only mention this because the first Pai Gow tutorial that I read indicated that this is very important, and is the first thing you must learn. Just stupid. No value whatsoever. Strictly for enrichment.

If someone is attentive, you should be able to teach all this in about an hour. Spend the second hour dealing random hands, and demonstrating how to read/split them. Roll them one tile at a time, discuss the tile, and how it plays with the other tiles which have already been exposed. Looking at four tiles all at once can be intimidating. Show the first tile. What is it worth? Is it a strong tile or a weak tile? Show the second tile. What is it worth, is it strong of weak? Does it go well with the first tile? Show the third tile. Does it matchup better with the first or second tile? If it matches up well with tile 1, for instance, what would you like your fourth tile to be to fit best with tile 2? Roll the fourth tile. Deal with it. This is where all the options are in play and it can be toughest to cope. But if you've already got your brain working from the first three tiles, it should be easiest to adjust.

Better than random hands, it would be ideal to have a few particular hands planned out which demonstrate all the characteristics and topics discussed during the lesson. But I've never really gone this far.

Quote: FleaStiff

Does Someone want to learn to play Pai Gow (tiles)? If so, why by the time of this two hour plane ride has he not learned what you want to teach him? Does he need a refresher course or a review at the last minute?
If you intend to play Pai Gow (tiles) together ... have him better prepared and perhaps not taught by you because if he knows all about casino gambling and blackjack its because he has taken the time to learn it.

No, he doesn't, because he thinks it will take too much time to learn. He watches me play and says "that's too complicated, I could never learn." If I tell him to go to WoO and learn it he could, but he won't, because he thinks it would take too long. But I know he can do it.
On a plane ride where he MUST sit beside me for two hours, I've got him captive, and can start teaching him whether he likes it or not.

Quote: PapaChubby

6. Strategy. Set your hand for maximum opportunity or protection against a dealer's average hand of 5/9. The way I approach this step varies based on who I am teaching. For someone with a math or engineering background, I'll get into bell curves and maximizing the area under the curves. For others, I'll generally start with making the high hand a high-9 or better if possible, otherwise maximize the low hand. This gets it right about 90% of the time, and you can try to teach the more subtle aspects of strategy as you go.
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If someone is attentive, you should be able to teach all this in about an hour. Spend the second hour dealing random hands, and demonstrating how to read/split them. Roll them one tile at a time, discuss the tile, and how it plays with the other tiles which have already been exposed. Looking at four tiles all at once can be intimidating. Show the first tile. What is it worth? Is it a strong tile or a weak tile? Show the second tile. What is it worth, is it strong of weak? Does it go well with the first tile? Show the third tile. Does it matchup better with the first or second tile? If it matches up well with tile 1, for instance, what would you like your fourth tile to be to fit best with tile 2? Roll the fourth tile. Deal with it. This is where all the options are in play and it can be toughest to cope. But if you've already got your brain working from the first three tiles, it should be easiest to adjust.

Thanks. This was really helpful. It is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

Quote: PapaChubby

7 (Optional). The rank of the tiles. The only reason to know this is the tiebreaking procedure, which only occasionally comes into play, and is really not THAT big of a deal even when it does. I played for about a year before I bothered to learn and apply the tile ranks. Here's how I teach it now: Special tiles are best, and you just have to learn them: Wilds, 12, 2, high 8, high 4. Then identical/symmetrical tiles, from largest to smallest. Then identical/nonsymmetrical tiles, from largest to smallest. Finally mixed pairs, from largest to smallest.

This was the hardest part for me to learn. A dealer taught me the way to remember...

Teen, Day; then...

The Red Army (high 8), uses the sickle (high 4), to defeat the White Army (high 10), defending the cross (chong), while the Four Sisters (low 4), does something, I call it the orgy (11), of the Redheaded Stepsisters (Low 10), with a pair of tits (tit, paired seven) while you Look (look, paired six)

Then the mixed pairs, highest to lowest. It helps me, and now I know mine.