My Personal Pai Gow Poker Way

This is the exact way I played Pai-Gow Poker as a Player. Since I'm no longer a Customer, I'll pass this on FWIW.
In the latter stages of play, I learned the KKK plays as KK + K when 10-high or less remain. You can add that if you wish.

Front hand or Front is the 2-card hand. These decisions are made top to bottom,
if a decision fails, move to the next-lower decision or step.

Five Aces: AAA + AA

Quad + Triple: Play the high Pair as 2-card hand.

Quad + Pair: The Pair plays as 2-card hand.

Quads: TTTT = Four Tens, split = Pair + Pair
1.) 2222, 3333, 4444, 5555: do not split.
2.) 6666, 7777, 8888, 9999: King or Ace with best other plays as 2-card hand, else split.
3.) TTTT, J J J J, QQQQ: Ace with best other plays as 2-card hand, else split.
4.) KKKK or AAAA: Split, EXCEPT play KKKK behind A J or AQ, or play AAA behind AK.

[Str-Fl, FL, Str] containing at least one Pair: Best [choice] 5-card hand + Pair.

[Str-Fl, FL, Str] containing an Ace: Best [choice] 5-card hand + Ace.

Full House + Pair: Higher of the two Pairs plays as 2-card hand.

Full House or Two Triples: Play Low Triple + Pair, EXCEPT Play Ace-Face in front of any FH.

[Str-Fl, FL, Str] that is also Three Pairs: Play as Three Pairs (see below).

[Str-Fl, FL, Str] that is also Two Pairs: Play as Two Pairs (see below)

[Str-Fl, FL, Str]: Play the best [choice] 5-card hand, EXCEPT if one choice permits a Face Card to play as 2-card hand, and the other choice doesn't, then play the 5-card hand + Face Card.

Triples: Best two other cards play to Front, EXCEPT: AAA plays as AA + Ace-best other card.

Three Pairs: Play the highest Pair as the 2-card hand.

Two Pairs:
1.) KK or AA high: Do not split.
2.) 10-10 or better as low Pair: Do not split.
3.) High Pair 77 to QQ: Play Ace with best other to Front, else split.
4.) High Pair 33 to 66: Play King or better with best other to Front, else split.

One Pair: Play the Pair and three lowest ranks as the 5-card hand.

NO PAIR (Pai Gow): Play the 2nd and 3rd highest ranks as 2-card hand.


Separately, but not deserving of its own topic due to complete computer analysis is the Carib. Stud decisions. These were made knowing the concept that an up-card match to the Player hand had "some influence" but was written before detailed analysuis was made availible. At the time was the AKJ8 rule, which was OK.

1.) AKQxy: Raise
2.) AKJxy or AK10xy: Raise if the up-card matched any card, else fold.
3.) AK9xy or less: Raise if the up-card matched one of the low 3-cards, else fold.

98Clubs

Good Pai Gow method, stronger than a lot of house ways.
Especially like #4 in Quads, very good, (although rare to use!), and #4 under two pair hands, using the King top to keep low pairs together else split.

I would NOT play AK in front of ALL full houses, only if the pairs part of the FH's are low pairs.
JJJ1010AK I would play as 10 10/ JJJAK and ignore the AK in this case, but JJJ33AK I WOULD play as AK/JJJ33.

In straights and Flushes with one pair, I'd always play a straight or Flush with K top always, as AKKQJ105 I'd play as K5/AKQJ10 for both the win and bonus, but AKQJJ105 I'd play as AK/JJ105 for the win instead of J5/AKQJ10 for the push.

Tonight my brother Bob was in town from Huntsville, AL, and my wife drove him to Sunset Station when I was dealing dice tonight at Fiesta. I "early-out" and met him there at 12 Midnight and we hit the Pai Gow tables to break him to of "dice-only" habit.

He insisted of changing seats with me at the Pai Gow table as I was smoking and the draft was his way. This was a mistake, because in ten hands he got a straight flush with Kings up: KK/J10987 of clubs, then six hands later: AAAAK52. He actually played it as AK/AAA52 and NOT as AA/AAK52 - and beat the dealer who had (of ALL friggin' things): AQ/777J9 for the win! Howl! He PLAYED your quads handling in your type of way, - and he won. He left up $400, though I broke even. (He already knew how to play poker cold). As I was leaving, I saw him sneaking to play at one of the crap tables with the Pai Gow winnings, like a dog returning to his vomit (Like I should talk, I nearly joined him, but it was 2:30AM, and sheesh, I SEE enough dice as work!)

Another interesting hand came up that touches upon these pai Gow "cutoff" point arguments. My brother had AKQQJ103 and I recommnded playing AK/QQJ103 instead of the straight. I had a joker heart flush with a King top that could have been played as 9's with an AK top, but because it was only 9's and not a face card pair, and the flush had a king top, I elected for the safe pushy setting in this case. So I expected my brother to win, and for me to push, and both of us collect the bonuses. As it turned out, the dealer had a 6-high straight with a 98 top, and He pushed instead of won, and I won instead of pushed, expecting the dealer to have a typical better pair with an ace-low top. Just goes to show you, pai Gow is like life - you get punished for doing the right thing.

Anyway, before we parted, he asked me if I have an optimized "anti-house" way for the player, and I said I do. (I had to test the optimized house way against an optimized "anti-house way," or optimized players' way who faces a banking dealer.) He said he wants to see that. I said sure.

Quote: 98Clubs

Front hand or Front is the 2-card hand. These decisions are made top to bottom,
if a decision fails, move to the next-lower decision or step.

NO PAIR (Pai Gow): Play the 2nd and 3rd highest ranks as 2-card hand.

Question for somebody who might know the answer... I see a lot of Asian players on A-high pai gow take the the 3rd and 4th highest ranks, holding back the highest rank. I have seen this actually save a player when the dealer gets an A-high pai gow. Much of the time, the 3rd and 4th card cause a push or it would have been a loss with the 2nd card anyways.

I've also noticed that card distribution plays a role... meaning, if everybody at the table has a pai gow (assuming you can share info about hands), the dealer tends to have one as well. When everybody has big hands, the dealer tends to have too. Not a hard and fast rule, I know, but any comments on that?

Quote: Tiltpoul

... I see a lot of Asian players on A-high pai gow take the the 3rd and 4th highest ranks, holding back the highest rank. I have seen this actually save a player when the dealer gets an A-high pai gow.

Thats called "protecting your Pai Gow." The hand AKJ6432 is better plated as K6/AJ432 than KJ/A6432. If the dealer has AKQ9532, then the second setting loses, while the first setting pushes. Protecting your paigow involves setting your Ace-high paigow as [2nd & 4th] instead of [2nd & 3rd] on top. If a dealer also has an ace-high, chances are he'll beat you if your 4th card of the ace-high Pai Gow is 8 or less. This play is generally of so little consequence it is virtually irrelevant, like splitting Aces if your hand is AA86432 or so.
Edit: I personally play protecting your Pai Gow, but not splitting Aces. If a casino house decides to fine-tune playing to protect Ace-high Pai gow hands, players would revolt. Players would also notice and balk at a house playing AK/AAAxx instead of AA/AAKxx to take advantage of the copy effect.

Quote: Paigowdan

Players would also notice and balk at a house playing AK/AAAxx instead of AA/AAKxx to take advantage of the copy effect.

Not to doubt you on this subject at all, since I trust your advice on this...

But as a house, AA in the low hand guarantees no wins for the player. In the AAA, AK, while stronger on paper, will push way more often. If I were writing a house way, my first and foremost rule would be "If you can play AA in the low hand, do it, regardless." I know AAAAKKx, would be a strange way to play the hand, but all other hands would make more sense that way.

As a PLAYER though, I can see the advantage of playing AAA/AK over AA/AA.

The thing is the both the house dealer and the player would do well with this setting: not only does it beat all one pair hands, it also beats all two pair hands kept together, and all three of a kinds, as AAA is the top three of a kind and is used by the position's hand here. This adds a LOT of hands that a single pair on the five-card side wouldn't beat, as the only hands aside form Pai Gow hands that the AA/AAKxx setting would beat is one pair and two pairs split. Since AK in this hand would not likely copy with four aces and one king accounted for, AK/AAA is a good play for either dealer of player.

Four of a kind Aces with a King is such a rare hand, and either way plays approximately well, there is no overriding reason to play either way, aside from the fact that AK/AAA would push split pairs instead of win them, while beating many more strong sided five-card sides. Getting this hand, especially with a bonus bet made, is a delight either way.

If you have a good Pai gow of AKQJ or AKQ10 you can play K J or K-10 as 2-card hand. Why? because the House *must* play the King-Queen. Therefore, if the Player holds an Ace-Queen pai gow in the 5-card hand, it will beat *any* Dealer pai gow in the 5-card hand, since the best *legal* Dealer pai gow 5-card is Ace-Jack.. The 2-card hand is still strong..

Exactly - and the house is going to win the KQ two-card side copy, anyway. The house counts on the two-card side copies, their pai gows will push a player's strong KQ/AA732 or KQ/66223, but the player is better off with a push than a loss, pumping up the five card side, especially with a Pai Gow hand.