Intuitively, I'd imagine online PGP to have a few hands that look wonky to one who typically plays PGP at a B&M casino. After all, casino's house way is made to give a good return while also minimizing dealer mistakes. This easier to remember house way isn't maximized as a result.
Online, there is no need to do so. The server (should) know perfect house way and be able to make a decision immediately. Could that difference be what we're seeing?
We understand you're inquiring about how our Casino set hands in Pai Gow Poker. Rest assured we'll provide useful information to help you out.
Our Casino uses the same rule as what the traditional Pai Gow Poker uses. After you set your hand, you'd need to select two cards that will be compared to the dealer, to determine the winner. The dealer will turn over his cards and divide his hand in the same manner.
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But we need to get a reply from Dan or JB. Both have worked strategy pretty thoroughly. JB said that his is horribly complex and only shaves a hair off his simple strategy. But for a computer, there's no reason that the house way can't be complex and have hundreds of exceptions.
Frankly, since this hand would have pushed either way, I'd say it's probably an acceptable way/exception.
The most interesting question is this..... If the player has no access to the house ways, he essentially is playing a game with hidden rules....
Should a player have full access to the house ways? I think so....
Quote: strictlyAPI emailed bovada and I got a response with this answer - how would you interpret it because they say they use standard Paigow rules yet not a single casino I've ever seen sets this rule Thanks for contacting Bovada Casino Customer Service.
We understand you're inquiring about how our Casino set hands in Pai Gow Poker. Rest assured we'll provide useful information to help you out.
Our Casino uses the same rule as what the traditional Pai Gow Poker uses. After you set your hand, you'd need to select two cards that will be compared to the dealer, to determine the winner. The dealer will turn over his cards and divide his hand in the same manner.
To further enhance your experience we wish to recommend a great site for you that will help you when gaming:
https://wizardofodds.com/games/pai-gow-poker/
This is a form letter. The person who wrote this does not understand your question and probably does not understand English.
The "We understand that you're inquiring about _________. Rest assured we'll provide useful information to help you out." part is the form. They fill in the blank. Then they copy and paste something from their rules that doesn't answer your question.
Horrible customer service.
Flush/94 is worth 0.025097 (0.025387 if banking)
Pair/AK is worth 0.156681 (0.225148 if banking)
Since Bovada runs customized RTG software, their PGP game most likely uses the RTG house way, which can be found here.
There is a rule for "Flush > Flush and Pair > Any other One Pair, Joker" which says "The two cards will be the Joker and the highest singleton not from the flush." However, in this case, both the Joker and the King were from the Flush, which there is no specific rule for. So lacking a rule for this specific case, I think the next-best rule applies, the One Pair rule, which says to play the highest two singletons in the low hand.
I am a total low roller at bovada, just poker. 2 cent 5 cent cash game and 2 dollar tournaments. The rakes are the standard percentage so its all cool.
I feel I am getting good value.
I decide to buy in for 10 bucks in chips just to test the waters for pai gow poker
Pai gow min bet is a buck so I play.
After winning and losing and pushing I suddenly notice the rake/commission and have a WTF moment.
25 per cent. WTF. my god.
I only lost 2 bucks lol. still, 25 cent commission off a buck win. ridiculous.
Bovada can cater to low roller poker players but not pai gow? Why not a percentage? I read the rules, 5 per cent commission, minimum 25 cents.
I pay pennies in poker rakes, why a quarter min for pai gow? Its software, not labor.
Oh well, I'll save my pai gow play for a real casino, there I feel real cards, live dealer, friendly conservations, drinks off set commission.
edit: looked at pix, yup, 9's/AK... IIRC they would do this with 8's and just maybe 7's/AK. the later borderline/close.
One can glean this from the Wiz's page listing the 2 and 5 card ranks.