Best known in America for the game of poker to which it lends its name, the Chinese game of pai gow is a game of chance that uses a special set of domino tiles. Pai gow (meaning "make nine") bears some resemblance to baccarat, but has a more complicated game structure and terminology that may initially confuse new players. The game has several variations, but a version of how to play pai gow is described below.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Start Playing
Step 1. Have one of the players do the bank
When pai gow is played in a casino, the person in question works for the facility.
Step 2. Give each player the opportunity to act as a banker
The players who have been given this opportunity go around the table starting from the right of the dealer. When playing pai gow in a casino, players usually decline in favor of the house because the banker must be able to cover all bets made. Sometimes, a player can divide the tasks equally with the dealer.
Step 3. Mix the tiles
Step 4. Arrange the pai gow dominoes in a few piles
There should be 8 piles of dominoes, each pile with 4 tiles. The piles are called stacks.
Step 5. Place bets on the outcome of the game
Step 6. Tell the desk to roll the dice
The dealer puts 4 dice in a cup, rolls them and declares the end of the bets.
Step 7. Give the players the stacks they have chosen
The player who makes the first choice is determined by counting from the right of the dealer up to the number rolled on the 3 dice of the same color. Each player thereafter chooses one of the remaining stacks.
Method 2 of 2: Making Pai Gow Hands
Step 1. Arrange the tiles in a high and low hand
The goal is for both of the pai gow's hands to win the dealer's hands. If both of your hands beat the dealer's hands, you win the bet. If none of your hands beat the dealer's, you lose your bet. If only one of your hands beats the dealer's, you get your bet back, but you don't win any money from the house.
The dealer uses the fourth die rolled with the other three to determine how to make his hands according to a set of rules known as Star City's Pai Gow House Way. Players could also make their hands following this set of rules, or according to their choice depending on the rules of the remaining passes of this section / article
Step 2. Look for the Gee Jun tiles
These are the 1-2 and 2-4 tiles, which can be played together or with the other wild tiles to make a pair. If you play them together, they form the highest possible hand, known as the Supreme Pair. If you play both tiles with a different tile as a joker, the joker will earn you 3 points.
Step 3. Find the matching pairs between the tiles
The pai gow does not classify the tiles in numerical order, but in a special order according to the meaning of the numbers. The leaderboard is listed below, with the name given to each matched pair. There are 2 identical tiles in the Chinese domino set.
- Mating of 12 (called "Teen") - "Paradise"
- Pairing of 2 (called "Dey" or "Days") - "Earth"
- Mating of 8 (called "Yun") - "Man"
- Pairing of 10 (in combination 5-5, called "Mooy") - "Flower"
- Pairing of 6 (in combination 3-3, called "Chong") - "Long"
- Pairing of 4 (in combination 2-2, called "Bon") - "Board"
- Pairing of 11 (called "Foo") - "Accept"
- Pairing of 10 (in combination 4-6, called "Ping") - "Partition"
- Pairing of 7 (in combination 1-6, called "Tit") - "Long Leg 7"
- Pairing of 6 (in combination 1-5, called "Look") - "Big Head 6"
Step 4. Make unmatched pairs after you have made as many matched pairs as you can
The unmatched pairs in the pai gow are the Chinese dominoes whose seeds add up to the same value but are split differently into the two halves of the tile (there is one of each tile in the pai gow set). Here they are listed by rank from highest to lowest:
- 9 mixed (combinations 3-6 and 4-5, each tile named "Chop Gow")
- Mixed 8 (combinations 2-6 and 3-5, each tile named "Chop Bot")
- 7 mixed (combinations 2-5 and 3-4, each tile called "Chop Chit")
- 5 mixed (combinations 2-3 and 1-4, each tile named "Chop Ng")
Step 5. Make a "wong," "gong," or "high nine" combination if you can't make a pair
The wongs, gongs and high nines are done with either Teen (12) or Dey (2) tiles. Both of these pai gow tiles can be played with 9, 8, or 7 in the rank order given below (note that Teen or Dey tiles cannot both be used in a pair and in one of these special combinations).
- Wong (with 9 o'clock) - "King of Heaven" (12), "King of Earth" (2)
- Gong (with 8 o'clock) - "Treasure of Heaven" (12), "Treasure of Earth" (2)
- Nine high (with 7 o'clock) - Or 12 or 2
Step 6. Count the total suits in both the high and low hands if you cannot make any of the previously described plays
You're trying to get a score of 9 or get as close to it as possible. As in baccarat, if you score above 9, the tens are dropped; a 2-2 and a 3-3 tile played together are worth 0.
Step 7. Evaluate your hands against the dealer's hand
Compose hands for special combinations and points as described above. Ties are broken in frequent ways.
- If both the dealer and the player have hands with the same numerical value, the value of the highest rank domino determines which hand has won. If the values of both dominoes in the hands are equivalent, the player has a “copy” hand and loses.
- If both the dealer 's and the player' s hands are worth 0, the dealer wins even if the player has the highest rank domino.
