Pai Gow Poker Tips

Pai Gow Poker is a blend of the very old Chinese free casino game of Pai Gow and the American poker- hence the unique name. It is played with a deck of 53 cards, which includes a Joker. This Joker can be used as an Ace or to complete a Straight or a Flush. Pai Gow literally translates as “make nine”. In the ancient days, it was played with domino tile sets.

In ancient times before the Pai Gow developed there were two very popular online gambling games-the yeh tza and the yu-p’u. Some people consider the yu-p’u to be more or less like today’s poker dice. It is beleved to be the root of Chinese dice games. This is traced to the writings of the Song dynasty. Yeh-tza literally means leaves. Therefore, a plausible explanation is that leaves were used as cards. As time went by and new materials became abundant, the Ku P’ai developed which resembles a game of dominoes.

Pai Gow bears a strong resemblance to several card online casino games except for the fact that in place of cards domino tiles are used. This game is played on a one-to-one basis. Each player plays against the banker and attempts to get the best hand. In this game, any of the players can choose to be the banker.

Without a banker, there is a house dealer, against whom the players can compete. This house dealer takes over the hand every other virtual casino game. The house has an advantage of 2.5%. However, if one of the players is acting as the banker then the advantage is close to being even. In case of a tie, the banker wins. He also pockets the losses and has to pay the winner on his own. However, the house does receive a five-percent commission on the same.