Define the state
The player and dealer each receive seven cards, traditionally from a 53-card deck containing a joker with restricted use. Each side forms a five-card high hand and two-card low hand.
Both player hands must defeat the corresponding dealer hands to win. Winning one and losing one produces a push; losing both loses the wager.
Apply the decision
The skill is setting two legal hands. The five-card hand must rank at least as high as the two-card hand, and joker treatment must follow local rules.
Set hands to balance the chance of winning both against the risk of losing both. House-way information is useful, but a player strategy can differ when banking or side bets matter.
Settle every unit
A player cannot place a pair in the two-card hand if doing so leaves a weaker five-card high hand; the hand must be set legally before comparison.
Copies commonly go to the banker. Traditional games may charge commission on wins, while commission-free variants replace that charge with another rule.
Audit the result
Frequent pushes reduce decision resolution. Expected value depends on hand-setting strategy, copy rule, commission, banking frequency and joker treatment.
For Pai Gow Poker Worked Examples, list the initial wager, every later wager, returned stakes, net winnings, losses, and the denominator before converting the result to a percentage.
A round worth auditing
For Pai Gow Poker Worked Examples, banking, commission, house-way procedure and joker treatment shape the result, while frequent pushes change the pace rather than erase the edge.
For Pai Gow Poker Worked Examples, track stake, later action, returned stake and net result line by line. This catches most denominator and settlement mistakes.
Use Pai Gow Poker Worked Examples to reconcile every chip from placement through settlement. If the accounting does not balance, the percentage built on it will not either.
What to record for Pai Gow Poker
- Initial wager
- additional action
- net win or loss
If the Pai Gow Poker Worked Examples chip flow cannot be reconstructed line by line, the example is not yet ready to teach from.
Nevada Gaming Control Board ↗. Use the currently posted casino rules whenever they differ.
Pai Gow Poker Worked Examples is reviewed against the Pai Gow Poker rules described above. A different pay table or procedure is a different model. Editorial review updated September 24, 2026.