Each
player is dealt seven cards with which he must
make two hands based on poker rankings -- a front
hand of two cards and a back hand of five cards.
The five-card hand must outrank the two-card hand.
You
win if you defeat the banker on both your front
and back hands. You lose only if the banker beats
you on both hands. A "copy," or push,
always goes to the banker.
I
see no reason why you, as a newbie, wouldn't want
the house to set you hand correctly, mostly because
the casino advantage on the game will be lower
if they do, and, as someone new to Pai Gow Poker,
you are prone to make two typical novice-errors.
You risk failing to see a five-card flush, and/or
you risk incorrectly setting your hands when dealt
two pairs. Two-pair hands appear fairly often,
and setting them correctly is incredibly important.
(Note: Here's the quick rule of thumb for playing
two pairs: If your hand has either an unmatched
Ace or King, keep the two pairs in your five-card
hand. If you have neither, play the lower-ranking
pair as the two-card hand.)
So
what's the house edge by having the house set
your hand? Two and a half percent, about the same
as if you were to use perfect basic strategy.
Now,
Pat, let's talk about that 2.5% for just a moment.
At first glance, you'll note it's higher than
my ageless recommendation: "never give the
casino higher than a 2% edge." But with this
negative expectation game, slow is good, very
good.
Pai
Gow Poker can be really slow; sometimes no more
than 40 hands in an hour are actually played to
completion. Compare that to Mini-baccarat, which,
although a lower house-edge play, is an extremely
fast game where 200 decisions can be made in an
hour.
Here's
the arithmetic, Pat, on why it's not such a bad
play. If you were to play Pai Gow Poker at $5
a hand, 40 hands an hour, giving the house 2.5%,
you would lose, over the long run, just $5 per
hour. With Mini-baccarat at $5 a whack, and even
though the house edge is only 1.17%, if you were
to play just the Banker hand, by seeing 200 decisions
an hour, you would have an hourly loss of $11.70.
Pai
Gow Poker, even as a beginner and allowing the
house to set your hand, is pretty cheap entertainment,
Pat, for a measly five bucks an hour.
.
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Columns By Mark Pilarski
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