Dear Mark,
I was involved in an interesting situation recently
at a casino. Playing Pai Gow poker, I set my hands
appropriately, or so I thought. In any case, even
though I possibly set my hands wrong, I would have
beaten the bankers hands either way, except that,
I was denied payment. The dealer said I set my hand
wrong and took my money. I complained to the floor
supervisor, but he confirmed I should NOT be paid.
So, my question is, even if I set my hand incorrectly,
but both ways would have beaten the house, was I
treated unfairly? Jim D
To win at Pai Gow poker,
you have to beat both of the banker's hands with both
of your hands. Fair enough, Jim, you did that. Still,
the pit boss was correct in NOT paying you, as I believe
by your letter that you fouled your hand.
In Pai Gow Poker, players
set seven cards into two separate hands of two and
five cards. A Pai Gow poker hand is foul when hands
have the wrong number of cards, or, the two card
low hand has a higher poker value than the five-card
high hand.
Though your letter
did not illustrate the exact hands dealt, an example
would be the banker having a pair of 5's for his
two-card hand and a pair of 7's for his five-card
hand. You possibly could have had a pair of jacks
and queens, but inadvertently set the queens in
your two-card hand instead of the jacks. True, both
of your pairs would have beaten both of the dealer's,
but you fouled your hand by putting the stronger
of the two pairs up front. If the two-card hand
turns out to be higher in value, the hand is foul
and is an automatic loser
