The Ponderous Pace of Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow poker would seem the perfect indulgence for the casino passerby who desires the slow, methodical pace of a soccer game, chess match, or M. Night Shyamalan movie. It’s a true exercise in patience and persistence.

In other words, you can labor through a succession of hands before anything actually happens, either on the plus side or negative. But when something finally does break, it becomes a really big deal.

A stop at the Pai Gow table typically settles into a monotony of pushes before anyone makes or breaks any bank. Many folks admittedly hunker down at Pai Gow just to take full advantage of the free cocktails – and nothing more. Yes, you can easily throw back a few spritzers without your stash dwindling a single chip.

But if competently played, Pai Gow can also become a downright exhilarating (and lucrative) endeavor, a reason why its magnetic pull is fast attracting gambling enthusiasts of all kinds.

How it works: The Pai Gow table seats up to six participants, each focused on a common goal: to beat the dealer. Each player is dealt a total seven cards through which he or she must separate into two hands. One is a five-card hand, known as the high hand. The other is a two-card low hand. The dealer also obtains a seven card draw for assembling his or her own low and high hands.

The high hand reflects the best that any five (of the seven) cards can muster, be it a flush, straight, or two pair, whatever. Meantime, the low hand is always decided by either a pair or a high card (i.e. Ace, 10). Note that a Joker card can serve as either an Ace or a wild card to complete a potential straight or flush.

Once the hands are established, the game then becomes an all-or-nothing scenario in which you must best the dealer in both hands to rake home the score. For example, you may show a doozy of a high hand (i.e. your flush defeats the dealers pair of Jacks), but a dud of a low hand (the dealer’s 6-pair defeats your 8-high card). The hand then becomes a push and a waste of three minutes of your life.

The flipside also holds true. In order to succumb to the house, your low hand and high hand must both fall short of the dealer’s showings. Your high hand’s pair of deuces may not be enough to topple the dealer’s pair of Queens, but your King-high low hand saves your ass against the dealer’s Jack-high. Hence, you guessed it – another push.

The Upside: The bonus play in Pai Gow adds an element of excitement that otherwise lacks in the mishmash of pushes. Dropping even a nickel on the dot can potentially return some extraordinary payouts and sometimes soften the blow from a loss.

Most common bonus hits are the straight (pays 2-to-1), three-of-a-kind (pays 3-to-1), and flush (pays 4-to-1). However, once in a while comes a monster hand that rings up a bonanza payout. Four-of-a-kind (25-to-1), straight flush (50-to-1), and royal flush (150-to-1) are all superb hands, but pale in comparison to the granddaddy of them all – the 7-card straight flush (8,000-to-1). With this rarity, a $5 bonus wager would land you a whopping $40,000 score.

The Downside: In Pai Gow poker, you always lose a little, even when you win. The House takes its $5 vig every time your double-whammy of a high hand and low hand triumph.

Another downer two Pai Gow is your ack of visibility when establishing your two hands. While the players’ cards are dealt face-up, the dealer’s spread isn’t revealed until after your high hand and low hand have been established. Thus, not knowing your opponent’s cards limits your strategic flexibility of what you may need to secure a victory – or a push.