Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow poker (or Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai Gow, in that it is played with playing cards using poker hand rankings, while Pai Gow is played with Chinese dominoes. The games of Pai Gow poker and Super Pan-9 — though the latter is not a poker game — were co-created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf.

In addition to being a games inventor, Fred Wolf was the casino manager of the Commerce Casino in the early 1980's. Fred Wolf decided to sublet a third of the casino floor space of the Bell Club, in the city of Bell, California, to introduce his new Super Pan-9 game. Fred Wolf needed to innovate new gaming structures in order to overcome the competition of the larger Los Angeles area card casinos, such as the Bicycle Club and Commerce Casino. The games of Pai Gow Poker and Super Pan-9 became immediate crowd favorites, quickly spreading to the entire Californian gaming market, and then, worldwide.

Subsequently, Fred Wolf invented, and obtained U.S. patents on, several new gaming devices which included "Three-special-dice", and games such as "Sweepstakes Blackjack", "Fast-action hold 'em", "Lucky Pan-9" and "Pai Gow jokers".

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck plus a single joker. It is played on a table set for six players plus the dealer.

Each player is playing against the banker, who may be the casino dealer or one of the other players at the table.

Procedure of Play
Pai gow poker uses a joker, so this means there are 53 cards in the deck. Please see below about using the joker since it is not a true wild card. You play against the dealer, and both of you will be trying to make the best possible hand.

Every round begins with the player making a bet and clicking on “Deal”. You will get seven cards initially. You will then group the cards into two hands, a five-card hand (which must be the high hand) and a two-card hand (which must be the low hand). The ranking of the five-card hand is the same as in poker, except that a straight of A-2-3-4-5 is the second highest straight.

The dealer will set his/her hands according to the "house way" once you have grouped your cards and "split". Then the two five-hand cards will be compared. After that, the the two two-hand cards will be compared. The highest hand will win in each case. You will be paid with even money, less a 5% commission, if both of your hands beat both of ther dealer's hands. The round is considered a push if you win one hand, but lose the other to the dealer. You will lose the entire wager if you lose both hands. The dealer wins tie hands.

The Joker
The joker can be used to complete a straight, flush, or straight flush, otherwise it is an ace.