Pai Gow Poker is played with a standard 52-card deck and one
joker. The joker can be used as an ace or a wild card to complete a straight,
a flush or straight flush only. The Pai Gow Poker is played on a blackjack-size
table with up to six players and a banker. The players are playing against the
banker. In most cases the casino acts as the banker although players can chose
to bank the game if they wish to. Pai Gow poker would require having enough
money to cover all of the other player's bets. The casino collects a five- percent
commission on all winning bets. Pai Gow is a
slower paced game. There are many pushes. The Banker has a slight edge because
it wins the copies. The traditional Asian game of Pai Gow is played with tiles
that look like dominos. To make it easier to understand an American version
of Pai Gow poker was introduced using standard playing cards and the ranking
of hands were fashioned after poker hands. Thus the new game of Pai Gow Poker
was developed.
