The five remaining cards form their ‘back’, or ‘high’ hand.As only two cards are used, the strongest possible hand is a pair. Players select two cards to be their ‘front’, or ‘low’ hand.Each player, including the dealer, is dealt seven cards.Play Pai Gow Poker for the first time with a welcome bonus. Let’s take a step-by-step look at how to play a pai gow poker hand. Sounds confusing? Don’t worry, learning how to play pai gow poker is simple, fast and fun. The key element in pai gow poker rules is that each round sees you forming two separate poker hands, one of five cards and a weaker one of just two cards. This makes it more comparable to table games you’d find at the best online casinos, rather than the type of game played at the top online poker sites. Once cards are dealt there are no betting rounds, or opportunities to draw new cards. Rather, you will be using the cards you are dealt to form poker hands, which you hope will beat the dealer’s own hands. While you will be trying to make good poker hands (see below), you will not be wagering on the strength of your hand – or trying to make other players fold – such as you would in a traditional poker game. In this pai gow poker tutorial you’ll find out how to play this fun, classic card game, both online and in a land-based casino, as well as pick up some useful pai gow poker strategy tips to help you beat the dealer the next time you play.īased on pai gow dominoes, one of the world’s oldest gambling games, pai gow poker is a casino game played against the dealer, in a similar vein as other card games, like blackjack or baccarat.

This makes pai gow rules easier to learn and play, especially for players in the West who are used to card-based table games. The ancient Chinese game of pai gow uses a set of 32 dominoes, but pai gow poker is a form of the game that instead uses a traditional deck of 52 cards (plus one Joker).

Learn how to deal poker