Double-hand Poker is an American card-playing derivative of the centuries-old casino game of Chinese Dominoes. In the early 1800’s, Chinese laborers introduced the game while working in California.
The game’s popularity with Chinese gamblers ultimately drew the focus of entrepreneurial gamblers who replaced the standard tiles with cards and modeled the game into a new kind of poker. Introduced into the poker rooms of California in 1986, the game’s immediate popularity and reputation with Asian poker gamblers drew the awareness of Nevada’s casino operators who quickly assimilated the game into their own poker rooms. The popularity of the casino game has continued into the twenty-first century.
Pai gow tables accommodate up to six gamblers and a dealer. Differentiating from traditional poker, all players play against the dealer and not against each other.
In a counterclockwise rotation, each player is given seven face down cards by the dealer. Forty-nine cards are given, including the dealer’s seven cards.
Each gambler and the croupier must form 2 poker hands: a high palm of 5 cards plus a low hands of two cards. The hands are based on traditional poker rankings and as such, a 2 card hand of two aces will be the highest possible hands of two cards. A 5 aces hands would be the greatest five card palm. How do you get 5 aces in a standard fifty-two card deck? You are truly playing with a 53 card deck since one joker is allowed into the casino game. The joker is regarded a wild card and could be used as one more ace or to finish a straight or flush.
The greatest 2 hands win each casino game and only a single gambler having the 2 greatest hands simultaneously can win.
A dice toss from a cup containing three dice determines who will be dealt the first hand. After the hands are dealt, players must form the two poker hands, maintaining in mind that the 5-card hands must often rank increased than the two-card hands.
When all players have set their hands, the dealer will make comparisons with his or her hands rank for pay-outs. If a player has one hands higher in position than the croupier’s but a lower 2nd hand, this is regarded as a tie.
If the dealer beats both hands, the gambler loses. In the situation of both gambler’s hands and each dealer’s hands being identical, the croupier is victorious. In betting house play, ofttimes considerations are made for a player to become the dealer. In this circumstance, the player must have the money for any payoffs due winning players. Of course, the gambler acting as croupier can corner several large pots if he can beat most of the players.
A number of gambling establishments rule that gamblers cannot deal or bank 2 consecutive hands, and some poker suites will offer to co-bank 50/50 with any player that decides to take the bank. In all instances, the croupier will ask gamblers in turn if they want to be the banker.
In Pai-gow Poker, you are given "static" cards which means you might have no opportunity to change cards to perhaps improve your palm. On the other hand, as in conventional five-card draw, there are strategies to generate the best of what you have been given. An example is maintaining the flushes or straights in the 5-card hand and the 2 cards remaining as the 2nd high palm.
If you are lucky enough to draw 4 aces and also a joker, you can retain 3 aces in the 5-card palm and reinforce your 2-card hands with the other ace and joker. 2 pair? Maintain the larger pair in the 5-card hand and the other 2 matching cards will produce up the second hands.