Pai Gow Tiles

Pai gow is an ancient game played with 32 Chinese dominoes, also known as tiles, which

form 16 possible pairs. The objective of the game is to beat the Banker's two hands, a high hand and a low hand, with your high hand and low hand. The first order of business in each hand is to establish who will bank the hand. The Banker can be any player or the casino. A player who banks the game must be able to pay off all wagers during his stint as Banker (although many casinos allow the banker to share that responsibility with the house on a 50-50 basis), and must also have wagered in the previous round when the casino acted as Banker. The banking option is offered to each player in turn, rotating in a counterclockwise direction. Players are not obligated to bank, and if all players decline (as often happens), the casino banks the game. When the casino banks the game, its hands are always set according to a house formula for making hands. Players do not have to used that formula when they bank, and are free to arrange their hands any way they choose.

Play begins when the house dealer mixes the tiles and then creates eight stacks of four dominoes. After the players place their bets in the betting circles in front of them, the dealer shakes three dice in a cup and slams the cup down on the table (POW!) The number rolled determines which players receives the fist stack of tiles. To decide which player gets the first stack, the dealer counts counterclockwise from the Banker around the eight places at the table (so the Banker would get the first stack if the dice totaled 9 or 17). After determining where to start, the house dealer then gives out four tiles to each player, and the players arrange a high and a low hand.

The value of a hand is based on both the numeric value and symbolic ranking of the tiles. To find the numeric value of a tile, count the right-hand digit if the total is higher than 9 (so a 12-spot tile has a value of 2). Also, as in baccarat, 9 is the magic number. You want to make your high hand and your low hand each as close to 9 as you can get them.

To form a hand, add the total number of spots contained on the two tiles, again discarding the left-hand digit of any two-digit total (If your tiles total 17, you have a 7.) When two hands have the same numeric value, the symbolic ranking of the tiles determines the winner. To find which hand is higher, take the highest ranked tile in each hand and compare them. Casinos have charts that show the symbolic value of the dominoes for this purpose.

To understand symbolic value, think of it this way: if blackjacks had symbolic value, it would mean that a black-jack composed of an Ace of spaces and any picture card or 10 of spades would beat a blackjack composed of an Ace of diamonds and any picture card or 10 of diamonds. The numerical value is the same for both blackjacks (21) but the symbolic value is different, since spades outrank diamonds. Of course, blackjack doesn't have that kind of ranking of suits (except during some promotions and tournaments), but pai gow does.

When two hands have the same numeric value and identical high tiles, it is called a "copy" hand. The Bank wins all copy hands. When two hands have a numeric value of 0, regardless of the high tile, the Bank also wins.

Once the deal is complete and their high hands and low hands are set, players have to win both hands to win, or lose both hands to lose. Winning one, and losing the other is considered a push, so strategically you don't want to have an extremely strong big hand and a very week little hand, as this will usually result in a tie. You want to have hands that are relatively strong on the big and little ends. The top five hand rankings are Supreme Pair, Matched Pairs, Unmatched Mixed Pairs, Wongs, and Gongs (see Hand Rankings for a complete explanation).

When you receive your tiles, there are four easy steps to follow that will help you correctly set approximately 90 percent of your hands.

1. Look for pairs. Matching pairs are easy to recognize because the tiles are identical. Unmatched pairs like 5-2 and 3-4 are often overlooked, so if you're not sure what you have, ask the dealer.
2. When you don't have a pair, look for the 12 (Teen) or 2 (Dey) tile and combine it with a 7 to make High 9, or an 8 to make a Gong or a 9 to make a Wong
3. Look for two small tiles that total 9 or less and play them together.
4. Put the largest tile with the smallest tile.

Next in rank are special combinations known as Wongs. These combinations inlude either the 2 or 12 point domino and any 9 point domino.

Following the Wongs are other special combinations known as Gongs. These combinations include either the 2 or 12 point domino and any 8 point domino.

Finally, if a pair, Wong, or Gong can not be formed then the hand is ranked according to the terminal digit of the total pip value of dots on the dominos. For example a hand consisting of a 12 and 7 dominos would have a total of 19 spots for the highest possible value of 9. The highest among these hands are the 6+6 and 1+1 dominos combined with a 7, known as a "high nine" because of their composition with one of the two highest individual dominos. In the event the player and banker have the same point total then the highest ranking domino in each will will be used to break the tie, the high domino wins. In the event that the high dominos are equal then the tie shall go to the banker. Note that the second highest dominos are not used to break the tie. There is an exception, in the event of a 0-0 copy then the tie will go to the banker. The following list shows every domino in order of their rank.

Note that while the two wild dominos together are the highest ranking pair (the supreme pair) individually they are the lowest in rank.

In his book Pai Gow Chinese Dominoes Michael J. Musante presents what is known now as the Musante house way which has influenced the house way of many casinos. Dr. John Gwynn later analyzed the effects of various strategies played against the Musante strategy. Assuming the player used the Musante strategy as well the house edge would be 0.6182% as the banker, 2.3896% as a player, and 1.5039% on average. Assuming the player used an optimal single strategy designed to defeat the Musante strategy the house edge would be -0.1387% as the banker, 1.6376% as a player, and 0.7495% on average. Assuming the player used two optimal strategies depending on whether acting as the banker or a player the house edge would be -0.1472% as the banker, 1.6225% as a player, and 0.7377% on average.

The most practical of these statistics for the novice player are those for the Musante vs. Musante. These figures also show that to minimize the overall house edge the ratio of money wagered as banker is much more important than the strategy used. Assuming the player banked half of his/her total bets and used the same strategy as the dealer and other players the house edge would be about 1.5%.

Finally, there is an unwritten rule that you never play a hand in a way that an alternative would result in both a stronger high and low hand. For example with a pair of 12s, 6, and wild. The splitting 12s rule says to split to make 6-8 or better. However pair/9 beats 8/8 on both hand and low hands, thus overrides the pair splitting rule.

Pai gow is a game that cries out for a way to practice before making a fool of yourself and blowing your money in a casino. For this reason please try Mike's pai gow Java game.

Ranking

Strategy

The House Way