Entering a casino may be a cacophony of movement and speed. The clatter of the roulette wheel and the quiet, intense concentration at the blackjack table can be deafening at times… But then, you see it. A softer, wiser game, one that is played with cards and dominoes. It is Pai Gow Poker, a game of strategy, patience and a sort of puzzle solving which occurs right before your eyes on the digital felt of your favourite National Casino. The objective appears to be such: you will have two poker hands using all your seven cards, beating two hands of the dealer, yet the magic, the actual art of the game, is how you separate them. Do it wrong, and you lose. Welcome to the fascinating world of hand-setting.
The Foundation
You have to be familiar with the battlefield before we go into strategy. In Pai Gow Poker, seven cards are presented to you. You are to sort into two distinct hands, namely, a five-card, ‘High’, hand and a two-card, ‘Low’, hand. One thing is not negotiable. Your five-card High hand should be ranked higher in comparison to your two-card Low hand. Any infraction of this rule results in an automatic loss, called a ‘foul’. It is how the game makes you tell the truth.
After placing your hands, they are matched up against the two hands of the dealer, and to win your bet, you need both of your hands to win against both hands of the dealer. When one of your hands wins, it becomes a push, and you obtain your initial bet back, and when both hands go down, it is the house taking your bet. It is this push mechanic that makes Pai Gow Poker such a slow-burning, bankroll-friendly game. Yet, there is one more twist, a special rule that follows every novice: the “copy.”
The Dreaded Copy (The Push Hand)
What is a copy? It’s a specific, and often frustrating, type of tie, where if your High hand ties the dealer’s High hand, the dealer wins that hand. The same goes for the Low hand, which means that even if you have a fantastic five-card hand, if it’s exactly equal to the dealer’s, it counts as a loss for you. This rule is the cornerstone of the house edge. It is also the single biggest reason why proper hand-setting strategy is so crucial. Your goal is to make two hands that are strategically positioned to avoid creating a copy.
The Art of Setting Your Hands Strategically
So, how do you avoid the copy? You may not be able to control what the dealer has, but you can control how you arrange your own cards. The key is to think about the most likely ways a copy can occur and set your hands to sidestep those pitfalls.
Let’s look at a scenario where you are dealt a pair and a five-card flush. A newcomer’s instinct might be to put the pair in the Low hand and the flush in the High hand, which seems logical, right? You’re making a strong two-card hand and a strong five-card hand, but this is often a strategic error… Why?
Because you have weakened your strongest asset. By breaking up the flush to play the pair in the Low hand, you might have turned a powerful flush into a much weaker High hand, like just a High Card or a pair of Aces. Now, your High hand is vulnerable to a copy or a loss against a dealer who also has a pair.