- Pai Gow Poker Table
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- Pai Gow Poker uses a single deck plus a Joker to play the game. The table is meant for seven players. One of them is the dealer.
- I also want to mention I play lots of pai gow poker because my money seems to last the longest there, it doesnt grow much but it lasts! I'm no casino owner but I think this is why table limits are generally higher. And, at least in Biloxi, you don't even hit the pit boss's radar unless you have $30 or more per bet, regardless of the table limit.
Pai Gow Poker: A Complete Game Guide. Pai Gow Poker, not to be confused with just Pai Gow, is a table game found in practically every casino. It has been on casino floors for almost 40 years.
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Bring up the game of poker in any casino, and you’ll inevitably hear people talk about Texas Hold’em and televised tournaments like the WSOP. Every so often, a table game enthusiast might mention Three-Card Poker or Caribbean Stud Poker, but you’ll seldom hear Pai Gow Poker enter the conversation.
Despite the popularity of traditional poker, and its offshoots spread in the table game pit, Pai Gow Poker became the “black sheep” of the family. And that’s a shame, because this complex seven-card poker affair is actually better than most table games, even if most gamblers ignore it anyway.
Brief History and Introduction to Pai Gow Poker
The year was 1985, and California casino owner Sam Torosian found himself in a bind. With card clubs sprouting up like weeds throughout Los Angeles County, the newly minted casino operator needed a hook to bring customers through the doors.
After asking around and picking the brains of players, most of whom hailed from local Asian-American communities, Torosian stumbled on a novel concept. A Filipino regular explained the rules of “pusoy,” a card game popular throughout China and nearby regions.
To play pusoy, four players attempt to arrange their random 13-card deal into three distinct poker hands. Two of these hands used the traditional five-card poker hierarchy, while the third used a modified three-card version.
Realizing that the four-way player vs. player format wasn’t exactly a great fit for casino table gaming, Torosian tinkered with the concept. By using just seven cards per player, and two poker hands—a five-card “high” hand and a two-card “low” hand—Torosian hoped to turn pusoy into something more palatable for casino gamblers.
He borrowed elements from another Chinese gambling game known as “pai gow.” While playing pai gow, participants use dominoes and try to set front and back “hands” that outrank their opponent’s front and back holdings. And just like that, the exciting game of Pai Gow Poker was born…
How to Play Pai Gow Poker
To play the game, you’ll place an ante bet to kick off the action. Pai Gow Poker is played against the dealer, rather than other players, so everyone at the table receives a random deal of seven cards from a 53-card deck.
Pai Gow Poker utilizes a lone “joker” card which is considered to be semi-wild, as it can substitute as an ace, or as part of a straight, flush, straight flush, or royal flush.
With your seven cards in hand—as an example, imagine you’re holding the A-A-K-K-9-7-2 with no flush on board—the task is relatively simple. You want to find a five-card “high” hand that has a good chance of outranking the dealer’s own five-card selection. From there, the other two cards will form your two-card “low” hand. The only caveat is, your five-card high hand must outrank your two-card low hand.
Using our example hand, you have a few possibilities to consider. With the A-A-K-K in play, you could form the strongest possible two pair by putting A-A-K-K-2 up front as your high hand. But by doing so, you’ll only have 9-7 as your low hand, and this isn’t likely to beat many dealer low hands.
A better play, one that gives you a prime chance to beat both dealer hands, would use the following hand-setting strategy:
Using this balanced approach, you’re now playing a strong high hand with top pair of aces, while your low hand is essentially the second-best possible with one pair of kings.
When the dealer shows something like Q-Q-J-5-4 for a high hand and 6-6 for a low hand, you’ve just beaten them on both ends of the equation.
Conversely, should the dealer showdown a two-pair hand like Q-Q-J-J-5 for the high and 6-6 for the low, you would “chop” or “push” with the dealer, meaning your bet is returned in a tie.
Now that you know how to play Pai Gow Poker, let’s take a look at why the game is actually better than most table game options out there.
Pai Gow Poker Offers One of the Lowest House Edge Rates
As a table game player, your job is to hunt for the lowest possible house edge rates working against you.
Pai Gow Poker Table
House edge is simply a metric used to determine the casino’s inherent advantage on every game or hand. And the higher it is, the worse odds you’ll face over the long run.
With that in mind, the “Holy Grail” for house edge aficionados is blackjack, which affords a rate of just 0.50% to players who know basic strategy. In other words, For every $100 wagered, blackjack players using basic strategy only stand to lose $0.50 in the long run.
![Gow Gow](https://www.aspers.com/_global-library/_upload-images/games/screenshots/pai-gow-poker-table-and-card.jpg)
On the other end of the spectrum is American style “double-zero” roulette with its 5.26% house edge. But as you can see down below, Pai Gow Poker sits snugly next to blackjack and other games boasting favorable house edge rates.
House Edge of Popular Table Games
Pai Gow Poker offers a very low house edge compared to most table games. It has an edge at 1.46%, which is better than blackjack with no strategy, single zero roulette at 2.7%, and American Roulette, which comes in at 5.26%.
You Can Stretch a Short Bankroll Over Long Sessions Thanks to the Push
Because every Pai Gow Poker hand really involves a two vs. two scenario against the dealer, you’ll wind up seeing your fair share of pushes in the end.
In fact, as the probabilities below make clear, you’ll actually wind up in a push more often than any other result:
Result | Probability |
---|---|
Win | 29.11% |
Push | 40.49% |
Loss | 30.38% |
Pai Gow Poker Table Top
This “push factor” makes the game perfect for folks who enjoy a leisurely, less volatile table game experience. You can sit down with $50, place a few bets to score some drinks, and usually walk away with the same $50 you started with.
Why Most Gamblers Ignore Pai Gow Poker
Let’s start with the name… Pai Gow Poker obviously owes its name to Asian roots, which tends to box out American players who aren’t familiar with the rules. 2p slot machine crossword clue.
Another reason recreational players skip over Pai Gow Poker is the aforementioned push factor. When you come to the casino hellbent on winning, or losing your stack of chips trying, playing a game that winds up with a null result 40% of the time might not be up your alley.
Finally, the admittedly complex optimal strategy used to play the game perfectly has a lot of variables to consider. With this in mind, casual players who just want to have fun typically head to the games of chance like roulette, craps, and baccarat, where strategic thinking isn’t required.
Conclusion
Pai Gow Poker may seem confusing and overly complex at first glance, but the same can be said for any gambling game you’re new to. Once you sit down and give the game a try, however, the basic binary nature of setting high/low hands will become second nature.
Don’t be put off by the exotic name or the intricate rules, just pull out a few chips and take a shot at learning something new. When you do, you won’t regret it, as Pai Gow Poker has evolved from a curiosity into a card game staple spread in every casino nationwide.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.A progressive jackpot is a large cash prize that increases over time through the accumulation of a percentage of all lost bets. Most of the time the player is required to bet a certain amount or make a special side bet before each hand in order to be eligible to win these giant prizes. Due to their snowballing nature, these jackpots can sometimes reach up to millions of dollars so they are clearly worth learning about!
Pai Gow Poker Bonus Payout Table
As soon as a player hits a progressive jackpot they will be rewarded with a percentage of the jackpot prize. The percentage of the jackpot that a player will earn depends on the game’s specific pay tables as well as the strength of the player’s hand.
Most people think of slot games when they think of a progressive jackpot, but the fact of the matter is that table games offer a ton of progressive jackpots as well. Some examples of table games that include a progressive jackpot are Caribbean Stud Poker, Progressive Let It Ride and Blazing 7’s Blackjack.
How to Qualify
Most of the progressive jackpots in table games do not require a maximum bet in order to be eligible to participate. Instead, they require an additional bet to be made on the side of your normal bet which ensures that you will receive the jackpot if you qualify. There will normally be a special circle or slot that you must place a specific number of chips in if you want to be a part of the side bet.
As far as hand strength goes, the exact specifications for winning these jackpots will vary from game to game. However, if you fail to make the side bet it does not matter what the specifications are because you will be ineligible to win the jackpot anyway.
Most of these table games will require you to make your special progressive jackpot side bet every single hand. There is usually no option to auto-bet on this extra option so you have to be on your toes and remember to do it every time if your game plan is to play for the jackpot.
Profitability
The average return on most casino games is usually going to be under 100%, which is how the casino makes their money. Even in progressive jackpot games where the jackpot amount is larger than the top payouts for other games of similar stakes, the house edge is still tough to overcome.
Home Poker Tables
However, in some games, it is possible to calculate how high the progressive jackpot needs to get before the average return for each player goes above 100%. Anytime a bet gives a player an average return of over 100% then it becomes a positive expectation bet because they will make money if they repeat them millions of times.
The best way to calculate the sweet spot amount that a progressive jackpot needs to reach in order to give your bets a positive expectation is to analyze what the average payoff is with various jackpot amounts. You can calculate the average payoff for each prize on the payout table by multiplying the amount of each payoff by the frequency of each payout. As soon as these average payoffs all add up to more than 1 then you know your bets will have a positive expectation.
If you simply wait around for jackpots to reach an amount that is above this sweet spot, then technically you can be a profitable player in the long run. However, it is important to remember that the long run is extremely long and it could take decades to get anywhere near enough volume in by using a highly selective jackpot strategy.
Even if a game is profitable due to its sky-high progressive jackpot, you should always use proper bankroll management when playing these games since most of your returns will come from the top two or three hands which are extremely tough to hit. There is no reason to use your rent money just to chase a dream of winning a jackpot that hits 0.00001% of the time.
Types of Progressives
Fortune Pai Gow Poker
This version of the extremely popular game Pai Gow Poker allows each player to place a side bet before each hand in order to be eligible for the progressive jackpot. This side bet will cost you a total of $1 at various Vegas casinos such as the Wynn and the Golden Nugget, while in some places it can reach up to $5.
Like most progressive jackpot games, Fortune Pai Gow rewards their progressive jackpot to anyone who hits the best hand possible. If you are unfamiliar with the game of Pai Gow you might expect this hand to be a royal flush but it is actually a seven-card straight flush. It does not matter which order your cards are in or whether there is a joker involved since you will be rewarded with 100% of the jackpot either way.
What sets this Pai Gow progressive jackpot apart from others is that they also reward any player who hits five aces with 10% of the jackpot. You do not need to make any extra bets to be eligible for this smaller jackpot since it is included in the aforementioned 1$ side bet.
The breakeven sweet spot that the jackpot must reach in order to make this game beatable is right around $243,000. However, you might spend a lifetime looking for a Fortune Pai Gow progressive jackpot that has reached this high. If you do find a jackpot this high, you will need to play on that table for quite a long time since a seven-card straight flush only shows up once every 676,066 hands.
Progressive 3-Card Poker
If you wish to qualify for the progressive jackpot in Progressive 3-Card Poker you will need to make a $1 side bet at the beginning of each hand. After each hand, a small percentage of all wagers will be added to the jackpot amount which is common in progressive jackpot games.
The only way to win the jackpot in Progressive 3-Card Poker is to hit a mini royal flush which consists of an ace, a king, and a queen. The only catch is that the royal flush must be in the suit of spades or you will not win the jackpot. The odds of hitting this jackpot is one in every 22,100 hands, which is pretty frequent compared to other games.
The breakeven point that this jackpot must reach in order for the house edge to become less than 0% depends on the specific paytable and how many players are at the table. For most pay tables, this breakeven point is approximately $11,000 and you can subtract $175 from that amount for each player at the table.
Caribbean Stud Poker
Finally, we come to a table game that has a progressive jackpot built into the original version of the game. Thanks to this rare feature, you will not have any trouble finding this game in most casinos on the internet or anywhere around the world.
Much like many of the other progressive jackpot table games that we have already talked about, you will need to make a special side bet of $1 before each hand is dealt to qualify for the jackpot. Normally, around 60-70% of every side bet will contribute to the progressive jackpot amount.
Poker Playing Tables
The question that everyone should be asking at this point is whether or not this $1 side bet is a profitable bet to make. The answer to this question depends on the specific paytable that your Caribbean Stud Poker table uses and how high the jackpot amount is.
There are many different types of pay tables in existence for Caribbean Stud Poker and they vary wildly as far as how the progressive jackpot is distributed. While some paytables only pay 100% of the jackpot for a royal flush, some tables also pay out 10% of the jackpot for a straight flush and 1%-5% of the jackpot to a four of a kind.
When it comes to the breakeven point that the jackpot must reach in order for the game to become profitable for the player, the amount can vary greatly depending on your payout table. This is no exaggeration since this range is anywhere from $29,000 to $425,000. It might seem like common sense, but the paytables that include percentage payouts for more than just a royal flush are the ones that have the lowest breakeven points.
Progressive Let It Ride
Let It Ride is a common casino game that occasionally offers a progressive jackpot. In order to qualify for this progressive jackpot, you need to make a “Jackpot Bet” of $1 before each hand begins.
If you manage to hit a royal flush, which happens 0.0001539% of the time, then you will win 100% of the progressive jackpot amount that is displayed on the meter. If you land a straight flush, which happens 0.0013851% of the time, then you will be rewarded with 10% of the total progressive jackpot amount.
The breakeven point that this jackpot must reach before the house edge is negated is $142,161. While this might seem like a large amount, there have been many large jackpots in the past that caused the house edge to be diminished all the way down to -30%.
Progressive Blazing 7’s Blackjack
Blazing 7’s is a variation of blackjack that rewards a certain percentage of the progressive jackpot to those who make a special side bet and then hit a strong enough hand. The side bet that you need to make before every hand in order to be eligible for this progressive jackpot is usually between $1 and $5.
While these games will always use six decks, the pay tables will be quite different from casino to casino. This results in a wide range of possible breakeven points in this game and it all depends on which variation and pay table you are using.
Poker Tables Tops
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The top hand on the pay table will always receive 100% of the jackpot, and the second best hand possible will receive 10% of the jackpot amount. The top hand is usually going to be three suited sevens or three diamond sevens, and the second-best hand is usually three suited sevens or three colored sevens.
The breakeven point that the jackpot must reach at a Blazing 7’s table before any player has an edge is always going to vary greatly depending on the pay table and the size of the side bet. The pattern that can be found here is that the smaller the side bet is, the less the breakeven point will be. You can easily deduce this by seeing that the range of jackpot breakeven points on a $1 side bet ranges from $20,000 to $100,000 while a $5 side bet features a $100,000 to $500,000 breakeven point range.
Progressive Ultimate Texas Hold’Em
Ultimate Texas Hold’Em is a special variation of the popular poker game No Limit Hold’Em which commonly features a progressive jackpot. After you make the required side bet of either $1 or $5 you put yourself in the running to win a percentage of the progressive jackpot.
The only ways to win a piece of the progressive pie in Progressive Ultimate Texas Hold’Em are to hit a royal flush or a straight flush against the dealer. A royal flush will commonly pay 100% of the jackpot amount while a straight flush will usually pay 10% of the jackpot amount.
If you discount those top two hands, the return on this game is 53%. As you can imagine, this means that the jackpot’s breakeven point where the player starts to gain an advantage is going to be relatively high compared to other games. The $1 side bet will normally have a breakeven point of between $150,000 and $160,000 while the $5 side bet will usually have a breakeven point of between $750,000 and $800,000.
Conclusions
Progressive jackpot games are one of the best features of a casino because they make it entirely possible to become an instant millionaire in some cases. Even though slot machines might appear to have a monopoly on these types of games, there are a ton of table games that feature exciting progressive jackpots as well. Some of these games include Ultimate Texas Hold’Em, Blazing 7’s Blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Fortune Pai Gow and Progressive 3-Card Poker.
Most table games that feature a progressive jackpot will require you to make a small side bet before each hand if you want to qualify. If you happen to hit one of the top hands on the pay table for your specific game, then you will be rewarded with a percentage of the jackpot prize.
The breakeven point on these progressive jackpots tells you exactly what dollar amount the jackpot prize must be for the player to begin to have an edge in the long run. Depending on whether you are playing for profit or fun, you can use these numbers to decide if the current jackpot size fits your goal.
It is important to remember that these progressive jackpots are very tough to hit and you should not be gambling with money that you really need any time in the near future just to try and win one. When the jackpots are low, the house edge can be as high as 30%-40% which means that you should just be gambling for fun in these sorts of games without expecting to hit a jackpot. Gamepoint bingo.