Return to site

How To Play Pai Gow Tiles

broken image


  • Free Pai Gow Tiles casino game by the Wizard of Odds and selection of online casinos to play for real money.
  • Playing Cards, Poker Chips, Dice, Casino / Gaming Supplies, Drink Tokens, Pull Tabs, Promotional Products, More. Serving the Casino, Entertainment, Fund-Raising.

Pai Gow Tiles is the predecessor of Pai Gow Poker. It has its roots in Ancient China and is arguably one of the oldest games that is currently played in casinos. On this site, we focus primarily on Pai Gow Poker. The game uses standard playing cards and poker hand rankings; most gamblers enjoy the familiarity.

Pai Gow is a gambling game played with Chinese dominoes. The set consists of all pairs of numbers from 1-1 to 6-6, with the following eleven tiles duplicated: 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-1, 5-5, 5-1, 4-4, 3-3, 3-1, 2-2, 1-1. Liberty casino mobile login. There are 32 tiles in all. Pai is the Cantonese word for a tile or card and Gow is the number nine.

That said, a lot of people prefer to play Pai Gow Tiles. The game moves more slowly than Pai Gow Poker, which makes it easier to preserve your bankroll. And because the game uses dominoes rather than playing cards, it offers a unique flavor to the gambling experience.

On this page, we'll give you a comprehensive tutorial for playing Pai Gow Tiles. Think of this as a mini workshop. We'll explain the rules and hand rankings (using dominoes), so you'll have everything you need in order to get started playing immediately.

Bovada CasinoIgnition Casino

Get Eight 100% Match Bonuses

Bitcoin accepted. 100% bonus.

Rules Of Pai Gow Tiles

The game is played with 32 dominoes, each with two sets of dots. For the remainder of this page, we'll refer to the sets in a 'top:bottom' format. So, a 3:4 means 3 dots on top and 4 dots on the bottom. Some dominoes, such as the 3:6 and 2:5, appear only once. Others, such the 6:6 and 1:5 appear twice. Even though some dots are red while others are white, the color is irrelevant.

  • The goal of Pai Gow Tiles is identical to the goal for Pai Gow Poker: to beat the dealer (or technically, the banker when the dealer isn't banking).
  • At the beginning of a hand, the banker will mix the 32 dominoes and arrange them in 8 stacks of 4.
  • The players (up to 7 besides the banker) will choose their bets.
  • Then, dice are rolled to determine the distribution of the 8 stacks of tiles – each player receives 1 stack.
  • Your job is to arrange your 4 tiles into two hands. Each hand will contain 2 tiles. Each tile (or domino) has a value based on its two sets of dots.
  • If both of your hands beat the banker's hands, you'll win and your bet is paid even money.
  • If both of your hands lose against the banker's hands, you'll lose your bet.
  • If you win one hand while the other hand loses, you'll push and your bet is returned to you.
  • If you win both hands, the banker will collect 5% of your winnings as a commission. This is one of the reasons it's an advantage to act as the banker.

Hand Rankings In Pai Gow Tiles

Hand rankings and scoring in Pai Gow Tiles will seem complicated to novices. Remember these two rules of thumb:

Learn
  • Hand values are calculated by adding the dots on the dominoes and dropping the tens place. For example, a hand comprised of 3:4 and 4:5 would be scored as '6'. Here's the math: 3:4 equals 7 and 4:5 equals 9. 7 plus 9 equals 16. Drop the tens place digit and you're left with 6.
  • A nine is the best hand possible (with a few exceptions detailed below).

That's the easy part. Now, let's cover Days, Teens, Gongs, and Wongs.

  • A 1:1 tile is called a Day.
  • A 6:6 tile is called a Teen.
  • If you pair up either of them with an eight (i.e. 2:6, 3:5, 4:4, etc.), the resulting value is 10, not zero. The hand is called a Gong and outranks a nine.
  • If you pair up either with a nine (i.e. 3:6, 4:5, etc.), the resulting value is eleven, not one. The hand is called a Wong. It too, outranks a nine.

There's more to learn…

A 1:2 tile and a 2:4 tile are both known as Gee Joon tiles. They can represent a value of 3 or 6, depending upon which yields the best score. For example, suppose that you have a 1:2 tile paired with a 4:5 tile. Normally, with the 1:2 tile representing 3, the hand would be scored as 2 (3 plus 9 equals 12, drop the tens place digit). However, because the 1:2 is a Gee Joon, it can represent 6, giving the hand a score of 5 (6 plus 9 equals 15, drop the tens place).

Let's move on to pairs.

Among the 32 Pai Gow Tiles, there are 16 possible pairs (for example, a hand comprised of a 2:3 tile and a 1:4 tile). A pair always beats a non-pair hand, regardless of the dots. The ranking of pairs is as follows, starting from the highest score to the lowest score: Online poker that pays real money.

  • #1 – 1:2 and 2:4
  • #2 – 6:6 and 6:6
  • #3 – 1:1 and 1:1
  • #4 – 4:4 and 4:4
  • #5 – 1:3 and 1:3
  • #6 – 5:5 and 5:5
  • #7 – 2:2 and 2:2 (vertical)
  • #8 – 2:2 and 2:2 (horizontal)
  • #9 – 5:6 and 5:6
  • #10 – 4:6 and 4:6
  • #11 – 1:6 and 1:6
  • #12 – 1:5 and 1:5
  • #13 – 4:5 and 3:6
  • #14 – 2:6 and 3:5
  • #15 – 3:4 and 2:5
  • #16 – 2:5 and 1:4
Italy

Unfortunately, there is no easy system for memorizing the above ranking order.

Playing Pai Gow Tiles To Win

The strategy for Pai Gow Tiles involves splitting your 4 tiles into two hands that maximize your chances of winning both hands. It's more complex than it sounds. Given the time, we could provide beginner, intermediate, and advanced strategies. We may do so in the future. In the meantime, there are very few online casinos at which to play Pai Gow Tiles. Most offer Pai Gow Poker because it is far more popular with gamblers.

We recommend that you visit Bodog Casino to play Pai Gow Poker. They'll give you an instant 10% sign-up match on your first deposit. Rather than placing your bonus into a pending account until you earn it out, Bodog drops it into your active account, so you can start using it immediately. Visit Bodog Casino today to start enjoying Pai Gow Poker.

Pai Gow is a Chinese gambling game played with 32 domino-like tiles. 'Pai Gow' means 'to make nine'. In the game, the player competes against the Banker, a role usually handled by the dealer, by betting on whose tiles will produce a higher score. (See more on the Banker below.)

How is it played?

The object of Pai Gow is to win the pot by betting on who will get the better tiles: player or Banker. All players and the dealer receive four tiles each that they must split into two pairs – the lower-scoring 'front' hand and higher-scoring 'rear' hand. The challenge is to arrange each pair so they score as close as possible to nine, a perfect score.

Tiles

1. Before any tiles have been dealt, the dealer will call for bets.

2. After all bets are in, the dealer shakes a dice cup to see who gets their tiles first.

3. Once players have received their tiles, they need to be arranged to form the best hands possible—see hand rankings below.

4. If a player's front and rear hands beat both the Banker's hands, that player wins. If only one of a player's hands beats only one of the dealer's, it's a tie and the player's bet pushes.

The Banker

In Pai Gow, the 'Banker' is not always the dealer. Instead, the dealer offers the role around the table before rounds. The 'Banker' covers the wagers of the other players on each round, wins on all ties and has special betting privileges—they can increase their bets by up to 10% more than other players at the table.

How hands are ranked

In Pai Gow, hands are ranked according to a specific Chinese counting method.
Here's a basic breakdown:

Rank 1: Gee Joon (Supreme pair)

Pai gow
  • Hand values are calculated by adding the dots on the dominoes and dropping the tens place. For example, a hand comprised of 3:4 and 4:5 would be scored as '6'. Here's the math: 3:4 equals 7 and 4:5 equals 9. 7 plus 9 equals 16. Drop the tens place digit and you're left with 6.
  • A nine is the best hand possible (with a few exceptions detailed below).

That's the easy part. Now, let's cover Days, Teens, Gongs, and Wongs.

  • A 1:1 tile is called a Day.
  • A 6:6 tile is called a Teen.
  • If you pair up either of them with an eight (i.e. 2:6, 3:5, 4:4, etc.), the resulting value is 10, not zero. The hand is called a Gong and outranks a nine.
  • If you pair up either with a nine (i.e. 3:6, 4:5, etc.), the resulting value is eleven, not one. The hand is called a Wong. It too, outranks a nine.

There's more to learn…

A 1:2 tile and a 2:4 tile are both known as Gee Joon tiles. They can represent a value of 3 or 6, depending upon which yields the best score. For example, suppose that you have a 1:2 tile paired with a 4:5 tile. Normally, with the 1:2 tile representing 3, the hand would be scored as 2 (3 plus 9 equals 12, drop the tens place digit). However, because the 1:2 is a Gee Joon, it can represent 6, giving the hand a score of 5 (6 plus 9 equals 15, drop the tens place).

Let's move on to pairs.

Among the 32 Pai Gow Tiles, there are 16 possible pairs (for example, a hand comprised of a 2:3 tile and a 1:4 tile). A pair always beats a non-pair hand, regardless of the dots. The ranking of pairs is as follows, starting from the highest score to the lowest score: Online poker that pays real money.

  • #1 – 1:2 and 2:4
  • #2 – 6:6 and 6:6
  • #3 – 1:1 and 1:1
  • #4 – 4:4 and 4:4
  • #5 – 1:3 and 1:3
  • #6 – 5:5 and 5:5
  • #7 – 2:2 and 2:2 (vertical)
  • #8 – 2:2 and 2:2 (horizontal)
  • #9 – 5:6 and 5:6
  • #10 – 4:6 and 4:6
  • #11 – 1:6 and 1:6
  • #12 – 1:5 and 1:5
  • #13 – 4:5 and 3:6
  • #14 – 2:6 and 3:5
  • #15 – 3:4 and 2:5
  • #16 – 2:5 and 1:4

Unfortunately, there is no easy system for memorizing the above ranking order.

Playing Pai Gow Tiles To Win

The strategy for Pai Gow Tiles involves splitting your 4 tiles into two hands that maximize your chances of winning both hands. It's more complex than it sounds. Given the time, we could provide beginner, intermediate, and advanced strategies. We may do so in the future. In the meantime, there are very few online casinos at which to play Pai Gow Tiles. Most offer Pai Gow Poker because it is far more popular with gamblers.

We recommend that you visit Bodog Casino to play Pai Gow Poker. They'll give you an instant 10% sign-up match on your first deposit. Rather than placing your bonus into a pending account until you earn it out, Bodog drops it into your active account, so you can start using it immediately. Visit Bodog Casino today to start enjoying Pai Gow Poker.

Pai Gow is a Chinese gambling game played with 32 domino-like tiles. 'Pai Gow' means 'to make nine'. In the game, the player competes against the Banker, a role usually handled by the dealer, by betting on whose tiles will produce a higher score. (See more on the Banker below.)

How is it played?

The object of Pai Gow is to win the pot by betting on who will get the better tiles: player or Banker. All players and the dealer receive four tiles each that they must split into two pairs – the lower-scoring 'front' hand and higher-scoring 'rear' hand. The challenge is to arrange each pair so they score as close as possible to nine, a perfect score.

1. Before any tiles have been dealt, the dealer will call for bets.

2. After all bets are in, the dealer shakes a dice cup to see who gets their tiles first.

3. Once players have received their tiles, they need to be arranged to form the best hands possible—see hand rankings below.

4. If a player's front and rear hands beat both the Banker's hands, that player wins. If only one of a player's hands beats only one of the dealer's, it's a tie and the player's bet pushes.

The Banker

In Pai Gow, the 'Banker' is not always the dealer. Instead, the dealer offers the role around the table before rounds. The 'Banker' covers the wagers of the other players on each round, wins on all ties and has special betting privileges—they can increase their bets by up to 10% more than other players at the table.

How hands are ranked

In Pai Gow, hands are ranked according to a specific Chinese counting method.
Here's a basic breakdown:

Rank 1: Gee Joon (Supreme pair)

This perfect combo adds up to 9 and wins every time.

Ranks 2 – 12: Bo

Any matched pair of tiles. Ranking depends on the value of the combo a player puts down.

Play Pai Gow Tiles Online

Ranks 13 – 16: Chop Bo

A pair of tiles with the same value, but in mismatched configurations.

Ranks 17 & 18: Wong

A pair of tiles that includes either a:

  • 12 & any 9 (ranked 17)
  • 2 & any 9 (ranked 18)

Ranks 19 & 20: Gong

A pair of tiles that includes either a:

  • 12 & any 8 (ranked 19)
  • 2 & any 8 (ranked 20)

Pai Gow Tiles Practice

PreviousNext

How To Play Pai Gow Tiles Youtube

close




broken image