Pai Gow Poker Strategy

Online Gambling Guide > Rules & Strategies > Pai Gow Poker Strategy

According to Pai Gow expert, Stanford Wong, the being the dealer/banker as often as possible has the most impact on a winning strategy. This is great for those playing on-land, but for online players it doesn’t help much at all. There are, however, a few handy tips on hand selection that will help online players to make there money last.

The optimum hand selections based on cards dealt are listed below. For the sake of simplicity, we have called any pair of 2’s through 6’s a “low pair,” 7’s through J’s a “medium pair,” and Q’s through A’s a “high pair.”

Your hand	5-card hand selection	2-card hand
No Pair:	the highest card	next two highest cards
One pair:	the pair	next two highest cards
Two Pair:
Pair of A's and any other Pair:	high pair	other pair
Two High Pair:	best pair	other pair
High Pair and Medium Pair	high pair	medium pair
High Pair and Low Pair with A or K	both pair	A or K
High Pair & Low pair w/out A or K	highest pair	low pair
Two Medium Pair with A or K	both pair	A or K
Two Medium Pair without A or K	best pair	other pair
Medium Pair & Low Pair with A or K	both pair	A or K
Medium Pair & Low Pair w/out A or K	medium pair	low pair
Two Low Pair with A or K	both pair	A or K
Two Low Pair without A or K	best pair	other pair
Three Pair:	second and third highest pair	highest pair
Three of a kind:
Three A's	pair of A's	A and next highest card
All others	three of a kind	two highest remaining cards
Three of a twice:	lower three of a kind	highest pair
Full House:
With two pairs	full house with low pair	highest pair
Pair is 2's with A or K	full house	A or K
All others	three of a kind	the pair
Straight, flush & Royal Flush:
With no pair	lowest full hand	two highest cards
With one or two Pair	lowest full hand	2 highest cards, pair or o/wise
With Three of a Kind	full hand	pair
With Full House	three of a kind	pair
With Three of a Kind twice	lower three	highest two
Four of a kind:
With Three of a Kind	four of a kind	pair from the three of a kind
With a Pair	four of a kind	pair
Four A's	pair of A's	pair of A's
J's through K's with an A	four of a kind	the A
J's through K's without an A	one pair from the four	the other pair
7's through 10's with A or K	four of a kind	A or K
7's through 10's without A or K	one pair from the four	the other pair
2's through 6's	four of a kind	highest remaining two