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The game is played with a deck of 52 cards, including one joker. This
joker is a wild card but it can only be used as an Ace or to
complete a Straight, Straight
Flush or Royal
Flush. Ranks and values of the hands are the same as in basic Poker.
After you place your bet, simply done by placing a chip in front of you on
the table, each player and the dealer will get seven cards. Now you
have to split up your seven cards into two hands. One hand with five
cards and one with two cards. The only thing you always have to
consider when splitting up your hand is: the five card hand must always
outrank the two card hand. For instance: You have a pair of fives and a pair of sevens in your
original hand. The pair of fives must go into the two card hand and
the sevens have to be in the five card hand. If your two card hand ranks
higher than your five cards you automatically lose the game. Once all the
players have arranged their cards the dealer will turn over his cards and
split them up as well. He must also arrange them in the same way you just
did, with the five cards higher than the two. The objective of the
game is for both of the players hands to rank higher than both of the
dealers hands. After the dealer has split up his cards he starts to
compare his cards with the players hands in turn. The Pai Gow player's two-card (low) must now beat the dealer's two-card
hand and the player's five cards (high) must also beat the
dealers five card hand. Only then you win. If your low-card beats the
dealers low-card and loses on the high-card, or reversed, it is considered
a push. In case of a push, which very often happens, no money will
be exchanged and the hand is over. If either one of your hands rank the
same as the dealer's it is called a tie. The dealer wins all the ties. Since in this system lots of hands end up with a push, especially with
low-cards, the casino does not make so much money out of it as it would
like. So the casino charges a 5% commission on any winning bet. No
commission is charged on a push or a lost bet. Most casinos want the
commission right away. This means in case you win your game you have to
throw the dealer a quarter on a five dollar win. You will only win $4.75.
Other casinos keep track of the money you owe and you can settle up when
you leave the table.
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