Pai Gow is a Chinese game played with 32 Chinese Dominoes. The aim of the game is to make 9 from your dominoes- which the name also relates to when translated.

It is played mostly in Chinese casinos but also in North America Australia and New Zealand where there are significant enough communities to want to play and it is deemed legal.

Pai Gow can be used to refer to a type of Poker but we will discuss the regular game here.

In casinos on a Pai Gow table the ‘tiles’ are quite large and satisfying to play with.

Starting

The dominoes are shuffled on the table by the dealer and placed into what is called the ‘woodpile’. A 

Players are dealt 4 tiles each (a max of 8 players including the dealer) a hand is made from 2 tiles and each player makes 2 hands. Their best hand and a lower hand.

When you have decided the best combination of tiles to beat BOTH the dealer hands then you represent this by pairing the tiles and setting one hand 90degrees next to the other. That way it is clearer what the two hands are.

Scoring

The colours on the dominoes are not important; they just serve to help identify the number total quicker.
If a hand totals 10 or more then you subtract 10 and what’s left is that hand score.

Gee Juun (Joon) is the highest hand you can have.

In order to win a player needs to beat BOTH dealer ‘hands’. Just beating one results in what is called a ‘push’. You don’t effectively lose and likewise the dealer needs to beat you with both his hands. 

Pai Gow has a lot of combinations of hands to learn and this would make this a game for the non beginner in truth.

Slots with a difference; your skill.

Video poker is a game that used to look a lot like slots with the kinds of machine that it ran on. Nowadays with modern technology you can play almost anywhere. Video poker was allowed legally in some states because of the skill differentiation over ‘mindless’ slots.
Video Poker uses draw poker and you are dealt a hand of 5 cards. You can use your skill to hold certain cards and re-deal the discards.

Odds

Video poker if played optimally can ‘yield’ 99.5% over time. Depending on the markets Casinos may be willing to offer up better odds and attract professional players over 100% odds, knowing that the inexperienced market will not win.

Slot machines can be programmed to tend towards any direction the casino wants. However this is not possible with video poker because the deck of cards is fixed at 52 and the number of combinations possible is only ever exactly 2,598,960.
To compensate for this Casinos will alter simply what is paid out on a win. The percentage of a lesser paying machine is reduced.

Strategy
Like Blackjack there is a basic strategy you can learn or use a computer to give you advice on the best move to make. So with any of the possible hands there is an absolute best thing to do. You can see how this is very different from a regular poker game.

Winning

Video Poker uses the standard 5 card Poker hand to determine the rank of any hand. At the very top is the Royal Flush- Ace King Queen Jack 10 all of the same suit. You will see many machines with the label ‘Jacks or better’ which denotes the lowest winning hand. A pair of jacks for this kind of machine.

You are not playing against any other hand either- you are simply trying to get the best hand possible as shown on a ‘Pay Table’.