Pai Gow Poker is based on a Chinese gambling game that is played using tiles. It was adapted for American land casinos by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf. In land casinos the Pai Gow Poker table seats six players, each of who competes independently with the dealer, just like in the game of blackjack. At online casinos each player plays alone with the dealer. Though the table on the screen shows a number of player spots, online Pai Gow Poker is a single hand game. The Pai Gow Poker deck is different from that used in most card games. It consists of 53 cards, with a joker being added to the normal 52 cards. In online Pai Gow Poker the player makes two hands with the objective that both his hands be better than the hands made by the dealer.

The game begins with the player making his wager in the usual manner. Different online software providers offer Pai Gow Poker with different minimum and maximum table limits and this is something the player should keep in mind while selecting the online casino. The player then clicks on the “Deal” button and is dealt seven cards face up, while the dealer is dealt seven cards face down. The player has to split the seven cards into two hands, one of five cards and the other of two cards. The five card hand exactly follows the normal poker hand rankings. The highest two card hand is a pair and is then followed by the ranks of the cards. There are no straights or flushes in the two card hand.

There are certain rules to be followed while splitting the cards in Pai Gow Poker. The two card hand has to have a lower hand ranking than the five card hand. The joker can be used as a wild card only in order to make a straight or a flush. In all other cases it is used as an ace. At online casinos there are two ways in which the cards can be split. In the manual way the player clicks on the cards that he wants in the two card hand. In this option the player must know the optimum strategy; otherwise he will make mistakes and lose money. Most software providers offer a “house way”, which automatically splits the cards in the optimum manner. The house way does take away the fun. Therefore some software providers allow players to first use the manual way and then over ride it with the house way.

In online Pai Gow Poker the dealer’s cards are then exposed and split using the house way. The player’s five card hand is compared with the dealer’s five card hand and the player’s two-card hand is compared with the dealer’s two card hand. Ties are resolved in favor of the dealer. If the player wins both hands then he is paid even money less a 5% commission. If the player wins one hand and loses the other then the bet pushes. If the player loses both the hands then he loses his wager. If the player wants to continue with the same wager he can click on the “Rebet” button. Alternatively the player can place a fresh bet and follow the procedure described earlier.