Pai Gow Poker strategy can be simple or complicated depending on how much effort you’re willing to put into the game.

The game of Pai Gow poker itself is straightforward but to play with the optimal pai gow strategy it takes study and work to memorize the rules to minimize the house edge. After you make your bet, you’ll receive 7 cards. You’ll need to arrange those cards into two separate hands – a 2-card hand and a 5-card hand.

If you’re playing the game in a land-based casino, your results will be influenced partly by the amount you wager when you serve as the banker (your odds change slightly). You won’t serve as banker when you play online. So, online Pai Gow Poker strategy focuses entirely on the manner in which you split your 7 cards.

Below, we’ll categorize strategy into two parts: basic and advanced pai gow strategy. If you only learn basic strategy, you’ll be able to bring the house advantage down extremely close to the floor (2.66%). If you learn advanced Pai Gow Poker strategy, you can shave an extra few hundredths of a point off the edge.

Basic Pai Gow Poker Strategy

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to your 5-card hand as the “back hand” and your 2-card hand as the “front hand.”

• If your 7-card hand only has a single pair, you’ll need to keep it in your back hand. Place your two highest cards in your front hand.
• Basic strategy for two pairs is simple. Split them and put the lower-ranking pair in your front hand.
• If you’re holding 3 pairs, put the highest-ranking pair in your front hand.
• If your 7-card hand has a 3 of a kind, keep them together and put your two highest cards in your front hand.
• If you have two 3’s of a kind, put a pair from your highest-ranking set in your front hand.
• If you have a 3 of a kind and 2 pairs, put the highest pair in your front hand and leave the full house in your back hand.
• If you’re holding a full house, move the pair to your front hand.
• Splitting a 4 of a kind depends on the rank. If you have Jacks through Aces, split them. If you have 7’s through 10’s, split them unless you’re holding an Ace or King. If you are, keep the four together and move your high card over to your back hand. If you’re holding anything below 7’s, keep them together.
• Splitting a hand that contains a straight or flush will depend on whether you have pairs.
• If you’re not holding a pair, or if you’re only holding one, put your two highest cards outside the straight or flush in your front hand.
• If you’re holding two pairs, ignore your straight or flush and split the pairs (keep the higher-ranking pair in your back hand).
• If you have a 3 of a kind with a straight or flush, put a pair in your front hand.

Optimal / Perfect Pai Gow Poker Strategy (How The House Plays It)

Again, if you play according to basic pai gow poker strategy, you’ll cut the house edge almost to its floor, the lowest house edge you can get in the game. However, there are a few tweaks you can make to the Pai Gow Poker strategy we’ve described above that will slice the edge even further.

The tweaks focus on how you treat two pairs in Pai Gow and we’ve put together a guide on the way the house splits two pair in pai gow that you can follow if you want to play it just like the house does. it.

Normally, you would simply split two pairs and place the lower-ranking pair in your front hand. Let’s refine that strategy. Keep the two pairs together in your back hand if the following circumstances apply:

• If their ranking sum is less than ten and you’re holding either an Ace or King.
• If their ranking sum is less than sixteen and you’re holding an Ace.

By “ranking sum,” we’re referring to their aggregate value. For example, if you have a pair of 5’s and a pair of 9’s, their ranking sum would be 14. In that case, if you’re holding an Ace, move the Ace to your front hand and keep the two pairs in your back hand.

Best Casino To Use Your Pai Gow Poker Strategy

We recommend that you visit Bodog Casino to try out the Pai Gow Poker strategy we’ve provided above (both basic and advanced). You can play the game directly through your browser simply by logging into your account. Bodog offers an 10% instant sign-up bonus as well as top-notch customer support that is available around the clock.

Don’t be intimidated by the details of basic Pai Gow Poker strategy. It’s much simpler than it seems. Visit Bodog Casino today and start playing like a pro.