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Paigow Poker Hand Selection

One of the most important parts of Pai Gow is how you arrange your two hands. Depending on this decision, you can win, push, or lose. The decision of how you make the two hands is really the only decision making you will have and knowing the best strategy for it is vital. This article will introduce you to some of the basic strategies behind choosing how to play and create your two hands, and at what times you should play them. Hopefully, this article will enhance your playing abilities and win you some money in Pai Gow.


The best Pai Gow strategy is to try and win at least one of your two hands and then push with your other one. You're probably thinking, well why shouldn't I just try to win both of my hands. The reason for this is that by trying to win both hands, you play two mediocre hands instead of one strong hand and one weak hand. You should try and cause a push until you are dealt a really good hand in which you can make yourself two strong hands. An example of this strategy would be if you have two pair. In this situation, if you were to follow the strategy you would play one hand with the two pair, and then have a weak two hand only if the two pair was relatively high. You would do this because you figure that your high two pair should beat most of the dealers hands that he could have. Now if the pair wasn't that high, you should split the two pair and include one in both hands. If you were not to do this then you could be running the risk of the dealer beating both of your hands with cards that aren't that great.


The second way of playing the pair that I described above is a very similar strategy to the first one, but it has some minor changes. You are still trying to push, but instead of making one strong hand, you are splitting up one good hand to make two consisted hands. This strategy can sometimes end up in a loss, however, most of the times one of your hands will beat a dealer's weak hand. An example of this strategy coming into play would if you split up your two pair of fours and nines, you will have a pair of fours in the top spot. This gives you a pretty good chance of at least tying the hand. If you were to keep both pairs in the big hand, and the dealer gets three of a kind, then the top hand will be susceptible to any high card that the dealer might have, causing you to lose your bet. As you can see, both strategies have their pros and cons, and it is only the perfect combination of both that leads to utter success. When you are able to make accurate decisions on when to play each strategy, then you will start to win more then you lose, unless bad luck strikes you. These strategies are only the basics for hand decision, and there is so much more that you will learn through your experiences and the card table.