Pai gow poker

Pai gow poker (also called Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai gow (in that it is played with playing cards bearing poker hand values, instead of Pai gow's Chinese dominoes). The games of Pai gow poker and Super Pan-9 were created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf.

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a single joker. It is played on a table set for six players, plus the dealer. Each player attempts to defeat the banker (who may be the casino dealer, or one of the other players at the table).

Winning condition

The object of Pai Gow poker is for a player to create two poker hands out of the seven-card hand he/she is dealt by the dealer: a five-card hand, and a two-card poker hand. According to the rules, the five-card hand's rank must exceed the two-card hand's, and that is why the two-card hand is often called the hand "in front" or "on top" or "hair", or the "small" or "minor" or "low" hand. The five-card hand is called the hand "behind", or the "bottom" or "high" or "big" (as they are placed that way in front of the player, when the player is done setting them).