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Hand Ranking

The only two-card hands are one pair and high cards.

Five-card hands use standard poker hand rankings with one exception: in most Nevada casinos, the hand A-2-3-4-5 ranks above a king-high straight, but below the ace-high straight A-K-Q-J-10. At most casinos in California and Michigan this rule doesn't apply; the A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest possible straight, as in regular Texas Holdem.

The joker plays as a bug, that is, in the five-card hand it can be used to complete a straight or flush if possible; otherwise it is an ace. In the two-card hand it always plays as an ace, except in several southern Californian casinos where the joker is completely wild.

There are 992 possible hands if you just do the straight math, but because of the duplicate tiles and the fact that order does not matter, there are actually fewer possible hands. Numeric order has little to do with the ranking of hands; it is symbolism and not substance. The hands are scored as follows:

Gee Joon

The highest possible pair is the Gee Joon ("supreme pair"), which is made up of the two tiles:


4-2 and 2-1

The 4-2 and 2-1 are the two "wild cards" in the woodpile, and can be used as either a 3 or a 6 when making pairs (i.e. they substitute for each other). This is not the same rule that Western card games use, where a wild card substitutes for any card.

Bo

Under the Gee Joon are the pairs (Bo), which can be made up of matched or unmatched tiles that have the same totals. In order of rank from high to low, they are:

Pair Name
6-6 & 6-6 Heaven
1-1 & 1-1 Earth
4-4 & 4-4 Man
3-1 & 3-1 Goose
5-5 & 5-5 Flower
3-3 & 3-3 Long
2-2 & 2-2 Board
6-5 & 6-5 Hatchet
6-4 & 6-4 Partition
6-1 & 6-1 Long Leg Seven
5-1 & 5-1 Big Head Six
6-3 & 5-4 Jaap Gow - mixed nine
6-3 & 5-4 Jaap Gow - mixed nine
6-3 & 5-4 Jaap Gow - mixed nine

There is no numeric order to this ranking, so you just have to learn them.

Wongs

The next level of hands beneath the Bo are called Wongs. They are a nine paired with a double six or double one. The double six combinations outrank the double one combinations.

6-6 6-3
6-6 5-4
1-1 6-3
1-1 5-4

Gongs

The third level of hands are called Gongs. They are a eight paired with a double six or double one. The double six combinations outrank the double one combinations.

6-6 5-3
6-6 4-4
1-1 5-3
1-1 4-4

Other Hands

If you do not have any of these hands, then add up all the pips on the two tiles and take the total, modulus ten (i.e. keep the last digit of the total as your score). This is the part that is like Baccarat.

Breaking Ties

After all of this, in the event of a tie, the ranking is settled based on individual tile values. From high to low the tiles are ranked and named:

Tile(s) Name
6-6 Teen
1-1 Day
4-4 Yun
3-1 Gor
5-5 Mooy
3-3 Chong
2-2 Bon
6-5 Foo
6-4 Ping
6-1 Tit
5-1 Look
6-3 & 5-4 Gow
6-2 & 5-3 Bot
6-1 & 5-2 Chu
4-2 Luk (part of Gee Joon)
4-1 Ng
3-2 Ng
2-1 Saam (part of Gee Joon)
pai gow poker history

Pai Gow Poker History

History of Pai Gow Poker lies in the fascinating ancient Chinese game of Pai Gow. The original game of Pai Gow was played by the Chinese with tiles that were similar to dominoes. These tiles, or dominoes, were separated into groups by the Pai Gow dealer and then a roll of the dice determined which set of tiles belonged to which player. In the 1800's different versions of the Pai Gow game existed in China. As other games, Pai Gow is believed to have been brought into the United States in the 1800's, by Chinese immigrants who arrived to work in mines and on the railways. In Califonia, this chinese game changed its name from Pai Gow to Pai Gow Poker to get around gambling laws.