PAI GOW TILES
WHAT IS PAI GOW TILES
Pai Gow Tiles is an ancient Chinese game that when translated literally means “making nines.” The game is played on a blackjack or mini baccarat style table with a dealer and seats for up to six players. The game uses 32 rectangular dominoes, known as tiles, which form the first 16 ranking Pairs, as shown in the Bo (Pairs) Ranking Chart.
The objective of Pai Gow Tiles is to take four tiles and form two “hands” that either form one of the 20 ranking “hands” or total as close to nine as possible. Hand totals above 9 use the last digit (similar to Baccarat).
HOW TO PLAY PAI GOW TILES
All tiles are shuffled and eight stacks of four are formed. Wagers are placed and three dice are rolled to determine who receives the first stack of tiles. Counting starts from the dealer (the dealer is position #1, #9 and so on) and goes around the table counterclockwise with every position receiving a set of tiles. All 32 tiles are dealt out even when there are less than six Players.
Each player will create their best ranking combination by arranging their tiles into a two-tile high hand and a two-tile low hand. The player will form a “T” with the high hand and low hand placing the tiles in the designated area of the layout. The dealer will then reveal their tiles and set the dealer’s high hand and low hand according to the predetermined “House Way”.
Hands in Pai Gow Tiles
Pairs are the highest ranked hands, followed by Wongs and Gongs (See chart). If the hand is not a Pair, a Wong, or a Gong, the rank of the hand will be determined by counting the number of spots on the two tiles. Gee (1-2 and 2-4) can both be counted as 3 or 6. The highest value a hand can have is 9, while the lowest value is zero. If the total is 10 or more, only the last digit of the number will be used.
When comparing hands, if the player’s hand and the dealer’s hand are the same rank, the highest ranking tile in the hand breaks the tie (See Individual Tile Ranking Chart). The dealer wins all ties when the ranking tiles also tie (copy). If the hand total is a value of zero, the ranking tiles are not considered and the dealer automatically wins that hand comparison.
If the player’s high hand beats the dealer’s high hand and the player’s low hand beats the dealer’s low hand, then the player wins. Winning wagers are charged 5% commission.
If the player’s high hand and low hand are both lower than or equal to the dealer’s high hand and low hand respectively, the player loses the wager.
If either one of the player’s hands is higher than the dealer’s respective hand, while the other player hand is lower than or equal to the dealer’s respective hand, then the wager pushes (ties).
