Pai Gow Poker Odds

Are you wondering what your chances are of winning with a five card hand when you need to make it out of seven cards? In Pai Gow you are playing against the banker which means the house edge is an extreme factor in strategy. However, we wanted to look at your chances of winning certain hands in Pai Gow Poker. Remember in the rules you are dealt seven cards on the luck of the dice. These seven cards are all you are going to have in the game. You can't exchange cards and the dealer could always win both hands or cause a tie. In the following chart we have looked at the possible hands in Pai Gow. We further looked at the odds in your favor, the probability of getting that hand, and the bonus you could obtain if you get lucky in the cards.

As you can see the pair is going to have the better odds for anyone playing Pai Gow. You also have the highest probability of getting a pair for the five card hand. We have not looked at the two card hand, and those results would be markedly different.

When playing Pai Gow Poker you want to look at the best possible hand you can get out of seven. For example if you have the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, and Jack you have a straight for the five card hand, but nothing for the two card hand. You know that you have at least a chance of winning one of the bets in this example. Of course if the banker has a three of a kind in their hand you will lose both bets. The point we are trying to make so you understand strategy as well as the odds, is that when you have a winning hand in your five cards you don't want to fold. You don't know what the banker has. The potential for having a pair for the banker is still 42 percent, so you could have the upper hand in this case and chances are you do.

Just because the odds are there doesn't mean you should tank a winning hand. Make sure you know the odds, but play with what you know and take a small risk every now and then. You don't want to lose your bankroll because of the odds or probability.