Susie’s Friend
When I first started playing Pai Gow Tiles, there was a table in the High Limit pit at the Luxor. The table was back-to-back with a Pai Gow Poker table. There was a woman from NYC playing Pai Gow Poker for much of the time I was there, loudly lamenting or celebrating her hands by yelling the status to her friend. “SUSIE! I looooost!” or “SUUUUSIE! I won!” Eventually we started to cheer when she won. We still didn’t know her name, but we referred to her as “Susie’s friend”. She stared longingly at the Pai Gow Tile game and we encouraged her to come over and learn. Eventually she joined us and became one of my dearest friends. I live in California and to this day, over 20 years later, we are cross-country sistahs (as they say in NYC).
House Way Refund
Many years ago my then boyfriend was playing Pai Gow Tiles and he had a $2500 bet on the table. He was dealt a terrible hand, a 2-2, and pretty much kissed his money good-bye before even seeing the dealer’s hand. When the dealer flipped over her tiles, she had a 3-7. Her 3 beat his low 2, and her 7 beat his high 2, and she took his money. I wasn’t at the table at the time but he thought about it a little later and called me to ask about the House Way for the hand. The dealer tiles are to the left. This is where the tile rankings are relevant because of the Look. This is a Look 6. According to the House Way, because of this 6, the dealer should have played her hand as 1-9 (the 7+4 together and then the 6+3 together). If this was the stronger Chung 6, then she should have played 3-7. The reasoning is that using the Look 6 tile to make a 3 is too weak, and the house has a better chance of pushing the hand if they make the 9 in the high hand instead.
In this case, a 3-7 beats a 2-2. But a 1-9 is a push! I told him that the casino should have played the 1-9 and he shouldn’t have lost. He went back to the table and asked the pit supervisor to check the cameras and left to play something else. When I went to the table a little while later, the pit supervisor called me over and gave me his $2500! They checked the cameras and found that the house had misplayed the hand!
The lesson here? Learn your rankings!