What is the General Strategy for Setting Pai Gow Tiles Hands?
The primary goal when setting Pai Gow Tiles hands is to make the best combination to create two strong hands. Remember that you have to beat both of the dealer hands to win your bet.
Trying to get both the low hand and high hand as close to 9 as possible is the goal. But this game wouldn’t be fun without the added confusion of quite a few exception hands which outrank a 9! The new player is taught to line up the four tiles in numerical order. It helps with identifying the tiles and determining what types of hands are possible.
Below are all of the pairs in rank order. The individual tile ranking order follows the pair ranking order with the exception of the first set – called Gee-Joon (Supreme). Together, these two tiles are the #1 pair and the player with this pair cannot lose if they keep these two tiles together to make their high hand. However, separately, the tiles are the lowest ranking of the entire set, even below the 5’s at the bottom. In some cases, you may split the Gee-Joon pair when setting Pai Gow Tiles hands, usually to a 7-9 or better.
Besides the individual tile rankings, there are also hand type rankings. Pairs are at the top, then Wongs, Gongs, then lastly individual numbers counts. Individual tile ranking become important because when setting Pai Gow Tiles hands, if you and the dealer both have a matching hand, the winner is decided by the highest ranking tile in the hand. Ties favor the dealer.
Setting Pai Gow Tiles Hands Summary
- Arrange your four tiles in numerical order
- Look for Pairs, Wongs, or Gongs
- Try to arrange the tiles to add up to two hands of 9
- If there are no Pairs, Wongs, Gongs, or “baby” tiles which combine to make 7-8-9, take the high and low tiles to form a pair and then the two middle tiles to make the other pair
What is a Pair in Pai Gow Tiles?
A pair (or Bo in Chinese) is a set of two tiles that are physically identical or one of the “mixed” pairs of 5, 7, 8, 9 at the bottom of the set. A mixed pair tile cannot match a regular pair tile for a set. Pairs beat everything, and the pairs have ranking making the pairs at the top higher than the pairs at the bottom.
What is a Wong in Pai Gow Tiles?
A Wong is the 12 or 2 tile with a 9.
What is a Gong in Pai Gow Tiles?
The Gong is the 12 or 2 tile with an 8.
I don’t have a Pair, Wong, or Gong. Now what?
When there is no pair, Wong, or Gong in a hand, the next step is to try to get as close to 9 as possible. If there are a couple of small tiles (under 5) in the hand, chances are good that they can go together to form an 8 or 9.
When there are no small tiles that appear to fit together, it’s time to pair the smallest with the highest, and then the two medium tiles together to form the hand. Typically this will results in a low-medium hand of 4-6 or so.
When setting Pai Gow Tiles hands, do I need to play House Way?
No. You can play your hand however you like! Remember that the casino needs to beat six or seven people, but you only need to beat one. The house way rules are designed to be more conservative and come out ahead against multiple hands. In some cases, you may have a better option as a player. Especially if you know that the Teen or Dey tiles are in player hands! e.g. if you know that a Teen and a Day are in player hands, the likelihood of the dealer having a Teen or Dey drops significantly. When setting Pai Gow Tiles hands, you can play your hand differently in anticipation of a weak dealer hand.
Traditional play is the same across casinos, but some have a special house way for certain scenarios. Ceasars house way used to keep Gee-Joon together as a pair, no matter the other two tiles, but they have since changed their rules.