I live in Las Vegas and I’m not a professional gambler. I’ve always gambled for entertainment – before I lived here and still today. Instead of going out with a friend to a nice dinner, drinks and a show we’ll sometimes take that money and head to the casino instead.
As you may know, I usually try to keep my money alive as long as possible by playing games with a small house advantage. Usually I play craps and blackjack but when my friends and I really just want to hang out and have a few drinks we’ll head to a game with one of the smallest house advantages in the casino.
Pai Gow Poker (not to be confused with pai gow Dominos) has an overall house advantage of less than 1.5%. Even better than a 1.46% house advantage is the fact that the edge may even be with the player at times. Huzzah!
It’s rare the player has the advantage in any casino game so please excuse the excitement. Pai gow poker has such a small edge the casinos will usually charge a 5% commission on all wins.
The commission is just on a win. The best part of the game is it’s simple to play if you’re familiar with how to play traditional poker.
In brief, you’re dealt 7 cards in which you have to make the best 2-card and best 5-card poker hands. You play against the dealer and if you win both hands you win money. If you push one and win one your hand is a push and you don’t lose (or win) any money. When you lose both hands you also lose your bet.
Game play is slightly more complicated than this but not much. If you get confused with how to play you can show your cards to the dealer and they’ll kindly instruct you how to play. The probability of getting a push on a hand in pai gow poker is over 41% so after a while the game may become boring for some people who need more action.
All of the ties lead to extending the play with your buy-in. Some of the casinos in Las Vegas have caught on to people playing pai gow poker just to push for a few hours and have increased the limits to scare off low rollers looking to play for free drinks and a chance to win a few bucks.
At the same time, some casinos want people playing and you can still find a $5 or $10 game.
You will almost always find empty tables at the casino because the game is foreign to most people. This makes pai gow poker one of the best secrets in the casino.
Pai Gow Poker has one of smallest house advantages
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