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Pai gow is an ancient Chinese gambling game that
is played with domino like tile set. It can be
translated as ‘make nine”. The game is played
between a dealer and a maximum of seven players.
The tiles are first mixed up on the table and then
assembled into eight stacks of four tiles each.
This arrangement is known as the woodpile. This
arrangement is known as a wood pile.
Each tile has two sets of pips and each set can
have from one to six pips arranged like the face
of a die. The value of a tile is the total number
of pips on it. The value of a two tile hand is
obtained by adding the value of the tiles and
dropping the tens digit. For example the value of
the hand with a 2-3 tile and a 6-4 tile is 5,
arrived at after dropping the tens digit from the
total of 15. Normally the maximum value of a hand
is 9.
After the players place their bets, one stack of
four tiles is given to each player and one to the
dealer. Each player is required to make two hands
of two tiles each. The hand with the lower value
is known as the front hand and the hand with the
higher value is known as the rear hand. In turn
each player’s front hand is compared with the
dealer’s front hand and each player’s rear hand is
compared with the dealer’s rear hand. The hand
with the higher value wins. If the player wins
both hands he wins and is paid out at 1:1. If the
dealer wins both hands then the payer loses his
wager. If the player and the dealer win one hand
each then it is a push and the wager is returned
to the player. If the player’s and the dealer’s
front or rear hand have the same value, then the
tie is broken by an elaborate set of rules.
There are special combinations of tiles that are
valued at more than nine. A “day” tile is the tile
with two 1s and a “teen” tile is the tile with two
sixes. If either of these tiles is used with a
tile that is worth 8, then the hand value is 10
instead of 0. This hand is known as a “gong”. And
if either of these tiles is used with a tile that
is worth 9, then the hand value is 11 instead of
1. This hand is known as a “wong”. The day and
teen tiles used with any tile other than an 8 or 9
are scored normally. The 1-2 and the 2-4 tiles are
known as the “gee joon” or wild card tiles. The
1-2 tile counts as either 3 or 6, whichever is
more favorable to the player. The same applies to
the 2-4 tile. 16 two tile hands are defined as
“pairs”. 11 of these are actually pairs, whereas
the other five are not pairs by looks but are
deemed pairs. A hand with a pair is valued at 14
and is the highest valued hand in pai gow.
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