Pai Gow Poker Strategy

If you’ve made it to this page, you’re more than likely looking for information regarding pai gow poker strategy. And if that’s the case, you’re in luck because this section of our pai gow poker free website is full of pai gow poker strategies that you can use to increase your chances of winning.

Not only will you find useful pai gow poker strategy information on this page, but you can also experiment with different strategies by playing the free pai gow poker game that you’ll see as you continue scrolling below. In doing so, you’ll be able to quickly determine which strategy works best for you and you can then apply that strategy when you’re ready to begin playing pai gow poker for real money.

Basic Strategy


Because basic strategy for pai gow poker means different things to different people, for the purposes of this page, we are going to focus solely on traditional pai gow poker and we are going to discuss only the simplest form of basicpai gow poker strategy that you can use to increase your chances of winning. Before you continue reading below, we strongly urge you to read through our pai gow poker rules page as well as our pai gow poker odds page if you aren’t very familiar with the game of pai gow poker.

Once you have a good understanding of how to play pai gow poker, you can begin to use the following strategies to decrease the house edge and thus increase your chances of winning.

  • If you are dealt a hand that consists of unmatched cards (no pairs, straights, full houses, etc), you should always keep the highest card in your hand consisting of five cards and you should use the next two highest cards for your hand consisting of two cards.
  • If you are dealt a hand that consists of only one pair, you should always keep the pair in your hand with five cards and place the next two highest cards in your hand with two cards.

You can continue reading more pai gow poker strategy below, but if you’re ready for a break, why not put some of the strategies on this page to the test using the free pai gow poker game below?

Put Your Pai Gow Poker Strategy To The Test


The online pai gow poker game below is brought to you by WinPalace Casino. It is completely free to play and you can take all the time you want trying out different strategies for playing pai gow poker without ever having to leave our website.

In addition to the RTG pai gow poker game above, our website features a few other variations of pai gow poker that you might also like to try; including Rival pai gow poker, Microgaming pai gow poker, and Playtech pai gow poker.

Basic Strategy (Continued)


Now that you’ve had a chance to play pai gow poker above, let’s continue going over basic pai gow poker strategythat can be used to tweak the way you play in an effort to increase your chances of winning.

  • If you are dealt a hand with two pairs, you are usually better off splitting the pairs into each of your two hands. There are some exceptions to this rule though. For instance, if you are dealt two pairs of sevens or lower, you should keep them both in your hand of five cards as long as you have a king or ace that you can use for your hand of two cards. Additionally, if you are dealt one pair of sevens or higher and one pair of sevens or lower, you can keep them both in your hand of five cards as long as you have an ace that you can use for your hand of two cards. For all other scenarios, it is best to keep both of your pairs in your hand of five cards.
  • If you are dealt a hand that consists of three pairs, the best thing to do is to use the highest pair for your hand consisting of two cards and use the other two pairs for your hand consisting of five cards.
  • If you are dealt a hand that consists of 3-of-a-kind, you are advised to keep the 3-of-a-kind in your hand consisting of five cards and use the next two highest cards to complete your hand consisting of two cards. The only exception to this rule is when you are dealt three aces, in which case you are advised to keep a pair of aces in your hand consisting of five cards and use the remaining ace plus the next highest card to complete your hand consisting of two cards.
  • If you are dealt a flush, the best move is to keep the lowest five cards of the flush in your hand consisting of five cards and then use the remaining two cards to complete your hand consisting of two cards.
  • Although it may be difficult, whenever you are dealt a hand consisting of both a flush as well as two pairs, you are advised to ignore the flush and create your two hands based on the strategy mentioned above regarding the splitting of pairs.
  • If you are dealt a full house, your best option is to keep the 3-of-a-kind in your hand consisting of five cards and use the pair for your hand consisting of two cards.
  • If you are dealt a hand consisting of 4-of-a-kind, the move that makes the most sense is to treat 4-of-a-kind as if they were two pairs and then follow the instructions for splitting pairs as mentioned above.
  • If you are ever dealt 5-of-a-kind, which can only be aces, your best move is to keep three of the aces in your hand consisting of five cards and use the remaining two aces for your hand consisting of two cards.

For the most part, the strategies above represent the most commonly used strategies for the game of pai gow poker. If you’re able to memorize these strategies, you should be able to greatly increase your chances of winning over time. There are obviously some more advanced strategies that you can use, but the time required to master them is hardly worth the effort when the simple strategies above have proven to be winning strategies for countless pai gow poker players.

If you’re considering playing online pai gow poker for real money, there is one additional strategy that you can use to bolster your chances of winning big even more. We’re talking about using the various pai gow poker bonuses that online casinos offer to their players. By taking advantage of these bonuses, you have the ability to increase your bankroll before you even begin playing, which will subsequently extend your playing time and increase your chances of winning. There are many different pai gow poker bonuses to choose from too, so you should always be able to find a free bonus whenever you want to play pai gow poker online for real money.