Est.: Aug. 28, 2007
Updated: Jan. 22, 2008

Pai Gow in Macau

Last update: August 22, 2007

Introduction

Pai gow is surprisingly hard to find in Macau. I would be very confident in saying that there are more pai gow games in Las Vegas or Atlantic City than Macau. Unlike in the U.S., where the dealer plays, in Macau pai gow is strictly a player against player game. Your odds of finding pai gow will be best at the larger and older casinos, like the Lisboa and Jai Alai casinos. Some casinos had pictures of pai gow tiles in their signage, but the game was not to be found inside.

For those who may be confused at this point, thinking that pai gow is played with cards, you're thinking of pai gow poker. Pai gow is a similar game, but played with 32 domino-looking tiles. The number of pai gow poker games in Macau, to my knowledge, is zero.

Rules

Pai gow is played with a set of 32 dominos displayed below. Notice that some dominos appear once and some twice.

There is no significance to the color of the dots.

The Rules

In the Macau version of pai gow, the players only play against each other. The dealer is there to host the game, and collects a 5% commission from all wins for this service. One player will bank against all other players. The opportunity to bank is offered in turn to each player, and any player may decline the option.

The game is played with a set of 32 dominos, three dice, and a dice shaker. Play begins with all players making a wager. As the players decide how much to bet the dealer mixes up the dominos and puts them in 8 neat stacks of 4. Then the dice are rolled to determine who gets the first stack and then proceeds counter-clockwise. After the dice are exposed the player may not change his bet. Each player is given one stack of 4 dominos, which they are to arrange into two groups of two.

Each pair of dominos has a ranking. The player must decide how to arrange his dominos into the strongest possible pairs. Sometimes the choice is obvious but often a decision must be made whether to have a strong hand and a weak hand or two more balanced hands. At most there will be three possible and viable ways to play the hand. After a decision is reached the player should lay the dominos face down with the higher pair laying horizontally and the lower pair vertically. Only after all players have set their hands can the banker examine and set his dominos.

After all dominos have been arranged the banker and player will turn over their hands. Each player will in turn compare his hands to those of the banker. If the player wins both hands his bet pays even money less a 5% commission. If the player loses both he loses his entire wager. If the hands split, one win and one loss, then the bet is a push. After all bets have been settled the banker pays a 5% commission on the net win, if there was one.

Usually the dealer will let the player may prepay the 5% commission. For example if you bet $100 you may put out an additional $5 as the commission, should you lose. Mathematically speaking, this is equivalent to paying a commission of 1/21 of your total bet, rather than 1/20. This lowers the house edge by about 0.07%, and is definitely advised.

Ranking

How the hands are ranked is the complicated and there is no easy way to memorize the order. The highest hands are the matched pairs as follows. The highest pair, known as the supreme pair consists of the two wild dominos. Each of these wild dominos, known as "gee" may count as either 3 or 6 points if used individually. The Chinese name for the supreme pair is "Gee Joon" which is also the name of a restaurant in Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas.

Following in rank are certain non-matching pairs.

Next in rank are special combinations known as Wongs. These combinations inlude either the 2 or 12 point domino and any 9 point domino.

Following the Wongs are other special combinations known as Gongs. These combinations inlude either the 2 or 12 point domino and any 8 point domino.

Finally, if a pair, Wong, or Gong can not be formed then the hand is ranked according to the terminal digit of the total pip value of dots on the dominos. For example a hand consisting of a 12 and 7 dominos would have a total of 19 spots for the highest possible value of 9. The highest among these hands are the 6+6 and 1+1 dominos combined with a 7, known as a "high nine" because of their composition with one of the two highest individual dominos. In the event the player and banker have the same point total then the highest ranking domino in each will will be used to break the tie, the high domino wins. In the event that the high dominos are equal then the tie shall go to the banker. Note that the second highest dominos are not used to break the tie. There is an exception, in the event of a 0-0 copy then the tie will go to the banker. The following list shows every domino in order of their rank.

Note that while the two wild dominos together are the highest ranking pair (the supreme pair) individually they are the lowest in rank.

House Edge

In a one on one game, assuming that both player and banker follow the same strategy, the house edge against the player is 2.44%, and against the banker is 0.53%. The house edge will fall on the banker as the number of players goes up, because the commission is applied to the net win.

For more information on Pai Gow, please visit my companion site, Wizard of Odds.