Bonus Pai Gow Poker Strategy

Online Bonus Pai Gow Poker is the modern card game based on the ancient Chinese domino game, pai gow. Like most skill-based card games, Bonus Pai Gow Poker has a recommended strategy that works. Luck will always be a factor, but learning and following a good Bonus Pai Gow Poker strategy will certainly increase your odds to win at Bonus Pai Gow Poker.

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First, Learn the Bonus Pai Gow Poker Rules

Before we even begin to discuss strategy, it is important to understand the Bonus Pai Gow Poker rules. Bonus Pai Gow Poker is played with a 53-card deck — 52 cards and a joker. The joker is a semi-wild card: it can be used as any card to complete a straight or a flush, otherwise it counts as an ace. Each player gets seven cards and has to arrange them into two sub-hands — a five-card hand (the "high" hand) and a two-card hand (the "low" hand). The high hand must have a higher value than the low hand.

When you play Bonus Pai Gow Poker, the goal is to beat the dealer's high and low hands. If both of your hands beat both of the dealer's hands, you win. Winning a hand is determined by the standard ranking of winning poker hands: a straight beats three of a kind, three of a kind beats two pairs, etc. If one of your hands beats one of the dealer's and the other loses, it's considered a push and no one wins. If one of your hands ties with the dealers (i.e., exactly the same value), it's called a "copy" (a tie) and the win goes to the dealer.

The Bonus Pai Gow Poker Basic Strategy

Now to strategy. The most important element is Bonus Pai Gow Poker strategy is deciding how to divide your seven cards into two hands. There are strategy charts for Bonus Pai Gow Poker that show the many different hand possibilities and their best two- and five-card combinations. The goal is to not neglect either your two-card or your five-card hand, making both as strong as possible.

Bonus Pai Gow Poker Strategy Number One: Your high hand should ideally include a pair and, if you have an ace, put it in your low hand. On the other hand, if you are dealt neither aces nor pairs, you should put the highest card you do have in your high hand, and your second and third highest cards in your low hand.

After knowing the basic strategy rule above, here are some other Bonus Pai Gow Poker strategies:

If you have two pairs, and one of them is a pair of jacks, queens, kings or aces, you put the higher pair in your high hand.

If you have two pairs and neither is the pair mentioned above (but rather both are lower), put both pairs in the high hand if you can put a king or ace in the low hand. If you don't have a king or ace for the low hand, then split the two pairs between the low and high hands.

If you are dealt three pairs, put the pair with the highest value in the low hand and keep the two lower pairs in the high hand.

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In the case of three or four of a kind:

If you have three aces, you should use one of the aces in the low hand along with the next highest card, and put a pair of aces in the high hand.

With any other three of a kind, all three like cards should be put in the high hand. The low hand should consist of the other two highest cards you've been dealt.

If you have a full house, the pair goes in the low hand and the three of a kind goes in the high hand.

If you're holding four of kind, you should split if the cards are high (jacks through aces), i.e. a pair in low and a pair in high. If the four of a kind you're holding are 7s through 10s, you should split them up between low and high unless you have an ace or king to put in low and then you put all four in high. If the value of the four of a kind is 6 or less, put them all in high.

In the case of a straight or a flush, put it in the high hand (so that the five-card hand is a complete straight or flush).

Don't Forget the Bonus Bet in Bonus Pai Gow Poker

They don't call it Bonus Pai Gow Poker for nothing. Playing the bonus bet should be a rgular part of your Bonus Pai Gow Poker strategy. The bonus bet gives you the big payouts that compensate for the losing hands that will inevitably come your way. Your bonus payouts are what will enable you to come out ahead over an extended period of playing Bonus Pai Gow Poker.

Bonus Pai Gow Poker and Real Money

All online poker games, including Bonus Pai Gow Poker, should be played with other strategies as well. Money management may not sound like a strategy but it is, and a very important strategy at that. It is important that you keep your bets under control even when you are on a hot streak. The best strategy is to decide beforehand how much real money you're willing to lose and how much you want to win (and to have the discipline to stop when you reach either of those two goals).

It always helps to really understand the game you're playing and Bonus Pai Gow Poker is no exception. Study the rules until you understand exactly what's entailed in a game of Bonus Pai Gow Poker. If after studying the rules, strategies, and tips, you're still not confident, you should take advantage of the biggest benefit online casinos offer — the free game. Playing Bonus Pai Gow Poker for free is a method you might not think of as a strategy, but if it helps you on the road to eventually winning real money at Bonus Pai Gow Poker, then it should be a part of your overall plan.

For more Bonus Pai Gow Poker information, please visit:
Online Bonus Pai Gow Poker
Bonus Pai Gow Poker Rules and Terms
Tips to Win Bonus Pai Gow Poker
History of Bonus Pai Gow Poker
Online vs. Land-Based Bonus Pai Gow Poker

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