Now let’s become versed in some alternate styles of poker other than Texas holdem, seven card stud, 5 card draw and omaha high. Yes, pai gow poker. Now you might be thinking that double-hand sounds a bit Chinese; yes you are right, this card game is a mixture of the Chinese game pai gow and our very own us poker
Certainly this isn’t one of the highly popular types of poker but still commonly played. It can be enjoyed by up to seven players. It is played with 1 deck of 52 cards, plus a joker. Interestingly, joker can be used only as an ace, or to finish off a straight, a flush, a straight flush, or a royal flush. The important detail here to clearly recall is apart from the typical ranking of hands we’ve an additional winning hand which is "Five Aces" (5 aces including the joker). Astonishingly, 5 aces beats all other hand including royal flush. Each player is dealt 7 cards. The cards are aligned to make 2 hands; a 2 card hand and a five card hand. The five card hand must be better or be equal to the two card hand.
After arranging the 2 hands, the cards are positioned on the poker table with the faces down. Once on the table, you can’t touch them. The croupier will flip over his cards and assemble their hands. Every players hand is compared to the croupier’s hands. If the player wins 1 hand and loses the other, this is known as "push" and no cash is lost or won. If croupier wins the two hands then the player looses their bet and vice versa. Now if the hand is a tie, the croupier wins all. After the hand is competed, the next player clock-wise gets to be the croupier and the next hand is given out.