Pai Gow Tiles Set

Pai Gow is a game of Chinese dominoes. It originated in ancient China and is played in most Asian countries. Translated into English, Pai Gow means “to make nine.” It is played with 32 dominoes (also referred to as tiles)—11 of which are identical pairs. Scrambles, shuffles, and deals Tiles in the manner prescribed in the Pai Gow Tiles dealer's Manual. Collect Casino's revenues. Supervises the betting action and enforces Casino rules.

Eventually, there comes a time when you’ve played just about everything in a casino. There’s also times when you want to play slowly, and just have some fun. You might try Pai Gow Poker, but unless you’re a newbie, it’s a totally brain-dead, boring game.

On the other hand, Pai Gow Tiles are really fun. You earn max casino “cred” points while you play the game. You earn double cred points if you’re lo-fan. You’ll find the game in a few casinos in Vegas (Aria, Mirage, Harrah’s, etc.). Before I learned the game, I would just stop by the usually empty table, stare at the tiles, and wonder what kind of game it was. Nowadays, people stop and watch me play.

The game is simple. If you know Pai Gow Poker, then you know the basic rules. Pai Gow Poker is a variant of the original tile game, with cards replacing tiles. The player and banker are each dealt the same number of cards/tiles, which they set into a low and high hand. The player wins if both his high and low hand beats the banker’s. The banker wins if both his hands beat or ties the player’s. Otherwise, the hand is a push.

You’re dealt 4 tiles, which you set into a 2-tile high hand, and a 2-tile low hand. Your high hand must beat your low hand. So, all you need to know are the 2-tile hand rankings, and the best way to balance the strength of your hand.

The game of Pai Gow is a game of Chinese tiles, which is generally believed to have originated in China around the 12th century A.D. The name Pai Gow literally translated means “to make nine,” which is the object of the game. Pai Gow is played on a table and setting similar to blackjack: there is a dealer and seats for up to six players.

The Deck

There are 32 tiles in the deck. Here’s a nice diagram of the deck, from Steven Denenberg’s paigow.com. The 16 pairs are arranged in descending order (#1 Gee Joon thru #16 Ng):

The tiles are similar to double-six dominoes, and pretty much look like craps rolls. The only difference is the “hard-6” may look different (Chong). There are two tiles of any given type (rank). The names are useful, because there may be two different types (rank) with the same number of dots. For example, there are two types of tiles with 8 dots: the Yun (hard-8) and the Bot (easy-8). The Yun is ranked higher than the Bot. The individual tile rankings follow the pair rankings above, except the semi-wild Gee Joon tiles become the lowest, not the highest, ranked individual tiles.

Hand Rankings

The ranking of the 2-tile hands are as follows:

1. Pair
2. Wong (Teen or Day with any 9-point tile)
3. Gong (Teen or Day with any 8-point tile)
4. High-9 (Teen or Day with any 7-point tile)
5. Points (last digit of dot total)

Pairs

The identical pairs are easiest to spot in your hand, but you’ll learn to recognize the Gee Joon pair, and the mixed- 5,7,8,9 pairs (Ng, Chut, Bot, Gow pairs). It’ll come through practice (see my trainer below). I remember the Yun pair as a hard-8, and the Bot pair as easy-8. Then I remember the 7 pairs as Tit (Ace-Six) and Chut (the other ways). There’s no confusion on the Ng (5) and the Gow (9) pair. Note the mixed pairs are the lowest ranked.

Wongs

The next highest hand following a pair is a Wong. The Wong hand consists of the Teen or Day (boxcars or snake-eyes) and any 9-dot tile (Gow).

Gongs

The next highest hand following a Wong is a Gong. The Gong hand consists of the Teen or Day (boxcars or snake-eyes) and any 8-dot tile (Bot or Yun).

High-9s

The High-9 is really a point total of 9 with a Teen or Day kicker.

Points

The lowest hands are the 0 thru 9 point total of the tile’s dots. If the dot total goes over 10, then just use the last digit. The Gee Joon tiles are semi-wild (3 or 6) when used in a point total.

Tie-Breaker (Kicker)

When comparing 2-tile hands with the same rank (e.g., Wong vs. Wong, or points vs. points), you go to the highest tile in the 2-tile hand as the tie-breaker. For example, a Wong with a Teen beats a Wong with a Day. Similarly, two Wongs are equal if they both have Teen, or both have Day. To use a poker term, when two hands are of equal rank, the comparison goes down to the kicker, the highest-ranked tile in the hand.

Simple Strategy

I use a simple strategy taken from the Wizard Of Odds. I’m copying it here for convenience, with some small fixes.

Play the first rule that applies:

One-Way Hand

If there is one play that is obviously the best, which will happen about 38% of the time, then play it. This happens when one play is superior to both alternatives in both the high and low.

Pairs

Split pairs as follows.

1. Gee Joon — Split only with 6-4, 6-5, 6-6
2. Pair of 2’s or 12’s — Split only with 9-11, or to make 6-8 or better
3. Pair of 5’s — Split to make 7/7
4. Pair of 6’s — Split to make 7/8 or better
5. Pair of 7’s — Split to make 7/7 or better
6. Pair of 8’s — Split to make 8/8 or better, and with 9-11
7. Pair of 9’s — Split to make 9/9 or better
8. Pair of 4’s, 10’s, 11’s — Never split

Wong, Gong, High-9

1. If you have both Teen and Day, play the best high hand
2. Play the best low hand if 6 or 7 points with Yun kicker or better
3. Play Wong or Gong instead of High Nine if the fourth tile is a 4 or 5
4. Play High Nine, Gong, or Wong, in that order of preference

Points Only

1. Play the best low hand if it is worth 5 or more points
2. Play the best low hand if the best high hand is worth 5 points or less
3. Play the best low hand if the best high hand is a low 6 points (Chong kicker)
4. Play the best high hand with all other combinations

Practice Trainer

Of course the easiest way to learn the game is with some interactive practice. I wrote a simple trainer to let you practice setting hands. Click on the screenshot to try it:

Pointers

When you first try to set a hand, you may be overwhelmed by the unfamiliar tiles in front of you. But, if you follow some simple steps, you’ll quickly get oriented. The easiest thing to see are identical pairs. Then look for your mixed pairs (5’s, 9’s, and 7’s and 8’s). If you have a pair, check if you should split it (see the table above; you’re looking for at least a 7/7 to split), else play it behind.

If you don’t have any pairs, then look for the Teen and Day tiles (boxcars and snake-eyes). If you have one, then check for 7-, 8-, and 9-spot tiles that make a High-9, Gong, and Wong, respectively. Follow the rules for setting hands with Wongs, Gongs, and High-9’s, but remember the idea is to balance the hand by playing the lowest of these hands behind.

Pai Gow Tiles Practice

If you only have point totals, check if you have the semi-wild (3 or 6) Gee Joon tiles. To get your bearings, find your best high hand. For example, say it’s a 5/9. Usually, you’ll have some other options, hands whose front and back add up to 5+9 = 14. Check for 7/7, since you’d play it (set highest front if 5 or more points). Also check for 6/8, else play the 5/9.

Tutorials

I’ve made some introductory videos that explain the game in more detail:

Pai gow (Chinese: 牌九; pinyin: pái jiǔ; Jyutping: paai4 gau2) is a Chinesegamblinggame, played with a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. It is played in major casinos in China (including Macau); the United States (including Boston, Massachusetts; Las Vegas, Nevada; Reno, Nevada; Connecticut; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Mississippi; and cardrooms in California); Canada (including Edmonton, Alberta and Calgary, Alberta); Australia; and, New Zealand.

The name 'pai gow' is sometimes used to refer to a card game called pai gow poker (or “double-hand poker”), which is loosely based on pai gow.

Rules[edit]

Starting[edit]

Tiles are shuffled on the table and are arranged into eight face-down stacks of four tiles each in an assembly known as the woodpile. Individual stacks or tiles may then be moved in specific ways to rearrange the woodpile, after which the players place their bets.

Next, each player (including the dealer) is given one stack of tiles and must use them to form two hands of two tiles each. The hand with the lower value is called the front hand, and the hand with the higher value is called the rear hand. If a player's front hand beats the dealer's front hand, and the player's rear hand beats the dealer's rear hand, then that player wins the bet. If a player's front and rear hands both lose to the dealer's respective hands, the player loses the bet. If one hand wins and the other loses, the player is said to push, and gets back only the money he or she bet. Generally seven players will play, and each player's hands are compared only against the dealer's hands; comparisons are always front-front and rear-rear, never one of each.

Pai Gow Tile Rankings

There are 35,960 possible ways to select 4 of the 32 tiles when the 32 tiles are considered distinguishable. However, there are 3620 distinct sets of 4 tiles when the tiles of a pair are considered indistinguishable. There are 496 ways to select 2 of the 32 tiles when the 32 tiles are considered distinguishable. There are 136 distinct hands (pairs of tiles) when the tiles of a pair are considered indistinguishable.

Basic scoring[edit]

The name 'pai gow' is loosely translated as 'make nine' or 'card nine'. This reflects the fact that, with a few high-scoring exceptions, the maximum score for a hand is nine. If a hand consists of two tiles that do not form a pair, its value is determined by adding up the total number of pips on the tiles and dropping the tens digit (if any). Examples:

Amazon.com: Paigow Tiles

• 1–3 with 2-3: value 9 (nine pips altogether)
• 2–3 with 5-6: value 6 (16 pips; drop the 10)
• 5–5 with 4-6: value 0 (20 pips; ones digit is zero)

Gongs and Wongs[edit]

There are special ways in which a hand can score more than nine points. The double-one tiles and double-six tiles are known as the Day and Teen tiles, respectively. The combination of a Day or Teen with an eight results in a Gong, worth 10 points, while putting either of them with a nine creates a Wong, worth 11. However, when a Day or Teen is paired with any other tile, the standard scoring rules apply.

Gee Joon tiles[edit]

The 1-2 and the 2-4 tiles are called Gee Joon tiles and act as limited wild cards. When used as part of a hand, these tiles may be scored as either 3 or 6, whichever results in a higher hand value. For example, a hand of 1-2 and 5-6 scores as seven rather than four.

Pairs[edit]

The 32 tiles in a Chinese dominoes set can be arranged into 16 pairs, as shown in the picture at the top of this article. Eleven of these pairs have identical tiles, and five of these pairs are made up of two tiles that score the same, but look different. (The latter group includes the Gee Joon tiles, which can score the same, whether as three or six.) Any hand consisting of a pair outscores a non-pair, regardless of the pip counts. (Pairs are often thought of as being worth 12 points each.)

When the player and dealer both have a pair, the higher-ranked pair wins. Ranking is determined not by the sum of the tiles' pips, but rather by aesthetics; the order must be memorized. The highest pairs are the Gee Joon tiles, the Teens, the Days, and the red eights. The lowest pairs are the mismatched nines, eights, sevens, and fives.

Ties[edit]

When the player and dealer display hands with the same score, the one with the highest-valued tile (based on the pair rankings described above) is the winner. For example, a player's hand of 3-4 and 2-2 and a dealer's hand of 5-6 and 5-5 would each score one point. However, since the dealer's 5-5 outranks the other three tiles, he would win the hand.

If the scores are tied, and if the player and dealer each have an identical highest-ranking tile, the hand is ruled a copy and the dealer wins. For example, if the player held 2-2 and 1–6, and the dealer held 2-2 and 3–4, the dealer would win since the scores (1 each) and the higher tiles (2-2) are the same. The lower-ranked tile in each hand is never used to break a tie.

There are two exceptions to the method described above. First, although the Gee Joon tiles form the highest-ranking pair, they are considered to have no value when evaluating ties. Second, any zero-zero tie is won by the dealer, regardless of the tiles in the two hands.

Strategy[edit]

The key element of pai gow strategy is to present the optimal front and rear hands based on the tiles dealt to the player. There are three ways to arrange four tiles into two hands when no two of them form a pair. However, if there is at least one pair among the tiles, there are only two distinct ways to form two hands.

Using the tiles shown at right, the following hands and scores are possible:

• A and B (0), C and D (0)
• A and C (5), B and D (5)
• A and D (3), B and C (7)

The player must decide which combination is most likely to give a set of front/rear hands that can beat the dealer, or at least break a tie in the player's favor. In some cases, a player with weaker tiles may deliberately attempt to attain a push so as to avoid losing the bet outright. Many players rely on superstition or tradition to choose tile pairings.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

• Pai gow lore at Wizard of Odds website (Michael Shackleford)