Pai Gow Tiles Casino House Strategy

These are the house rules for setting house hands at the casino where I work. This is not an official publication since I am writing it myself, but I know it is accurate. This is a chronological way to set hands the house way.

Note 1: When using this system the usage of the word "chicken" means either the Gee or Joon tile.

Note 2: When there is a number in brackets beside the name of a tile, the tile name refers to the minimum ranking for both tiles, and the number is the total of the 2 tiles together. (Example...Chong(3) means the two tiles totaling 3, with a tile rank of Chong)

2 Pairs - Never Split

Pair GeeJoon - Split with 4-6, 5-6, 6-6

Pair Teen - Split to make 6-8 or higher (Exception: Foo-9 make 3-Wong)

Pair Day - Split to make 6-8 or higher (Exception: Foo-9 make 3-Wong)

Pair 4,5,6,10,11 - Never Split

Pair 7,8,9 - Split to make 7-9 or higher

Single Teen - Join with 7, 8, or 9 in ascending order - if other tiles rank is lower than Chong(3) then change the tiles to make Wong or Gong where possible...apply same rules if using 8 or 9

Single Day Rule #1 - Join with 7, 8, or 9 in ascending order - if other tiles rank is lower than (7) then change the tiles to make Wong or Gong if possible; apply same rules if using 8 or 9

Single Day Rule #2 - Join with 7, 8, or 9 in ascending order - if other tiles are lower than Yun(3), then change the tiles to make Wong or Gong if possible; apply same rules if using 8 or 9

Regular Setup - Balance hand first and check if low hand is lower than Chong(3) and if it is, make 8,9 on the high hand. Put the big ranking tile on the low hand the the low ranking tile on the high hand except when the low hand is 8, then you would put the high ranking tile on the high hand (If you have 2 tiles ranked adjacently, then you split them up)

Small Tile Setup -
(Children: 3,4,5 / Teenager: 6 / Women: 7,8,9 / Men: 10,11,12)

3 children - make high 9 or high 8
2 children - put them together and check the other tiles
Chicken - put with 4, 5, 6 in order first and then check other tiles

**If you have 2 tiles ranked adjacently split them up

TRICKS: 2 men split 2 children, 2 women don't split 2 children, 1 man & 1 women don't split 2 children,1 man keeps 1 child (Exception: Foo-9 & 2 children; split children if chicken, and use chicken as a 6)

Exceptions -
(1) Foo & Yun - put together if other tiles are Ping 6 or higher
(2) [Teen or Day] & 6(any) with Ngor & Foo: make 5-8 (regular setup: 6-7) big8 on high hand
(3) [Teen or Day] & 5 with Ngor & Foo: make 5-7 (regular setup: 6-6) big7 on high hand
(4) [Teen or Day] & 5 with Ngor & Ping: make 4-7 (regular setup: 5-6) big7 on high hand
(5) [Teen or Day] & 5 with Chicken & 6(any): make 7-9 (regular setup: 8-8) big7 on low hand
(6) [Teen or Day] & Bon with Chicken & 6(any): make 6-9 (regular setup: 7-8) big6 on low hand
(7) 10(any) & 5 with Chicken & 6(any): make 5-9 (regular setup: 6-8)

Notable Hands That Are Not Exceptions But Are Tricky -
(1) Yun & Chong with 7 & 8: make 4-5
(2) [Teen or Day] & 5 with Ngor & Mooy: make 5-6
(3) [Teen or Day] & 6(any) with Chicken & Ngor: make 7-8

Pai Gow Tiles - Game Rules For Beginners

Basic Game

Pai Gow Tiles is an ancient Chinese game played with 32 tiles that have dots on them. These dots represent the value of each tile. Each player gets 4 tiles and makes 2 hands of 2 tiles each, creating a high hand and a low hand. Once the players tiles are set, these hands are compared against the bankers tiles (usually the house). In order to win, the player's high hand and low hand must be better than both the banker's high hand and low hand. If both of the player's hands are lower than the banker's hands, the player loses. If the player and the banker each have a winning hand, then neither the player nor the banker wins, which is called a push.

Pairs

There are 16 different "Pairs" which have a chronological ordering or rank. A Pair is a very powerful tile set, and will beat any other set of tiles except another Pair of a higher ranking value. Here is the list of Pairs in order of rank:

1. Gee Joon (Supreme Pair, 3 dots & 6 dots)
2. Pair Teen (12 dots)
3. Pair Day (2 dots)
4. Pair Yun (8 dots)
5. Pair Ngor (4 dots)
6. Pair Mooy (10 dots)
7. Pair Chong (6 dots)
8. Pair Bon (4 dots)
9. Pair Foo (11 dots)
10. Pair Ping (10 dots)
11. Pair Tit (7 dots)
12. Pair Look (6 dots)
13. Pair Gow (9 dots)
14. Pair Bot (8 dots)
15. Pair Chit (7 dots)
16. Pair Ng (5 dots)

Wongs

A "Wong" is any Teen(12) or Day(2) tile with any 9 tile. A Wong is also a very powerful tile combination, but is lower than any Pair. When comparing 2 hands that are both Wongs, note that the Teen(12) Wong has a higher value than the Day(2) Wong.

Gongs

A "Gong" is any Teen(12) or Day(2) tile with any 8 tile. A Gong is also a very powerful tile combination, but is lower than any Wong. When comparing 2 hands that are both Gongs, note that the Teen(12) Gong has a higher value than the Day(2) Gong.

Determining The Hand Value Of The Other Tiles

When you have 2 tiles that are not Pairs, Wongs, or Gongs, the way to determine their value (total), is by counting the total number of dots on both tiles. This will give you a value from 0 to 9. We only take the last digit of any number total to determine the value. For example, if first tile had a total of 9 dots, and the second tile had a total of 8 dots, the resulting value of the hand would be 7. This is because we only use the 7 from a total of 17. This method only applies to tiles that are not Pairs, Wongs, or Gongs. There is 1 exception to this and that is in the case of the 2 Gee Joon tiles. One of them has 3 dots and other has 6 dots, but for either tile we can use a value of 3 or 6 to make the highest possible total. These tiles are both ranked the same individually, but their dot total can be either (wild). Here is the list of individual tiles in order of rank:

1. Teen(12)
2. Day(2)
3. Yun(8)
4. Ngor(4)
5. Mooy(10)
6. Chong(6)
7. Bon(4)
8. Foo(11)
9. Ping(10)
10. Tit(7)
11. Look(6)
12. Gow(9)
13. Bot(8)
14. Chit(7)
15. Ng(5)
16. Gee or Joon (3 or 6)

Comparing Tile Hands

Many times 2 hands have the same total and require individual tile ranking to be considered. For example, if 2 hands both total 9, the hand with the highest ranking individual tile is the winner. Sometimes the highest ranking tile is the same for both hands. When this happens, this is known as a "copy hand" and the banker wins all copy hands.