Pai Gow Poker Hand Ranking

When players finally receive their cards in pai gow poker, they are confronted with the task of setting two hands from the seven cards were dealt to them. One hand will have two cards and the other will have five cards. A basic piece of knowledge in this game that every player should have would be hand rankings for both the two-card and the five-card hand.

The hands used in this game are pretty much similar to the standard hands used in other poker variants with only a slight difference. Here is the hand ranking used in the game starting with the five-card hands. We'll mention the hands from the highest-ranking hand to the lowest. We'll then discuss the ranking for the two-card hands.

Five Aces: This is the highest hand in this poker variation. It is composed of all four Aces and a joker that takes the value of an Ace.

Royal Flush: The second highest hand in this poker variant. It is made up of an Ace, a King, Queen, Jack, and Ten all in the same suit.

Straight Flush: The third highest hand in this variant of poker. It is made up of five cards, all of which would have the same suit.

Four of a Kind: This is composed of four cards that all have the same rank (e.g. four Jacks). This is the fourth highest hand in this poker variant.

Full House: This is the fifth highest rank. This hand is a combination of a Three of a kind (see below) and a Pair.

Flush: This is the sixth in rank among the hands in Pai Gow Poker. It is made up of five cards that have the same suit.

Straight: This hand is ranked as number seven. It is composed of five cards in their respective sequence. An example would be the following cards: Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, it doesn't matter what suit each card would be in.

Three of a Kind: This hand ranks as the eighth in the series. It is composed of three cards of the same rank.

Two Pair: This hand ranks as the ninth and is made up of two cards of the same rank and another two more of the same rank.

One Pair: This is the lowest ranked hand at the tenth spot. It is composed of two cards of equal rank.

Here is how the two-card hands are ranked. The highest of the two-card hands is the Pair of Aces. The rest of the two-card hands are ranked subsequently from a Pair of Kings (second highest hand) going down to a Pair of Twos (lowest). In Pai Gow Poker, the Ace ranks highest among the cards followed by the King down to the Two card, which is the lowest.

It is important to learn the ranking of the hands in this game. If a player makes the five-card hand lower than the two-card hand this is called a foul and thus automatically loses. With some practice, you'll be able to master the different hand rankings used in this game.