Pai Gow Poker House Way and the Two Pair

One of the really intricate decisions that a player will often make will be regarding a Two Pair. The basic strategy when dealing with these cards and other cards and hands in Pai Gow Poker is to always use the house way. We can basically reduce our losses when we play the game using house way to work on our cards.

To help you out with this decision, we'll present an alternative strategy you can use for a Two Pair. This way you get more options when dealing with the infamous Two Pair and you're not just playing it by rote. We'll first present you with a sample strategy that follows the house way then we'll present you some changes that have been made which you can consider when you make your decisions. Here's how to play the Two Pair using the house way.

If both your first and second pairs have cards from a Two card through a Six card you should split them. The only exception to this rule is when you have a King (or higher), in which case you keep both pairs in your high hand (i.e. five-card hand).

If one of your pairs is from Two through Six and your other pair is from Seven through Ten, then the house way would have you play the same strategy as mentioned earlier.

If one of your pairs is from Two through Six and the other pair is one of the face cards then house way would have you split the pairs. The exception here is only if you have an Ace in your other cards.

If both your pairs have cards from Seven through Ten then the rule states that you ought to split them with the sole exception of having an Ace in your other cards.

If one of your pairs is from Seven through Ten and the other is from Jack to King you should always split. This same rule also applies if you have both pairs from any of the face cards or if your Two Pair consists of Aces.

Now here are the changes to the basic strategy that you can try:

Always split a Two Pair except (1) if you add the value of each pair and you get a sum of nine or less (For example you have a pair of Sixes and a pair of Threes in your Two Pair, that'll be a six plus a three making a total of nine) and you have a King or an Ace.

Or (2) if you add the value of each pair and you get a sum of fifteen or less and you have an Ace. By using these additional rules you take away 0.04% from the house edge which gives you additional elbowroom in the game.

We generally recommend that all players learn the house way first and then proceed with the additional options mentioned above.