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Pai Gow Poker: No-Push Pai Gow
No Push Pai Gow Poker
The No Push variation of Pai Gow Poker is one I encountered at Palace Station in Las Vegas. While the basic gameplay aligns with traditional pai gow poker, there are some notable differences.- The dealer is always the banker.
- There’s no 5% fee. When a player manages to win both of their hands, the payout is a straight even money.
- After dealing seven hands, which includes a dragon hand, four cards will remain. The dealer will draw the next card and place it face down in a specific area for players to see. Similarly, another card will be drawn for the banker and placed in their designated area, also face down. These cards will be revealed after the dealer organizes their hand.
- In cases of a tie, the player’s and dealer’s cards will be used to determine the winner. If the player's card exceeds the banker’s card, the player claims victory. Conversely, if the banker’s card is equal to or surpasses the player's card, the banker wins. In this tiebreaking scenario, the joker is treated as an ace.
To evaluate the gameplay, I employed specific probabilities derived from random simulations, based on the assumption that both player and banker follow the Trump Plaza house rules.
Possible Outcomes in Pai Gow Poker
Outcome | Probability |
---|---|
Player wins both | 28.55% |
Tie | 41.47% |
Banker wins both | 29.98% |
The odds of a tie between the player and banker cards are calculated as (48/53)*(3/52)+(5/53)*(4/52)=0.05950. There’s a 41.47% chance that the game will proceed to extra cards, resulting in a player's expected value of -0.05950. When looking at the game overall, the expected value is calculated as 0.2855*1 + 0.4147*-0.05950 + .2998*-1 = -0.03898, indicating a house edge of approximately 3.90%. A player might slightly reduce this edge by adopting a more assertive strategy when setting their cards to minimize pushes, though I didn’t investigate this aspect thoroughly and suspect the impact of different strategies is minimal.
In standard pai gow poker, the house edge for players is set at 2.85%. Therefore, even if you never take on the role of banker, the conventional game maintains a better house edge. This discrepancy becomes more pronounced depending on how willing a player is to bank. If you find the frequent pushes in traditional pai gow poker to be tedious, you might feel a renewed sense of excitement with this variation. However, for minimizing losses, sticking with classic pai gow poker is advisable.
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