Pai Gow Poker originated from the traditional Asian game played with tiles that look like dominos. To make it easier to understand, an American version was invented using standard playing cards and the hands were likened to poker.

Pai Gow is played with a standard deck of 52 cards and one joker. The joker either is used as an ace or a wild card to complete a straight, straight flush, or flush only. The game holds up to six players and a banker. The players play against the banker, which is usually the casino, but players can choose to bank the game if they wish. They just have to have enough money to cover all the other players’ bets.

At the start of the game the players make their bets. The dealer then shuffles the cards and deals out seven piles each containing seven cards, it doesn’t matter how many players it’s always seven. Then the banker shakes a cup containing three dice to determine who gets the first hand.

The player must set up the cards into two hands — a five-card hand and a two-card hand. The five-card must be a higher value than the two-card hand. If you make a mistake, you automatically lose. If both your hands beat the banker’s hands, you win. If one hand wins and one hand loses, it’s a push. And if your hands equal the bankers, the banker wins.

Pai Gow is a slower paced game with a lot of pushes, which I like because I can play a lot longer on the cash I have on hand. The banker has a slight advantage due to the fact that it wins the copies. But if you like to gamble for the fun of it, Pai Gow is the way to go.

Lots of poker players also like playing other games of skill (this is why many poker players also gamble when they play golf). When poker players are looking for games of skill to wager on, they often turn to online games. The biggest drawback to many of these sites is that they make you download software that just bogs down your computer. Luckily VC Games has a complete line of no-download games and they just added their newest no-download game with Pin Ball. Every realistic detail is presented in this fixed odds game, from the sound of the metal ball clinking against the pins to the dealer’s voice. Like all VC Games, the player can choose to play Pin Ball in free mode or for real money wagers.

To read more about VC Games and their new game of Pin Ball, visit their press release on the topic:
VC Games Presents the Latest No-Download Pin Ball Game