Fascinating Facts You May Not Know About Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is a game known for its frequent pushes and slow play-rate, making it a low-risk card game. Also known as double-hand poker, the ornately decorated game is most certainly a game of skill and it’s easy to learn good strategies for each hand. The game has a very fun social feeling to it because all players will play against the same dealer—this means that, win or lose, the whole table will experience the same outcome together. If you’re looking for a good party game, Pai Gow Poker would be a good first choice. This is all common knowledge to most card enthusiasts, but here are a few fun facts about Pai Gow Poker that you may not have known.
- Pai Gow Poker was invented by a man named Sam Torosian in an effort to save his floundering card club in California. He invented this game in 1985 and it has since become a very popular and social game available in most card clubs and casinos. Unfortunately, because poor Sam never patented the card game, he failed to collect the millions that it could have made him.
- The name “Pai Gow” is Chinese and roughly translates to “make nine” in English.
- Pai Gow Poker is based on the Chinese gambling game that uses 32 dominos and dates all the way back as far as the Song dynasty. You can find this game in any Chinese casino or in major casinos all over the world.
- In Pai Gow, there are 35,960 four-tile combinations.
- Sam Tororsian also drew inspiration from Puy Soy. In this game players are dealt 13 cards which are cut into three and they must play them against the banker’s three hands. Sam Torosia felt that this game might be too slow for a Western market so he combined Puy Soy with Pai Gow, decorated the felt with dragons and the rest was history.
Try playing Pai Gow Poker at Bodog Casino and see for yourself why this Asian themed poker game appeals to so many all over the world.
