Let us learn some alternate styles of poker other than Texas holdem, five card stud, five card draw and omaha/8. Yes, pai gow poker. Now you might be thinking that double-hand sounds a little Chinese; well you’re right, this card game is a mixture of the Chinese game pai gow and our very own us poker
Absolutely this is not one of the highly popular styles of poker but still broadly played. It can be played by up to 7 players. It is played with 1 deck of cards, with a joker. Interestingly, the Joker can be used only as an ace, or to complete a straight, flush, a straight flush, or royal flush. The critical aspect here to bear in mind is aside from the typical ranking of hands we have one more winning hand which is "Five Aces" (four Aces and the Joker). Surprisingly, five aces beats all other hand including royal flush. Each player is dealt 7 cards. The cards are aligned to create two hands; a two card hand and a five card hand. The five card hand has to be stronger or be equivalent to the two card hand.
After arranging the two hands, the cards are positioned on the poker table face down. Once on the table, you can no longer change them. The dealer will turn over their cards and arrange his hands. Each competitors hand is played against the croupier’s hands. Should the player take one hand and loses the other, this is referred to as "push" and absolutely no money is lost or won. If croupier wins the two hands then the bettor gives up their bet the opposite is true if the player wins both hands. Now if the hand is a draw, the croupier wins everything. After the hand is competed, the very next player clock-wise gets to be the croupier and the next hand is given out.
