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Casino consultant |
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Thursday, August 28th 2008 |
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Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker
Author: Stanford Wong
Publisher: Pi Yee Press
Originally Published: 1993
ISBN: 0-935926-17-8
Pages: 160
Price: $14.95
While Pai Gow Poker can be found in virtually every casino in America, it is perhaps the most popular in the larger California card rooms, where it is often called Double Hand Poker. Given the proper conditions, the game can be beaten by a well-bankrolled team of players. Many of the California card rooms have "syndicates" or "corporations" operating in them for exactly that purpose. And the author of Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker, Stanford Wong, has been a member of more than one such successful Pai Gow syndicate. His book, originally published in 1993, provides definitive information as to the conditions needed to beat the game, and what strategies can be used to make the most of profits or play down losses.
After discussing the house edge for Pai Gow Poker and how players can overcome it, Wong includes examples for both California and Nevada style casinos. The majority of the book is devoted to Pai Gow Poker strategy in excruciating detail. There is a great deal of discussion regarding the optimal strategy for playing as well as banking, as the strategies are subtly different. Sometimes the strategy discussed is so complex it’s enough to make the reader’s head swim. Luckily, the author also includes a “simplified strategy” that is only little more complex than usual, but is still superior to the strategy used by the dealers. The book concludes with a valuable quiz concerning practice hands, which will help readers better grasp the principles they have just studied.
While Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker is far too dense to be of any use to the casual player looking to learn enough to keep from embarrassing himself at the tables, it should be required reading for the serious and/or professional Pai Gow Poker player. This is easily the most painstaking study of Pai Gow Poker ever written, although it is recommended for advanced students only.
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