Pai Gow Tiles

Scoring Metrics

Win both hands

1:1

Commission

None

Split hands

Push

Edge (auto set)

0.7%

Game Rules

• Objective: split your four tiles into two hands of two, a High hand and a Low hand, so that both beat the banker's matching hands. Pai Gow (牌九) is played with 32 Chinese dominoes.
• The tiles: there are 32 tiles. 11 tiles appear twice (6-6, 1-1, 4-4, 1-3, 5-5, 3-3, 2-2, 5-6, 4-6, 1-6 and 1-5) and 10 appear once (4-5, 3-6, 3-5, 2-6, 3-4, 2-5, 2-3, 1-4, 2-4 and 1-2).
• Playing a round: place a bet and press Deal. You and the banker each get four tiles, and yours are face up. Tap two tiles to swap them until you're happy with your High hand and your Low hand, then press Set hands. Auto set arranges them the same way the banker does, and Swap hands flips your High and Low.
• Your High hand must not rank below your Low hand. The game won't let you set an illegal pair of hands.
• Scoring a hand: add up the dots on both tiles and keep only the last digit. 5-6 and 3-4 is 11 + 7 = 18, so it scores 8. The best ordinary hand is 9 and the worst is 0 (often called 'zero' or 'bust').
• Gee Joon tiles: the 1-2 and 2-4 tiles count as either 3 or 6 when they're in a hand with another tile, whichever scores higher. Together they make the best pair of all.
• Pairs beat everything. From best to worst: Gee Joon (1-2 with 2-4), then two identical tiles ranked Teen (6-6), Day (1-1), Yun (4-4), Gor (1-3), Mooy (5-5), Chong (3-3), Bon (2-2), Foo (5-6), Ping (4-6), Tit (1-6) and Look (1-5), then the four mixed 'Chop' pairs: Chop Gow (4-5 with 3-6), Chop Bot (3-5 with 2-6), Chop Chit (3-4 with 2-5) and Chop Ng (2-3 with 1-4).
• Wong and Gong rank just under the pairs. A Wong is a Teen (6-6) or Day (1-1) with a Gow (4-5 or 3-6). A Gong is a Teen or Day with a Yun (4-4) or a Bot (3-5 or 2-6). Wongs beat Gongs, and a Teen version beats a Day version.
• Ties: if two hands score the same, the hand holding the higher-ranked single tile wins (Teen is highest and the 1-2 is lowest). If those match too, the banker wins. The banker also wins every other tie, such as two equal pairs.
• Winning and losing: if both of your hands beat the banker's, you win 1:1 with no commission. If both lose, you lose your bet. If you win one hand and lose the other, it's a push and your bet comes back.
• Placing a bet: type the amount you want to bet in the bet box. Min 1, max 500. The bet is taken from your chips when you press Deal, and it stays in the box for the next round.
• House edge: when you set your tiles the same way the banker does, you win about 33.0% of rounds, push about 33.2% and lose about 33.7%, which costs about 0.7% of your bet on average. Setting your tiles carefully can do better than the Auto set way, but the banker's ties keep a small edge with the house.
• Each round uses a freshly shuffled set of 32 tiles, and the tiles are decided before they are dealt. The banker is always the house in this demo, and there's no banker rotation.
• This is a demo with play chips only. It is not linked to an account and resets when you refresh the page. You can switch between Gold coins and Diamonds between rounds; each has its own balance.