Paigow Poker

Poker Paigow

Paigow

Pai-gow poker is a banking poker game played in some of the California card clubs and casinos. The object of pai-gow poker is to make two poker hands that beat the banker's hands. The player is dealt 7 cards that he makes into a five card hand (high hand) and a two card hand (low hand). The hands are played and ranked as traditional poker hands (with one exception: A2345 is the second highest straight), and the 5 card hand must be higher than the 2 card hand. If both hands are better than the banker's hand, you win, if both lose, you lose, otherwise it's a push. The banker wins absolute ties (i.e. K Q vs K Q). The game is played with a 52 cards plus one joker. The joker can be used as an Ace or to complete a flush or straight.

Each player spot has spaces for a bet, low hand, high hand and sometimes the house commission. The dealer deals 7 7-card hands in front of the chip tray. The banker can be a player, but is usually the house. The banker designates which hands go to which player by shaking a dice cup with three dice; the banker's position is either 1, 8 or 15 and the hands are passed out counterclockwise. So, if the dealer is the bank and the dice total to 6, player 5 gets the first hand, player 6 gets the second, the dealer gets the third and so on. The dice mumbo-jumbo appears to be ritual stuff --- you don't need to worry about anything until you get your hand.

In pai-gow poker, the only strategic decisions are how much to bet and how to set your hand. The simple basic strategy for setting your hand is to make the highest 2-card hand that is less than your five card hand. If you can't figure out what to do, you can show your hand to the dealer and they will tell you how the house would set it.

In the California card clubs, all wagering is between players, so the option to be the bank rotates among the active players. The rule differences from the IP rules are that the Joker is wild, and the house commission is a flat $1 per hand ($10 minimum bet).

Pai-gow poker is an easy game to play, and since each hand takes a while to play (dealer has to shuffle for each game) and most hands push, you can play on $20 at a $5 table for quite a while.

Blind

The blinds are forced bets posted by players to the left of the dealer button in flop-style poker games. The number of blinds is usually two, but it can range from none to three.

The small blind is placed by the player to the left of the dealer button and the big blind is then posted by the next player to the left. The one exception is when there are only two players a heads-up game, when the player on the button is the small blind, and the other player is the big blind. Both the player and the bet may be referred to as big or small blind.

After the cards are dealt, the player to the left of the big blind is the first to act during the first betting round. If all players call the big blind, the big blind is then given an extra opportunity to raise. This is known as a live blind. If the live blind checks, the betting round then ends.

Generally, the big blind is equal to the minimum bet. The small blind is normally half the big blind. In cases where posting exactly half the big blind is impractical due to the big blind being some odd-valued denomination, the small blind is rounded down to the nearest practical value. For example, if the big blind in a live table game is $3 then the small blind will usually be $1 or $2 since most casinos do not distribute large quantities of $0.50 poker chips.

The blinds exist because Omaha and Texas hold 'em are frequently played without antes, allowing a player to fold his hand without placing a bet. The blind bets introduce a regular cost to take part in the game, thus inducing a player to enter pots in an attempt to compensate for that expense.

It is possible to play without blinds. The minimum bet is then the lowest denomination chip in play, and tossing only 1 chip is considered a call. Anything higher than that is considered a raise. Poker without blinds is usually played with everyone posting an ante to receive cards, but it is technically possible to have absolutely no ante or blinds at all.

Pachinko

Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but has no flippers and uses a large number of small balls. The player fires balls into the machine, which then cascade down through a dense forest of pins. If the balls go into certain locations, sequences of events are triggered that result in more balls being released; these balls can then be exchanged for prizes. Pachinko machines were originally strictly mechanical, but modern ones have incorporated extensive electronics, becoming similar to video slot machines.

The machines are widespread in establishments called parlors, which feature a number of slot machines; hence, they operate and look similar to casinos. Modern pachinko machines are highly customizable, keeping enthusiasts continuously entertained. Because gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, balls won cannot be exchanged directly for cash in the parlor; instead the balls are exchanged for tokens, which are then taken outside and exchanged for cash at a place nominally separate from the parlor and possibly run by organized crime.

As an indicator of the popularity of pachinko in Japan, Japanese government estimates of the annual turnover of the pachinko industry are in the region of 29 trillion yen. To put this in perspective, this is about twice the annual turnover of Japan's automobile industry, and approximately equivalent to the estimated annual turnover of the global narcotics trade.

Pachinko parlors are known for tweaking their machines to maximize their profits without intimidating customers, which means that most machines have different payout settings than what their manufacturers claim. The Japanese police can tolerate such manipulation as long as it happens outside of business hours; generally, those that cause a loss to the player are found in greater numbers.

Resetting of machines every day before opening hours is a feature of all parlors, because of the strict enforcement of closing times implying some players having to give up their machines when they hit a string of jackpots. Those whose machines are in payout mode at this time are allowed to collect their balls for the duration of the payout. Some parlors allow members to hold a particular machine across operating sessions. Timing is another factor in determining how parlors set their machines: holidays, when many people play pachinko, are favorable because many play it for leisure and the parlors are keen to attract them to come back for more. Weekends are unfavorable because the majority of players have only this time to play.

The layout of the different setting machines is a psychological method of attracting players; machines near the entrance are usually set at a high payout rate. When people walk by the parlor and see players at those machines with a large number of balls, they are more inclined to go inside and play the other machines even though they are at lower settings. For this purpose, many parlors employ "sakuras" to sit at these machines and emulate players winning a large number of balls; they are required to return these balls to the parlor free of charge minus their wages.