Pai Gow is a truly fascinating game. There is something undeniably exotic about the manner in which it is played. And the name itself is just fun to say. Go ahead, say it a few times, out loud. Dont be a wimp. If youre feeling self-conscious, worried that the kids might hear you and either bust out in hysterics or tell your spouse youre having a nervous breakdown, just close the door and turn up the stereo to mask the sound of your voice.

Ready? Good, lets start. Pai Gow... Pai Gow... Pai Gow...

Continue this for as long as you want. It can be a quite soothing form of therapy. In fact, gambling lore claims that Pai Gow is actually an ancient form of sacred Zen meditation that some shrewd casino owner cynically turned into a money-based game of chance. Hey, are you done chanting yet? We have some important information to cover before this article runs out.

Now that were back, lets take a look at some basic Pai Gow strategy. In game play, tiles are randomized on the table, and are stacked into eight stacks of four each. This is referred to as the woodpile. Various ritualistic shuffles are made, rearranging the tiles in the woodpile in a number of different ways that result in a new woodpile. It is at this point that bets are made. Most commonly, seven players constitute a game. Each players hand will be compared only against the dealers hand to determine winners and losers.

Next, each player (including the dealer) is given four tiles with which to make two hands of two tiles each. The hand with the lower value is called the front hand, and the hand with the higher value is called the rear hand. If a players front hand beats the dealers front hand, and the players rear hand beats the dealers rear hand, then that player wins the bet. If a players front and rear hands both lose to the dealers respective hands, the player loses the bet. If one hand wins and the other loses, the player is said to push, (meaning, tie) and receives in return only the money he or she bet.

Except for a few high-scoring exceptions, the best score a hand can have is nine. To find the value of a hand, simply add the total number of pips on the two tiles, and drop the tens place. For instance, a 1-3 tile used with a 2-3 tile will score nine, since four plus five is nine. However, a 2-3 tile with a 5-6 tile will score six, and not sixteen. Why? Because you drop the 1 (which is in the tens place). Furthermore, a 5-5 tile with a 4-6 tile will score zero, since ten plus ten is twenty, and twenty reduces to zero when you drop the tens place.

Tricky, aint it? Thats all part of the fun. If you find yourself getting frustrated, just start chanting again (but now while operating heavy machinery).