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Pai gow strategy is mostly universal, though differences in how the Joker may be used as well as the way the A/2/3/4/5 hand is ranked could see minor changes in specific circumstances. The first thing you must remember when playing pai gow, however, is that draws are extremely common. You can easily find yourself with a good five-card hand only to find the dealer has a strong enough two-card hand to force a draw.

The challenge of pai gow is in constructing the best two hands from your cards. While it is difficult to win on both hands, it can be easy to lose on both if you are not careful to set up a draw. Pai gow is incredibly defensive compared to other forms of poker. If you are playing online pai gow, then it is especially advantageous to do everything you can to reduce the house edge. This means that improving the odds of winning in your five-card hand may not always be preferable to splitting a good five-card hand to make two decent hands. The following combinations may help you in reducing your losses, though many are designed to make draws more likely than wins.

Nothing
Use the highest card for your five-card hand and the second- and third-highest cards for your two-card hand. This should hopefully improve your odds of a draw, though winning with such a combination is unlikely in pai gow.

One Pair
Use the pair for your five-card hand, but use the next two highest cards for your two-card hand. Again, the idea is that you are unlikely to win with a mere pair and thus are better off using your next highest cards to try to win the two-card hand and possibly force a draw.

Two Pairs
If you hold an Ace that isn’t part of one of the pairs, then put both pairs into the five-card hand and the Ace into the two-card hand. If you do not hold an ace, then put the high pair in your five-card hand and the low pair in your two-card hand.

Three Pairs
Put the highest pair into your two-card hand. Put the other two in your five-card hand. This may seem unusual, but again the idea is that you can give yourself better odds of forcing a draw if your five-card hand loses by putting the highest pair in the two-card hand.

Straight
Put the Straight in the five-card hand and then make up the two-card hand out of the remaining cards.

However, if you have six cards that could make a Straight, use the highest cards you can for the two-card hand while still preserving the Straight.

Flush
Use the Flush for the five-card hand and then use the remaining cards for the two-card hand.

Full House
This may seem odd, but the usual advice for a Full House in pai gow is to use the pair for your two-card hand and the Three-Of-A-Kind for the two-card hand. This should give you a good chance of winning with the two-card hand while still giving good odds to win with the five-card hand.

Three-Of-A-Kind
If you have three Aces, put one into your two-card hand with the next highest card and the remaining pair of Aces in your five-card hand.

Essentially, when playing pai gow, you will often need to aim for a draw rather than focusing on just one hand. Pai gow is definitely a game of patience and online pai gow makes it much easier for you to remain patient. Just remember when playing online pai gow to look for the lowest cost rooms to play in, as while many casinos will take a 5 per cent commission from wins, some others will simply charge a low flat rate per hand, which may work out better for you.