Let us discover some alternate forms of poker other than Texas holdem, 5 card stud, five card draw and Omaha. Yes, pai gow poker. Now you must be wondering that double-hand sounds a little Chinese; yes you are right, this casino game is a mixture of the Chinese game pai gow and poker
Certainly this is not one of the highly popular styles of poker but still broadly played. It can be enjoyed by up to seven players. It is played with 1 deck of cards, with a joker. Interestingly, the Joker can only be used as an ace, or to complete a straight, a flush, straight flush, or a royal flush. The critical aspect here to remember is other than the typical ranking of hands we’ve one more winning hand that is "Five Aces" (5 aces including the joker). Surprisingly, 5 aces defeats all other hand yes, even a royal flush. Each player is given seven cards. The cards are arranged to create two hands; a two card hand and a 5 card hand. The 5 card hand must be better or be equal to the two card hand.
After setting up the two hands, the cards are positioned on the table with the faces down. Once on the table, you cannot change them. The croupier will turn over his cards and arrange his hands. Each competitors hand is played against the croupier’s hands. Should the player take 1 hand and lose the other, this is known as "push" and no cash is exchanged. If dealer wins the two hands then the gambler looses their wager and vice versa. Now if the hand is a draw, the dealer wins all. Once the hand is competed, the very next person clock-wise becomes the croupier and the following hand is given out.