Play Paigow

Paigow Instruction

Paigow is a fast pace card game. The objective is to arrange 7 given cards into 2 poker sets of size 5 and 2 respectively. Paigow is a very popular game at many casinos.

Once you enter a paigow room, you are an observer. To reserve your sit, you can click on one of the empty seats (denoted by [None]) or click on button "Sit". If there is no seat available, consider open a new table, or wait for someone to leave, or go to a different table. Double click on a table will let you to go there.

Once you have a sit, you can play the next time the cards are dealt. If there is no game in progress, you can click on "Deal" to ask the server to deal cards. There must be at least 2 people to play.

At the beginning of a new game, each player is given 7 cards, all in the bottom card slots. You can click on an unselected card to select it, and click on it again to deselect the card. If you already selected a card and select another card, the two selected cards exchange their positions.

Once you have the designed card arrangement, click on "Submit" button to send it to server. Note that the Submit button is only available when the 5-cards poker set is larger than the 2-cards set.

When all players submit their hands, the server will show all the cards and compute the winning/losing amount for each player. The cards of each player is compared with those of other players according to the game rule.

In paigow, the joker card is a partially wild card. It can be used to substitute for any card to complete a straight or flush. If not used to complete a straight or flush, a joker is counted as an Ace.

The first set in paigow has 5 cards. After joker subsitution, each set is of 10 types, in decreasing value.

1. Five Aces: 4 Ace and the joker.
2. Straight Flush: 5 cards of the same suit forming a consecutive sequence
3. Quadruple: 4 cards of the rank and a extra card.
4. Full House: 3 cards of the same rank, and 2 remaining cards also of same different rank.
5. Flush: 5 cards of the same suit.
6. Straight: 5 cards forming a consecutive sequence
7. Triple: 3 cards of the same rank and 2 extra cards
8. Two Pairs: 2 pairs of cards with the same rank and 1 extra card
9. Pair: a pairs of cards with the same rank and 3 extra cards
10. Trash: all cards have different rank, and not all have the same suit.

The 2nd set in paigow has 2 cards.

1. Pair: 2 cards of the same rank, or an Ace and a joker.
2. Trash: all the cards are different

When comparing 2 cards, and when determining if a set is a consecutive sequence, only the ranks of the cards count. The order of the card rank in increasing order is 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A.

Please note a subtle difference between paigow and chinese poker. The set A 2 3 4 5 is considered a valid consecutive sequence, and this sequence is larger than "9 10 J Q K" but smaller than "10 J Q K A".

When 2 sets are compared, their types are compared first. A set with better type is better. If the type of the two sets are the same, the cards making up the sets are compared in lexicographic order, first, those determine the set type, then the extra cards.

The 5 card set must be larer than the 2 card set. If the 2nd card set is larger than the 5 card set, you can't submit the set.

When compare hands, the two sets in each hand are compared in order. Whichever hand winning both sets or win on one and tie on the other win. If no one wins, it's a draw.

This rule is not a standard Paigow rule. The following 5-card set are consider special set: triple, straight, flush, full house, quadruple, straight flush, or 5 aces. If you win the 5-card set with special set, the winning amount also depends on whether you win or lose the 2-card set as follow:

Before the cards are dealt, the player in sit #1 can change the betting amount by selecting a new betting amount from the box at the bottom left corner. There is a limit on how much you can bet. Click here for more details.