How to Play Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is the Americanised version of Pai Gow played with playing cards rather than traditional Chinese dominoes.
China has made huge contributions to the world of gambling, not the least of which was the invention of paper used to make money and playing cards more than a thousand years ago.
Prior to that, marked tiles, dice and coloured stones were used for games of chance, some of which are still played to this day. Mahjong, Fan-Tan, and Dominoes are good examples.
One ancient game that has survived virtually unchanged since the Song Dynasty (960~1279) is called Pai Gow (pronounced “pie gow”), which means “make nine.”