Pai Gow Tiles: The Original Pai Gow

Pai Gow Poker borrows the structure of Pai Gow Tiles — split a hand into two parts, beat both of the dealer's parts to win — but uses a 53-card deck and standard poker hand rankings. Pai Gow Tiles uses 32 Chinese dominoes ("tiles") and a ranking system that takes time to learn.

Key differences:

• Tiles, not cards. The game uses a deck of 32 Chinese dominoes shuffled by the dealer.
• Four tiles per hand, not seven. You set them into two hands of two tiles each.
• The rankings are based on traditional Chinese pair categories that don't map to poker.
• The pace is even slower than Pai Gow Poker — the dealer takes time to read tiles.
• Almost no recreational tourists play it, so dealers are patient with newcomers.

House edge: About 2.5% for player bets without banking, dropping into the 1-2% range when banking is allowed. Comparable to Pai Gow Poker but slightly less player-friendly because the strategy requires real tile-rank memorization.

The 32-tile set contains 16 distinct tile values. Some appear twice (called "matched pairs"), some appear with a partner of different value (called "mixed pairs"). The pairs have traditional Chinese names you'll hear at the table.

The 11 ranked pairs (highest to lowest):

1. Gee Joon (4-2 + 2-1) — the supreme pair
2. Teen (6-6 matched pair)
3. Day (1-1 matched pair)
4. Yun (4-4 matched pair)
5. Gor (1-3 matched pair, also called Goh)
6. Mooy (1-5 matched pair, also called Mei)
7. Chong (5-5 matched pair)
8. Bon (3-3 matched pair)
9. Foo (5-6 matched pair)
10. Ping (3-6 matched pair)
11. Tit (5-4 matched pair)

The remaining tiles form mixed pairs of identical numerical sums (e.g., 6-3 with 5-4 both sum to 9). These rank lower than the pairs above but follow strict sub-rankings.

If you don't have one of the 11 ranked pairs above, your hand is ranked by the sum of pip counts modulo 10 (only the last digit counts), with 9 being the best.

Hand totals: Add the pips on both tiles. Drop the tens digit. So 6+8 = 14 → "4 points". The best non-pair hand is 9 points ("Gow"). The worst is 0 points ("Bagua" or zero).

Tie-breaking: When two hands have the same point total, the highest individual tile wins. The Teen tile (double-6) is the highest individual tile.

Gee Joon special rule: The Gee Joon pair (4-2 and 2-1) is wild — it can act as 3 or 6 points when split into singletons.

You receive four tiles and must split them into a high hand ("behind") and a low hand ("front"). The high hand must rank higher than or equal to the low hand.

Always set this way when possible:

• Have a ranked pair? Put the pair behind, play your two best singletons in front.
• Have Gee Joon? Test both splits — sometimes it's worth more as a pair behind, sometimes splitting into singletons creates a better front hand.
• Two high singletons + two low singletons? Pair the highest with the lowest in front, the middle two behind.

The House Way exists here too. Every casino has a posted Pai Gow Tiles House Way and dealers will set your hand if asked. Use it for your first dozen sessions — there's no shame in learning the game with a safety net.

Like Pai Gow Poker, Pai Gow Tiles allows players to bank. The structural advantage of banking is similar — you win copies (ties) and reduce variance through scale.

Bankroll requirement: You must cover all other players' bets at your turn. At a $25 minimum table with five players, that's $125 minimum ready.

Commission: 5% on net winnings, same as Pai Gow Poker.

Banking opportunity: Many tables auto-rotate the bank around the players one position at a time. You can decline. Most recreational players decline always; experienced players accept whenever bankroll allows.

Pai Gow Tiles is endangered in Las Vegas. Many casinos closed their tile games in the 2010s as demand dropped and dealer training costs rose. Today only a handful of properties spread it consistently.

Active Pai Gow Tiles tables:

• The Cosmopolitan: Spreads Pai Gow Tiles in the high-limit Asian gaming area, $50+ minimums.
• MGM Grand: Asian gaming room (Mansion area) typically has at least one tile table at high stakes.
• Bellagio: The Mahjong Room area; availability rotates, call ahead to confirm.
• Resorts World: Large Asian gaming presence; tiles spread on weekends.
• Wynn: Premium high-limit room, by request.

Reality check: If you've never played, ask the casino host about a tutorial table. Many properties will deal a free instructional game with one of their experienced dealers during off-peak hours. There's no faster way to learn.