Customer Reviews

Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was recommended by the American MENSA Guide to Casino Gambling book, and rightfully so. Pretty much all angles are covered in this book, and the price is right.

It's quite thorough for anyone who wants to play Pai-Gow poker at casino-level stakes. However, due to its thoroughness, it can be confusing to the novice (or the very tired). I recommend skimming the details chapter, then concentrating on "An Approximate Strategy". This arms you with a great strategy to set your hand the best way possible.

The math presented is good as well ... Isn't it interesting to guesstimate that you'll win 50% of the time if you have a pair of jacks and A-8?

For knowledge synthesis, one great part of the book is approximately 20 pages of practice hands. The optimal results are shown, and the number of the sub-chapter to review if you didn't agree with the answer.

Buy it and read for yourself ... Good luck!

Wong has charted unexplored territory here in his study of Pai Gow. This is probably the only book in print that exhaustively explains the correct optimal strategy for player and banker in every hand scenario. I can't fault the content, yet there is some additional information I wish Wong had provided to make this book more practical.

1) While the optimal strategy is indeed powerful, it was devised (as Wong explains) to be the best possible response to the best possible pai gow strategies. In other words, the best response to the Wong strategy is to play the Wong Strategy. This is what makes it optimal. However, real casinos do not play the Wong strategy, they play a much simpler strategy known as the house way. (and even this strategy differs from casino to casino) What would be most useful to a reader would be an optimal player strategy to counter the house way. The banker strategy would also need to be refined - once for heads up play against the dealer, and again for play against a full table.

2) To this end, the book would have needed to provide current "house way" policies in Nevada and elsewhere, and updated stats on house edge and bankers edge with the new strategies.

3) I hoped that Wong could have condensed his optimal strategy even further than he does in chapter 4, providing a simple page of rules for the casual player, and then explaining what the house edge is if the player employs the simple condensed strategy.

But these reservations aside, you can't find a better book on pai gow poker. His prose is very readable and straightforward, and you'll surely be impressed by all the research in the book.

Wong wanted to call his book "Professional Pai Gow" but Mike Caro beat him to it, so we get "Optimal Strategy." As it is, this is more accurately titled; for most Nevada players will never sit down to a game where they can get an edge (see below).

Wong has done a fair amount of computer analysis on how to play each type of hand, and his presentation of it all is positively exhausting, if not exhaustive. There is chart after chart after chart of proper play guidelines, with short explanations. As a pretty regular player of the game, I was left shell shocked with all of the exceptions to the exceptions to normal play...to hands which you will only be looking at maybe a couple of times a night if you're lucky, and the difference in how you'd play them might amount to .05% difference in financial expectation. It was a bit much. His condensed, easier to memorize guidelines are a big help...why not organize the book around them, and leave all the charts nobody can use for an appendix? The point, as even Wong points out, is not perfection in play, since even that compared to lackadaisical ordinary handsetting yields at most a .3% difference at the end, but rather to get the most play quality from a medium investment of effort.

Two sections I found to be of most use, and the first was on the proper odds you will face...typically from 2.4 to 2.9% against, which is worse than blackjack, video poker (played well) or craps. Bank big and play small is Wong's advice, good so far as it goes, but this will be more applicable to California tables than Vegas games which tend to restrict either frequency of players banking or variation in bet size or both. As banker you need to bank for between 6 and 14 times your normal player bet to break even; pretty tough to find that kind of game, and your bankroll swings will be legendary. On page 17 Wong outright states that, "seldom or never will you find a Nevada Pai Gow poker game in which you can break even if you bank only 1 hand in 7".

The second section which is useful is the 20 pages or so dedicated to practice hands, with references to chapters where he explains optimal play of these hands. Many players mess up play of two-pair; this section will help cure you of it far better than attempting to memorize Wong's charts.

If you don't have a problem poring over charts of numbers this book does contain a lot of information in a highly condensed format. If you are looking for a more wordy and easily explained way to play, this is not the book for you. Most actual hands you will see virtually play themselves; this book will cover the rest. But for a .3% difference, it seems like too much work.

This book is complete crap. Unless you have a photographic memory, just do a search on the internet and you will get the same info in an easy to understand manner for free. But just so you know....

1-NO explaination on how to play Pai Gow poker. WTF???? Any book on anything starts with 1 chapter on the rules. The first page he is talking about bankers and this and that. On the XBox there are no bankers (bicyle casino). If he would have explained the rules I would have know that.

2-All charts. I mean, all charts. You want an explaination? Look at the charts. hmm, ok. It's like 120 pages with 100 pages of charts. WTF? What do they mean? I have yet to figure out these charts because no explaination is given on how to interpret them. How about that?

3-He says he doesn't use the charts so he has another chapter on a simplified system, but almost as confusing. Hey pal, look at Knockout blackjack. There is simplified stagety, basic stategy, KO rookie and and then a KO preferreed and finally at the end are the matrixes. On the basic stategy, there is one page with what you need to remember. Even the preferred system only uses the top 18 matrixes. You don't need all of that extra stuff at the beginning of the book especially when the author days he doesn't eve use the,. If Wong had followed this lead, he would have had all the charts at the back of the book. Instead it's too confusing. In fact, there is no basic stargety page. It's a whole chapter. There are places on the internet with basic guides.

4-Al in all, this whole book could have been 10 pages long. Do yourself a good thing and save the money. I give it 1 star cause it made good kindling for the fireplace.

Do not buy this book. Useless info. If youlove Pai Gow as I do just do some internet surfing you will get more info.