Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Pai Gow is a traditional Chinese gambling game played with a special set of 32 dominoes (see Chinese Dominoes). Everyone plays against a banker.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Pai Gow is a traditional Chinese gambling game played with a special set of 32 dominoes (see Chinese Dominoes). Everyone plays against a banker. Each player gets dealt four dominoes and makes two pairs. A player wins (loses) if each matching pair is better (worse) than the dealers. If they split, it's a draw. The only decision made in the game is how to split the original four tiles. Because of the rules, the game is often a draw. The ranking of hands is traditional and not obvious. For example, the best pair is (4/2)(2/1).