When should you split two pair in Pai Gow Poker?

Split or together, hand by hand

Average result per unit bet against a dealer who sets the house way (Foxwoods), after the 5% commission on wins. From the exact distribution of the dealer’s hands; it ignores that your seven cards can’t also be in the dealer’s hand, which only matters when two settings are very close. The best value in each row is green.

Why

With two pair behind and two odd cards in front, your low hand is weak and you push or lose it often. Splitting gives the front a pair, which wins most low-hand showdowns, while the back keeps a pair. Two small pairs together, though, make a back hand that wins easily against the dealer’s typical one pair, and an ace in front often takes the low hand too; that combination beats splitting.

Does the rule of thumb hold?

The rule, as Wizard of Odds puts it: keep two pair together if the pair ranks add up to 9 or less (counting jacks as 11 up to aces as 14) and you have a king or ace, or to 15 or less and you have an ace; otherwise split. Checked against the engine on every pair of pairs with an ace, king or queen as the odd card, it picks the better setting on 192 of 198 hands. Where it misses, the two settings are at most 0.0707 per unit apart.

Related questions

• What do you do with three pairs in Pai Gow Poker?

  Put the highest pair in front and the other two pairs behind. That beats every other setting, even when the odd card is an ace.

• Should you set your own hand or use the house way in Pai Gow?

  The house way is a fine default: it sets most hands the best way. Setting every hand perfectly lowers the house edge only a little, so learn the few hands where it goes wrong rather than fighting it.

• Should you split three of a kind in Pai Gow Poker?

  Split three aces: a pair of aces behind and the third ace in front. Split three kings too when your other cards are low. Keep any other three of a kind together behind, with your two best other cards in front.

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