Domino poker is also known as domino live is a game that has been in the world for longer than people even know. This game combines the two of the best-known table games ever. This crossover game originated from a game called pai gow. However, there are various domino poker games with different rules. The pai gow game was created in China where pai gow loosely means “double hand” or “make nine” or “card nine” and later this game spread globally.
There have been numerous attempts to recreate pai gow since its creation such as pai gow poker, which is a similar game as that of original pai gow tried to take its place. There are numerous variations of this game which will take very much time to go through individually, but the most popular one is domino 99.
About pai gow
Pai gow or the modern domino live is a type of gambling game from China played with a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. The game is played across the world in all major casinos in cities like Hong Kong, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Reno, Nevada, Atlantic City, Connecticut, New Jersey, Edmonton, Calgary, Alberta, New Zealand and Indonesia, this game has developed to Domino 99.
In this game, the maximum hand is nine. If the tiles are not forming a pair, then the total no of pips and then the tenth digit is dropped. For example, 2-3 with 5-6 gives 16 but the value is 6, the tenth value is dropped.
There are some special ways in which a player can score more than nine points in a hand using the “day” tiles or double one tiles and the “teen” tile or the double six tiles. The combination of a teen or day with an eight gives 10 points which is also known as a “gong” or if the either are put with a nine then it results to 11 points called a “wong.”
There are special “gee joon” cards which act as wild cards. These are a pair of 1-2 and 2-4 tiles. These tiles can be used in hand to score 3 or 6 resulting in a higher hand value.
The key strategy of the pai gow game is to present the rear hands and optimal fronts according to the tiles distributed to the player. The player has to decide carefully about the combination that will bring a set of rear/front hands which will beat the dealer or make a tie. Apart from this people also rely on tradition and superstition to choose a pair of tiles.