Pai Gow, also known as Double Hand Poker, is a popular card game played in Ecuador and other South American countries. The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a single joker. It can be played with a minimum of two players and a maximum of six players per table. The object of the game is to create two poker hands out of the seven cards dealt—a five-card hand and a two-card hand—that can beat the dealer’s hands.
The game begins with each player placing their bet. After the bets are placed, the dealer will then distribute seven cards to each player and themselves. The players must then make two hands out of the seven cards: a five-card hand and a two-card hand. The five-card hand must have a higher ranking than the two-card hand. The cards must be arranged in such a way that the two-card hand is to the right of the five-card hand.
The players must then compare their hands to the dealer’s. If the players have the better hands, they win the amount of their bet, minus a 5% commission. If the dealer has the better hands, the players lose their bets.