Table Games Pai gow side bets. Making people crazy.

My local casino has truly no comission pai gow. They started it as a promotion and kept it because most people bet the side bet and the dynasty progressive.

Ours just hit around 250k and is now back down to 15k.

Just like I don't play the lotto at 10m, building the progressive back up holds no appeal to me.

Anyway, I recently read Comp City, and my Casino offers promotions to seated players at certain times. Pai gow is the best game to burn the time away in hopes of hitting the next drawing, 25-30 hands and you're winning or pushing 66% of the time is fine by me.

I get a bunch of grief from other players and rude dealers about not playing the light. If you don't play it you save the dollars and don't get grinded down over time needing quads to get you even. Besides the wizard of odds calls them sucker bets and you should only play the progressive at 230k plus or so.

So anyway, I was doing my thing when we get a nice a dealer. I wanted to tip him for being so chill, but being even didn't want to pay out stacks. I took 1 dollar and put it on the light and told him if it's a full house it's all his. Anything else, we'll work something out.

I get my cards, first 4 were low diamonds. I took my hand and told himto do house way. He made a disappointed face as he set the hand. As he started paying off hands we looked for the joker or the 3 of diamonds which would make a straight flush. The joker showed on the person before me. I was last. My luck is my card would be 1 of the 4 discards. Not this time!

Dealer turns over a straight flush on the bottom, junk top. Paid 100 on the light, had no side bet. I toked him 15$ and he had to leave to another game. Table mates were spazzing out that I didn't bet light all day then hit a straight flush first try.

Just a funny story. The side bets are chump bets if you bet them all the time. But if you want to break even and work on your comp ratings/win promotions stick to flat betting.

 

I also almost never play the side bets in Pai Gow Poker at my local casino. I notice that most people do most of the time.

On occasion I'll make a side bet, but only when I'm feeling it. I have to get a vibe. Sometimes I'm right.

When I hit a straight or a flush or three of a kind or more people at the table always tell me I should've made the side bet. I always figure I'm ahead for NOT making side bets all the time because most of the time they just don't come up.

Though I've been betting higher amounts lately, I personally flat bet when playing Pai Gow Poker. Love the game!

 

If my side-betting neighbors are eager to gloat about it, I happily remind them about the last 50 hands they lost to finally get their 40-to-1 payout.

 

Could you proof-read your posts a bit next time? The number of misspelled or misused or misplaced words made it quite painful to read. BUT it was a good story and I enjoyed it.

I won't play the $1 on the 'light' (red button) at PG very often (unless the Progressive is $200,000 or more, which I have seen several times). If you don't get quads in the session it's just black hole for those dollars. And it's easy to see and explain. Winning $3 on a full house a few times is NOT going to make up for the $80 I'll bet over 2 hours. How many sessions do you go without hitting quads or better? A LOT!

But I do play $5 or $10 on the Fortune Bonus. The game would be too dull for me without that.

However, the new addiction is Ultimate Texas Hold'em where you can get some dramatically better payouts with premium hands (still using 7 random cards like Pai Gow). Example: I usually bet $60 + $10 at PaiGow and $25+$25+$15 at UTH. So similar bet sizes and UTH isn't that much faster.

If I get a full-house at
PG I win $57+$50 = $107. At UTH I win $125 + $75 + $120 = $320.
If I get quads at:
PG I win $57 + $250 = $207. At UTH I win $125 + $250 + $450 = $825.
If I get a SF at:
PG I win $57 + $500 = $607. At UTH I wn $125 + $1250 + $600 = $1975.

UTH is more fun!

 

Noted. Late night iPad writing makes for errors and bad autocorrects. I noticed a couple errors after the post and looked for an edit button which I didn't notice until just now. I'll go edit.

Thank you for verifying my actions to be correct. I will check out UTH for a change of pace. If its just as slow, once the envelope bonus hits on my pai gow table and it's not me, I can go to UTH and hope to get another shot when that table is picked. (they pick 4 tables per hour, 1 player gets picked for the envelop.)