Thanks for the info, guys.

I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but any of you ever dick around on the play games at Bovada? Would they really do something like this on purpose in order to encourage real-money play?

I'm thinking serious programming error -- I recall looking at that game, and what I saw was accurate for their rules.

Wow how does the banker not play J4-65432 there?

banker plays the flush with 43 on top.

Most casino house ways would play J-4. If they can play both a straight and flush, they play the one that yields the higher 2-card hand.

Yeah, house way has always been to maximize they low when they have a choice between pat hands anywhere I've played. Would be interesting to see if one could reverse-engineer where the error is and determine how it affects the house edge.

My guess is that mistakes like this happen because the house writes rules like this:

As a programmer, I'm pretty sure I'd have to fumble with the code a few times -- and assume I properly parsed the meaning of the instruction in the first place.

That appears to be the rule the programmer began to follow.

Borgata now has a no commission Pai Gow table. The catch is that if the dealer has queen high, every hand is a push. Does anyone have any stats to show if this is better or worse in the long run than paying a 5% commission.

That's very interesting. I can't imagine they would offer it if it didn't have a higher house edge. Or possibly it's neutral but the game moves faster because they don't need to use rolls of quarter, so they make more anyway and game is faster. Would be interested in the math.

Its called EZ Pai Gow and has about a 2.5% HE. That is around .25% better than being a player a regular Pai Gow BUT you can't bank and so the HE is actually much worse than standard Pai Gow if you bank with any frequency, particularly at a table with multiple bettors.

The inventor regularly posts over at the wizardofvegas forums(spinoff of wizardofodds). He is a dealer and strongly feels banking at Pai Gow is archaic and also a reprehensible behavior and so invented this game to eliminate it.

Obviously I know of systems where you add up the value of your two pair and keep them together only if you have a certain high card to put in your low hand. Anyone know of point systems for situations where, say, you have two pair plus a joker? Or a hand where you have, say, a flush, a straight and a pair?

Had a hand where I had 8-8-7-7-Q-2-Joker. Tried setting it as 8-8 up top and 7-7-Joker-Q-2 on the bottom. Other players said house way is Q-Joker up top and 2 pair behind. Would've won either way. Just situations like that one sometimes throw me off.

Like where is the breaking point where the above example becomes pair up front, two pair behind instead of pair up front, trips behind?

You must play in California, where the Joker is truly wild. In most casinos, in that scenario the Joker would only be an Ace, so you actually fouled your hand by setting it that way.

To answer your question though, I have no idea. Since I play on the east coast, I never studied up on "truly wild" Joker strategy.

Correct. San Diego to be exact. On one hand, it sucks b/c all the apps for pai gow poker I've found for Android are where the Joker is only used for an ace, straight or flush. Obviously the situation I listed and others like it are quite rare and the advantage one way or the other is very slight at best. Just found that hand example and others to be a bit confusing and sometimes counterintuitive to me. Another example I can think of is a hand like A-Q-T-9-7-5-2. Think house way in most casinos is to play Q-9 up top and A-T-7-5-2 down low instead of Q-T up top and A-9-7-5-2 down low. Guess because Q-T and Q-9 are essentially the same and if Q-T were to be good up top, then Q-9 would most likely to be and to strengthen your ace high down low.