Pai gow

Its earliest description is to be found in a collection of Cantonese games published in Hong Kong in 1886.

It is assumed that the original game was modeled after both a Chinese creation myth, and military organization in China at that time (ranks one through nine), but no document supports this theory.

Individual stacks or tiles may then be moved in specific ways to rearrange the woodpile, after which the players place their bets.

[7] Otherwise, the next highest-ranked hand results from creating a Gong or Wong, which are specific combinations with the Day and Teen tiles.

[6] This reflects the fact that, with the exception of named pairs, Gong, or Wong, the maximum score for a hand of mixed tiles is nine.

The pairs are considered to tell the story of creation: Each subsequent pair is another step in the story...robes (Bon) for man to wear, a hatchet (Foo) to chop wood, partitions (Ping) for a house, man's seventh (Tit) and eighth (Look) children.

For example, if a hand contained a Yun (4-4) and a Chop Bot (3-5 or 2-6), these would not form a pair at all, despite both tiles having eight pips each.

[8] However, if a Day or Teen is grouped in a single hand with any other tile, the standard scoring rules apply.

[8] When a hand is formed from two tiles that are not a named pair, Wong, or Gong, the total pips on both tiles are counted and any tens digit is dropped; the resulting ones digit (the sum of all pips modulo 10) gives the final score.

The 1-2 and the 2-4 tiles which form the Gee Joon pair together, can act as limited wild cards singly.

When the player and dealer display hands with the same score, the one with the highest-valued tile (based on the named pair rankings described above) is the winner.

[4]: 205 The key element of pai gow strategy is to present the optimal front and rear hands based on the tiles dealt to the player.

In some cases, a player with weaker tiles may deliberately attempt to attain a push so as to avoid losing the bet outright.