Pai Gow poker (or Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai Gow, in that it is played with playing cards using poker hand rankings, while Pai Gow is played with Chinese dominoes. The games of Pai Gow poker and Super Pan-9 were co-created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf. The game is played with a standard 52-card deck plus a single joker. It is played on a table set for six players plus the dealer. Each player is playing against the banker, who may be the casino dealer or one of the other players at the table.

OBJECTIVES
The object of the game is for a player to create two poker hands out of the seven cards in his hand: a five-card poker hand and a two-card poker hand. The five-card hand must rank higher than the two-card hand. The two-card hand is often called the hand "in front" or "on top", and the five-card hand is called the hand "behind" or "bottom", as they are placed that way in front of the player when he is done setting them.

The deal
The cards are shuffled, and then dealt to the table in seven face-down piles of seven cards. Four cards are unused regardless of the number of people playing. Betting positions are assigned a number from 1 to 7, starting with whichever player is acting as banker that hand, and counting counter-clockwise around the table. A number from 1 to 7 is randomly chosen (either electronically or manually with dice), then the deal begins with the corresponding position and proceeds counter-clockwise. One common way of using dice to determine the dealer starting number is to roll three six-sided dice, and then count betting spots clockwise from the first position until the number on the dice is reached. If a player is not sitting on a particular spot, the hand is still assigned, but then placed on the discard pile with the four unused cards.

Hand Rankings
The only two-card hands are one pair and high cards. Five-card hands use standard [[Rank of hands (poker)|poker hand rankings]] with one exception: in most Nevada casinos, the hand '''A-2-3-4-5''' ranks above a king-high straight, but below the ace-high straight '''A-K-Q-J-10'''. At most casinos in California and Michigan this rule doesn't apply; the '''A-2-3-4-5''' is the lowest possible straight.
The joker plays as a [[Rank of hands (poker)#Decks using a bug|bug]], that is, in the five-card hand it can be used to complete a straight or flush if possible; otherwise it is an ace. In the two-card hand it always plays as an ace, except in several southern Californian casinos where the joker is ''completely'' [[Wild card (poker)|wild]].