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The History of Pai Gow

Pai Gow is an ancient Chinese game and it is believed to have existed for thousands of years. Ancient Chinese Pai Gow is played with domino tiles. The word Pai Gow translates to "make nine" and the game has fascinated many casino gambling fans from Nevada and California. In china, there is no difference between playing cards and domino tiles that is why Pai Gow can be played with both cards and tiles. During the ancient times, dominoes were actually played, used and treated as cards. They are even packed the same way as cards during the early Chinese dynasties.

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Before Pai Gow, China already had two ancient gambling games which could have started the development of Pai Gow. These ancient games were yeh-tza and yu-p'u. Other players believe that they are card games, while some believe that yu-p'u is similar to other forms of poker games. Yeh-tza literally means leaves and it is the game, among the two ancient games, that is considered a card game. On the other hand, Ku 'Pai, was formed using dominoes. It is believed that yu-p'u is an ancient type of gambling and is regarded as a poker dice game, and that which led to the developments of other Chinese tile games. A domino is simply a pair of dice placed side by side. The Song Dynasty writings have mentioned about dominoes, and the Chinese since then developed the tile-based games such as Pai Gow, Tien Gow, Tiu U and Gwat Pai to name some.

Today, Pai Gow is played in a similar way as the other card games. The only difference between the other games is that Pai Gow uses dominoes instead of cards. Pai Gow offers the same excitement and fun as the other card games such as the regular poker. Many players would sometimes switch to playing Pai Gow after playing a poker game in the casino simply because they enjoy and they can play the game effortlessly. The reputation of Pai Gow led to the American version which is now popularly called Pai Gow Poker. This game is played using cards instead of domino tiles. Nowadays, many casinos in Nevada and in other parts of the United States offer Pai Gow Poker and it is fast becoming as one of the more popular sources of fun and enjoyment in the best landbased and online casinos. And anyone fascinated by Pai Gow Poker will surely learn and enjoy playing the game in no time.