Two Pair

Playing Two Pair

You might want to spend a bit of time on this page. Two pair strategy can be downright perplexing at times. It's probably the most difficult hand to play properly at pai gow poker. It's certainly the most common hand to play that is tricky. Over 23% of the time you'll be dealt two pair. Your ability to set a two pair hand properly will likely determine your long term success at pai gow poker.

The problem is that there is no one correct way to do it that fits every situation. Sometimes you keep the two pair together in the high hand and sometimes you split them, putting the lower pair in the second high hand. The determining factor for whether or not you split the two pair is whether or not you have a decent 2nd high hand if you don't split the two pairs. The strength of the remaining cards, relative to your lower pair determines the fate of your two pair. Consider, for example, that if your low pair is 22 and you have an ace and king remaining, then putting your 22 in the 2nd high hand only enables you to beat one hand over putting the A,K out there instead.

Perfect two pair strategy is given in the table below. The left column indicates the high pair in your hand. The row across the top indicates the lower pair of your two pair. The cell at the intersection of the row across from your high pair and the column down from your low pair contains the correct strategy for your hand. For example, if you had a pair of kings (KK) and a pair of threes (33) the correct strategy would be in the yellow box on the table. This strategy would be to split the two pair and place the 33 in the 2nd high hand.

Split

Perfect Two Pair Strategy Table

If the table indicates that the two pair should be split, then put the higher pair in the high hand and the lower pair in the low hand. If you want to keep together you can anytime the table indicates "HH" for putting the two pair both in the High Hand. If its not "Split" or "HH" then the cell contains the minimum 2nd high hand requirements to keep your two pair together. For example, if you hold a pair of eights and a pair of fives, then to keep them together in the high hand you need to be able to produce at least a King and a Queen (KQ) for the second high hand. If you can't make a 2nd high hand of at least KQ, then you need to split your two pair.

Simple Method Examples

Let's look at a few examples of the using the simple method for setting a two pair hand at pai gow poker.

We have Queens worth 12 and threes worth 3, so our two pair value is 15. According to our rules for 15, we should split them unless we have an ace to put in the 2nd high hand if we keep them together. In this hand we do have an ace, so we would set our hand as follows:

2nd high hand: Ace of hearts nine of diamonds

High hand: Queen of Hearts Queen of Clubs three of spades three of diamonds six of spades

We have eights worth 8 and fives worth 5, so our two pair value is 13. According to our rules for 13, we need an ace to be able to keep these two pair together. We don't have an ace, so we must split them up. We set the hand as follows:

2nd high hand: five of hearts five of spades

High hand: eight of hearts eight of clubs Queen of Spades ten of spades four of diamonds

We have fives worth 5 and threes worth 3, so our two pair value is 8. With a value of 8 our rules say we need at least a King to put in the 2nd high hand in order to keep these together. We don't have it, so we must split them, setting the hand as follows:

2nd high hand: three of diamonds three of clubs

High hand: five of hearts five of diamonds jack of spades nine of hearts seven of diamonds

Simple Method for Two Pair

If you're at all serious about becoming a good pai gow poker player you're probably thinking "How in the ham sandwich am I ever going to learn that table?" Well, that's going to be tough, no doubt. It will mark the difference between a casual player and someone who really wants to make some money at pai gow poker.

When you're playing online it will be easy to have that table nearby and reference it as needed. In a casino it might be a little difficult, however. It would be awkward and somewhat anti-social. If you're OK with that, take the sheet.

If you're not OK with that, then we have a much simpler solution. In fact, we call it the Simple Method. Here's how it works: assign a numeric value to each pair based on the value of the cards. A pair of twos (22) is worth 2, a pair of threes (33) is worth 3, etc. Jacks are worth 11, queens 12 and kings 13. (Don't worry about aces.)

Add the values of your two pairs. If you have Jacks and twos (JJ22) then your two pair value is 11(JJ) + 2(22) or 13. If you have eights and fives (8855) then your two pair value is also 8+5 or 13. If you have kings and fours (KK44) then your two pair value is 13(KK) + 4(44) or 17.

Once you have assigned the two pair value just apply these five rules:

Always split aces up. If you have a two pair with aces, split them.
If the value of your two pair is 17 or higher, always split the pair.
If the value of your hand is 12, 13, 14 or 15, only keep them together if you have an ace for the 2nd high hand, otherwise split.
If the value of your two pair is 8, 9, 10 or 11, only keep then together if you have a K or A for the 2nd high hand, otherwise split.
If the value of your two pair is 5,6 or 7, only keep then together if you have a Q, K or A for the 2nd high hand, otherwise split.

You're giving up a few tenths of a percent to the house in edge by using this method, so you'd do well to learn the perfect chart for the long run, but this method is easy to learn and works quite well on the fly.