View source for Pai gow

=== Starting ===
Tiles are shuffled on the table and arranged into eight face-down stacks of four tiles each<ref name=Helprin86>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/gamblingtimesgui0000help/ |title=The Gambling Times Guide to European & Asian Games |author=Helprin, Syd |date=1986 |publisher=Lyle Stuart |location=Secaucus, New Jersey |isbn=0-89746-062-6 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/gamblingtimesgui0000help/page/193/mode/2up |chapter=15: The Oriental Games |pages=194–209 |access-date=25 September 2023 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|203}} in an assembly known as the ''woodpile''. Individual stacks or tiles may then be moved in specific ways to rearrange the woodpile, after which the players place their bets.

Next, each player (including the dealer) is given one stack of tiles and must use them to form two hands of two tiles each. The hand with the lower value is called the ''front hand'', and the hand with the higher value is called the ''rear hand''. If a player's front hand beats the dealer's front hand, and the player's rear hand beats the dealer's rear hand, then that player wins the bet and is paid off at 1:1 odds (even money). If a player's front and rear hands both lose to the dealer's respective hands, the player loses the bet. If one hand wins and the other loses, the player is said to ''push'', and gets back only the money they bet.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/iamjackiechanmyl00chen/ |title=I Am Jackie Chan: My life in action |author1=Chan, Jackie |author2=Yang, Jeff |author1-link=Jackie Chan |author2-link=Jeff Yang |date=1998 |publisher=Ballantine Books |location=New York, New York |isbn=978-0-345-42913-1 |chapter=High Risk |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/iamjackiechanmyl00chen/page/154/mode/2up |pages=154–156 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Generally seven players will play, and each player's hands are compared only against the dealer's hands; comparisons are always front-front and rear-rear, never one of each.

There are 35,960 possible ways to select 4 of the 32 tiles when the 32 tiles are considered distinguishable. However, there are 3,620 distinct sets of 4 tiles when the tiles of a pair are considered indistinguishable. There are 496 ways to select 2 of the 32 tiles when the 32 tiles are considered distinguishable. There are 136 distinct hands (pairs of tiles) when the tiles of a pair are considered indistinguishable.