World Gaming Magazine

20 WGM #61 2018/08 wgm8.com 游戏 PLAY 基础知识 The basics of pai gow • The name of the game in Chinese is 牌九 , which is pronounced pai gao in Cantonese but usually spelt “pai gow” in casinos. The literal meaning of pai gao is “card nine” and indeed the number nine does play an important part in the game, but as you’ll see below the game is played with tiles not cards. • The game is played by precisely 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 players (including the house dealer). • The object of the game is to beat the banker. The banker is not necessarily the house dealer, one of the other players can be the banker, and sometimes you might be the banker. If you are the banker the object is to beat as many of the other players as you can (including the house dealer, who becomes just another player). • Each player can have a turn at being banker. • The game is played with a “deck” of 32 tiles, similar to dominos. • There is a playing card version of the game called “pai gow poker”, but the term “pai gow” on its own refers to the tile game. • The game is dealt on a semi-circular table similar to a blackjack table. • Just like baccarat or blackjack, you must place your wager prior to the deal. You cannot change your bet once the tiles are dealt. • Many casinos have their own style of shuffling. Some of these are ritualistic, and some are the personal style of the dealer, but all are simply different ways of randomizing the distribution of the tiles. • After shuffling the 32 tiles the house dealer places them in eight stacks of four tiles in a line running from his right (first stack) to his left (last stack). • 游戏的中文名是「牌九」，在娱乐场中通常拼写 为pai gow。如其名称所示，数字「九」在游戏中 起着重要作用。游戏使用骨牌。 • 参与人数为2、3、4、5、6、7 或8（荷官在内）。 • 游戏目标是打败庄家。庄家不一定是荷官，另外 一位玩家也有可能坐庄。有时你也可能是庄家， 这时你的目标是打败尽可能多的其他玩家（包括荷 官，他成为其他玩家中的一个）。 • 每位玩家都可能轮上坐庄。 • 游戏使用32张骨牌，与多米诺骨牌相似。 • 它有一个使用扑克牌的版本，叫「牌九扑克」， 不过单「牌九」两个字指的是骨牌游戏。 • 游戏在一个半圆型台面上进行，与21点牌桌相 似。 • 与百家乐和21点一样，你必须在发牌前投注。一 旦骨牌派出便不能改变投注。 牌 九是一个如此广博的话题，我们准备分三部分讲 解： 部分A：骨牌和基本玩法（本文） 部分B：对牌和标准手牌 部分C：王、杠、高九和至尊宝 部分B和C将刊登在WGM的未来期刊中。 E xplaining pai gow is such a large subject, we’re going to split it into three articles: Part A: The tiles and basic play (the article you are reading now) Part B: Pairs and standard hands Part C: Wongs, gongs, high 9s and gee joon Parts B and C will be in future issues of WGM .