Today’s game of pai gow poker presents a fascinating combination of the ancient and the modern. The roots of the casino pai gow poker game lie in an ancient Chinese tile game.
Roots of Pai Gow Poker
A precise history of pai gow poker is rather difficult to place. However, it is believed to be a fusion of an old Chinese game and poker and this is how it received its name. The original pai gow poker game is known as a pursuit that was first played in China using tiles that were similar to dominoes. In this early game the tiles were placed into four separate sets which were then allotted to the different players according to a roll of the dice. It is generally assumed that the pai gow game was introduced to the United States by Chinese immigrant workers in the 1800s. By this time pai gow was seemingly played in different versions.
Transformation of Pai Gow
The interesting and exciting game of pai gow poker was developed through a combination of the ancient pai gow and a traditional game of poker. This modern variation was adapted and transformed by Fred Wolf and Sam Torosian into a game of double handed poker using cards instead of dominoes. Fred Wolf was a casino manager in California and he introduced the game of pai gow poker to the casino in the mid 1980′s. This quickly became a popular game in California and was soon introduced to Atlantic City and the Las Vegas casino scene. As a point of interest, it is believed that the original game of pai gow is still played today with dominoes in China.
Online Pai Gow Poker
Technological advances created the Internet with all its wonders. Once the first online casinos were launched onto the Internet in the mid 1990s, it was only a matter of time before many fun casino pursuits would be adapted into attractive online versions suitable for convenient play. Sure enough, today online versions of pai gow poker have become a popular form of entertainment at the best online casinos.