Build two good hands from one seven-card deal.
Each side receives seven unique cards from the same shuffled deck of 52 cards and one joker. Tap two cards into your front hand; the remaining five form your back hand. Your back must rank at least as high as your front. House way offers a consistent starting point. Lock when you are ready. In a private room, both sides stay hidden until both players lock.
From strongest to weakest: five aces, royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair, high card. For straights and straight flushes, A-K-Q-J-10 is first, A-2-3-4-5 is second, then K-Q-J-10-9 downwards. Front hands use pairs or high cards only. Compare every kicker in order; suits never break ties.
The joker is an ace in front and for pairs, trips and other repeated ranks. In back it may instead complete a straight, flush or straight flush. For a flush it fills the highest missing card of that suit, without duplicating a card. Four natural aces plus the joker make five aces. It cannot become a non-ace just to make a pair or trips.
A front stronger than its back is a foul. The table explains this before locking so you can fix it; deliberately locking a foul loses. If both foul, the hand pushes. Win both corresponding parts to win the stake; lose both to lose it; otherwise push (no transfer).
Solo: exact copies of either part go to the dealer, including all kickers. With a friend: a copied part ties; even a win plus a tie is a push, as is a loss plus a tie. Neither friend has a banker advantage.
Both sides begin with 1,000 play chips. Agree the same whole-chip stake before each deal; neither side may bet more than either stack. A win adds the stake, a loss subtracts it, and a push changes nothing. We never charge commission in play. “With 5%” is a separate what-if ledger: charge 5% only on that side’s positive winning bet, rounded to hundredths of a chip. Winning 20 is +20 actual and +19 with 5%; a loss is −20 in both ledgers. This what-if figure never changes your stack.
The following priorities govern the suggestion. The joker counts as an ace for repeated-rank holdings. Where several settings meet a row, prefer the strongest legal front, then the strongest back, then a stable card order.
Luck measures conditional deal strength: hold your seven cards fixed, draw 120 random legal opponents from the remaining 46 cards, and set both sides by house way. Expected score is win probability plus half the push probability. Luck = 1 + 9 × expected score, displayed to one decimal, with an approximate 95% uncertainty interval. Solo simulations use the dealer copy edge for the relevant side. These samples run asynchronously on your device after reveal, not on the room server.
Decision skill is your actual outcome score minus the score your house-way split would earn against the same opponent’s revealed actual split. Scores are win 1, push 0.5, loss 0. This is an observed decision effect, not a claim about long-run expertise. Using house way always gives zero. Session luck averages count completed estimates only; session skill includes every revealed hand. No repeated simulation of an identical deterministic deal.
Start with house way, then ask what your front gains and what your back gives up. Two pairs are a useful lesson: AA-88-K-7-4 keeps aces behind and puts eights in front. Protect your front without making it stronger than your back. Remember the joker’s limits, and that the dealer wins copies in solo. This is a no-commission educational variation, not Tiger9 or Face Up Pai Gow. There are no bonus bets, payments or banking.
Rules reference: PokerTube’s Pai Gow Poker guide. The approved project table and variation rules take precedence. Card faces: PNG-cards-1.3; ace adaptation from Revenge.