What is "pai gow"

n. A Chinese gambling game played with dominoes.

Pai gow (; pinyin: pái jiǔ; jyutping: paai4 gau2) is a Chinese gambling game, played with a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. It is played openly in major casinos in China (including Macau); the United States (including Las Vegas, Nevada; Reno, Nevada; Connecticut; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Pennsylvania; and cardrooms in California); Canada (including Edmonton, Alberta and Calgary, Alberta); Australia; and, New Zealand. It dates back to at least the Song dynasty.

The name "pai gow" is sometimes used to refer to a card game called pai gow poker (or “double-hand poker”), which is loosely based on pai gow. Pai gow loosely translates to "make nine" and was the basis for Baccarat.

There are 35,960 four-tile combinations possible.