Widespread access to the internet has changed our gambling habits completely. Ireland has always been a country where gambling on sporting events has been the most popular gambling activity, so it is no surprise that many of us have taken advantage of the opportunity to do our sports gambling online instead of our local betting shop. What has caught many people by surprise however has been the growing popularity of online casino gambling. Playing casino gambling games online has apparently become a major leisure activity in Ireland, and several new casino gambling sites have been successfully introduced as a result. These online casino gambling sites offer a huge range of gambling games for us to play, but apart from the slots the most popular casino gambling game has proved to be poker. Most observers agree that gambling on poker has seen a huge rise in interest since online casino gambling came on stream, and there are now a variety of poker gambling games to choose from. Serious poker gambling fans will always choose Texas Hold’em, but for new players interested in gambling on poker may find games such a Pai Gow a great place to start. Pai Gow poker is played with a standard 52 card deck plus one joker, use of which we will come to later. The Pai Gow player and the dealer are dealt seven cards from which to make up two poker hands, one of five cards and one of the remaining two cards. The five card hand must rank higher than the two card hand and the player needs to win both hands to take the pot. The house edge is provided by the dealer only needing to win the five card hand and tie the two card hand to win. Back to the joker, which in Pai Gow can only be used to make up a straight or a flush in the five card hand. If you’re looking for a way to start gambling on poker, Pai Gow may be the game for you and is great fun.