One of the biggest effects of the increasing availability of online casino gambling has been the resurgence of gambling on poker. The casino game of poker had been relegated to a game played only by diehard poker fans often in their own homes and occasionally at poker tournaments organised by their local casino. Online casino gambling has changed all that and poker gambling is now high on the list of gambling activities worldwide. Most of the poker tournaments are now played in the Texas Hold’em poker format, including the Irish Open, but this is not the only version of poker offered by the online casinos and perhaps also not a poker format that is suitable for everyone. Texas Hold’em poker tends to result in big pots and high risk for inexperienced poker players, due in part to the multiple gambling rounds on each hand, but also the fact that when played online there is little to help you determine how experienced your opponents are. If you are inexperienced in poker gambling or perhaps playing on a limited budget, why not try Pai Gow poker as a starting point. At gambling.ie we have detailed the rules of Pai Gow on our casino games pages, but here is a summary. Pai Gow is a version of poker gambling played against the house for fixed stakes. It is played with a standard 52 card deck plus one joker, and each player is dealt seven cards from which to make two poker hands, one of five cards and the other of three cards. The five card hand must rank higher than the two card hand and the player must win both hands to take the pot. The house edge results from the fact that the dealer need only win the five card hand and tie the second hand to win. The role of the joker in Pai Gow gambling is restricted to completing a straight or a flush in the five card hand, or acting as an ace in either hand. Gambling on Pai Gow is good fun in its own right, but is also a useful intro to the world of online poker gambling without the level of risk associated with the community card formats of the game. Give it a try we think you’ll enjoy it.