Las Vegas Pai Gow Poker
Emperor’s Challenge is a version of Pai Gow Poker developed by Galaxy Gaming that was first introduced in Las Vegas in 2006. The game is similar to the now wide spread game Fortune Pai Gow Poker; however, it uses a different pay table which includes pai gow (non ranking hands) in its bonus payouts. Wizard of Odds, a popular casino strategy website, claims they first spotted this game in April 2006 at Hooters Casino. We did not discover it ourselves till much later when it was introduced at Tropicana Las Vegas where it still exists today.
How to Play Emperor’s Challenge Pai Gow
Emperor’s Challenge Pai Gow Poker is played the same as traditional Pai Gow Poker, with the only difference being the ability to wager on a bonus side bet called the Emperor Bonus bet. In order to make this bet you must make a standard Pai Gow Poker wager as you would at any other Pai Gow Table.
We’ve borrowed this table from the Wizard of Odds Fortune Pai Gow Page that shows the Emperor side bet as well as probabilities and expected return:
| Event | Pays | Combinations | Probability | Return |
| Natural 7-card straight flush | 5000 | 32 | 0.00000021 | 0.001038 |
| Wild 7-card straight flush | 1000 | 196 | 0.00000127 | 0.001272 |
| Five aces | 500 | 1128 | 0.00000732 | 0.003659 |
| Royal Flush | 150 | 26092 | 0.00016927 | 0.025391 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 184644 | 0.00119787 | 0.059894 |
| Four of a Kind | 25 | 307472 | 0.00199472 | 0.049868 |
| Full House | 5 | 4188528 | 0.02717299 | 0.135865 |
| Flush | 4 | 6172088 | 0.04004129 | 0.160165 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 7672500 | 0.04977518 | 0.149326 |
| Straight | 2 | 11034204 | 0.07158417 | 0.143168 |
| 9 high pai gow | 40 | 31080 | 0.00020163 | 0.008065 |
| 10 high pai gow | 5 | 248640 | 0.00161305 | 0.008065 |
| J high pai gow | 2 | 963480 | 0.00625056 | 0.012501 |
| Nonpaying hand | -1 | 123312996 | 0.79999048 | -0.79999 |
| Total | 154143080 | 1 | -0.041714 |
Play Emperor’s Challenge in Las Vegas Casinos
We’ve assembled a small list of casinos we’ve found in Las Vegas offering Emperor’s Challenge Pai Gow. As we discover more, we’ll add to the list which now includes Hooters, Tropicana, Riviera, Arizona Charlie’s Boulder, Sahara and Texas Station.
Play Emperor’s Challenge Online
To the best of our knowledge Emperor’s Challenge is only offered in live casinos. Tower Gaming does offer a similar game (Fortune Pai Gow Poker) however, it is only available to players located outside the USA.