Bill Walsh is to Pai Gow what Stanford Wong is to Blackjack. He's Pai Gow's Godfather.
Walsh is a world-renowned Pai Gow expert. His books "Billy Woo's Pai Gow Poker" and "Billy Woo's Pai Gow Poker II" are arguably the best Pai Gow strategy books available on the market.
Pai Gow poker first appeared in California casinos in the mid-1980s. The game is a mix between American poker and the Chinese tile (or domino) game Pai Gow (which means 'makes nine'). It's a seven-card game played with a standard 52-card deck and a joker. Each player has to build two hands that have a higher value than the two hands held by the banker.
Walsh didn't just write the book on Pai Gow, he's responsible for Pai Gow's existence in casinos throughout Nevada. Pai Gow poker was introduced in Nevada in 1987 at the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. Billy Walsh was the Pai Gow manager at the Desert Inn, and he has been widely credited with popularizing this new poker variation. If you want to learn the basics of the game and gain a strategic edge at the Pai Gow table, then you need to read up on the man who helped make Pai Gow poker one of the fastest growing casino games on the planet.
