Pai Gow poker strategy can get fairly complicated, and is beyond the scope of the article here, as far as all of the analysis and mathematics of the correct play in various situations. If you’d like a detailed analysis and guide of how to set various hands in a variety of circumstances, we'd recommend the detailed strategy section for Pai Gow Poker available at Wikipedia.

In general, though, players should try to make the highest two-card hand possible, but one that leaves at least a decent five-card hand behind. An average hand would be something like ace high in the two-card hand, with at least a medium or high pair in the five-card hand. It’s an obvious point but the main rule of thumb to keep in mind is that two decent hands are better than one great hand and one poor hand.

Remember, too, that simply using the house way to arrange your cards is often very close to optimal strategy, so there's little lost if you simply take that route.