Pai Gow Poker - The Deal

The cards are shuffled, and then dealt to the table in seven face-down piles of seven cards. Four cards are unused regardless of the number of people playing.

Betting positions are assigned a number from 1 to 7, starting with whichever player is acting as banker that hand, and counting counter-clockwise around the table. A number from 1 to 7 is randomly chosen (either electronically or manually with dice), then the deal begins with the corresponding position and proceeds counter-clockwise. One common way of using dice to determine the dealer starting number is to roll three six-sided dice, and then count betting spots clockwise from the first position until the number on the dice is reached.

If a player is not sitting on a particular spot, the hand is still assigned, but then placed on the discard pile with the four unused cards.

From Wikipedia's

 

Pai Gow Poker Pai Gow Poker Object of The Game The Deal Hand Rankings Determining a Win Basic Strategy