Open-Face Chinese Poker (OFC) is abrand new variant of the much older game of Chinese Poker, which has beenpopular in Asian communities for many years. OFC made its tournament debut atthe Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure, whereit quickly caught on with the poker pros. The World Series of Poker also hostedan OFC medallion event and the Tweets amongthe faithful are calling this game a winner.
- Open Face Chinese Poker Tournament
- Open Face Chinese Poker Game
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- Open Face Chinese Poker Scoring
- Open Face Chinese Poker Online
How to Play Open Face Chinese Poker. Open Face Chinese is one of the newest games that is really starting to take off. It's vastly different from other forms of poker, such as Texas Hold'em, and can be played with 2-4 players. Players set their hands and play for points - it's important to declare how much points are worth prior to starting!
How to Play Open Face Chinese Poker
OFC is simple and not muchstrategy is required. You will first have to know poker hand rankings. Theobjective is to have a better poker ranking hand(s) than the other player(s) atthe table. OFC is designed for two to four players. Each player will receive atotal of thirteen cards to make 3 poker hands. Points (units) are awarded forthe various winning hands. A monetary value per point is established beforeplay begins.
Each player initially receives fivecards face down from a standard 52 card deck. A dealer button is used to identifythe dealer. The button rotates to the left after each hand is played. This isimportant because the player with the button is the last to act. This is knownas having position on other players.Starting with the first player to the left of the button, players must fliptheir cards face up and start setting them into what is known as a Chinesepoker 3-5-5 format. These are three separate poker hands: a 3 card hand at thetop, a 5 card hand in the middle, and a 5 card hand at the bottom. Each hand mustbe progressively stronger starting with the 3 card hand at the top. The middlehand must outrank the top hand and the bottom (back) hand must outrank themiddle. If you’re lucky and your initial five cards are very strong, such as afull house or a flush, you can use all five cards for the bottom, and build themiddle and top during the draws. Once you initially set the three hands theyare cast in stone. You cannot switch cards between the three hands.
Each player is then dealt one cardat a time to complete the remaining hands into the proper 3-5-5 format. If ahand is miss-set the player automatically receives a foul, and loses the hand. For example, having two pair on thebottom hand while setting three of a kind in the middle would be a foul, in thatthree of a kind outranks two pair, and the bottom is supposed to be thestrongest.
Playing Strategy
It is very important to payattention to the dealt cards to determine which ones are alive or dead. (Deadcards are already dealt). If you’re hoping for another queen to complete a fullhouse and three of them belong to other players, you’re out of luck.
A player is awarded one unit forwinning two of three hands and six units for winning all three, known as scooping. In addition, royalty pointsare awarded for achieving certain hands, such as a bottom hand would win twofor a straight up to twenty for a royal flush. The middle hand would be awardedfour for a straight up to forty for the royal. And the top hand is one pointfor a pair of sixes (lowest qualifying hand) up to twenty two for trip aces.Straights and flushes do not count in the three card hand.
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Introduction
Open-face Chinese poker is a fresh variant of poker which has gained huge popularity in recent years.
OFCP is a game for 2-4 players. Each player receives a total of 13 cards during the game and has to place them in 3 separate rows (hands).
General rules
There's a 3-card front hand as well as 5-card middle and back hands. The back hand has to be stronger than or equal to the middle one and the middle hand must be stronger than or equal to the front one.
The first player after the dealer button starts the game. In the first round each player receives 5 cards and has to place them in 1 or more rows.
Once placed, the cards can't be moved!
Open Face Chinese Poker Tournament
From the second round on, each player gets 1 card at a time until all 3 hands are completed.
Summary
At the end of each game, the hands of all players are compared to determine the winner(s). A player receives one point (unit) for each row that beats another player's hand. Winning with all 3 hands gives player an extra 3-point bonus called a 'scoop'.
The point difference between each pair of players creates the final result. Each point value is equal to the table stakes.
Fouls
Placing cards in the wrong sequence (e.g., front hand stronger than the middle one), leaving the table or reaching the 90 second time limit all result in a FOUL. Fouled hands automatically lose.
Open Face Chinese Poker Game
Royalties
The other way of scoring points is collecting royalty hands.
You can have a quick look at the royalty table during the game by clicking the royalty button.
Royalties don't count if you foul your hand!
Open Face Chinese Poker Pineapple
Royalty paytable for front, middle and back hands
Open Face Chinese Poker Scoring
The winner of the game on the screenshot gets 4 royalty points for a back hand flush and 8 royalty points for a flush in the middle hand.
Open Face Chinese Poker Online
Set up hands with multiple royalties to win big!