How to play Open-Face Chinese Poker

Open-Face Chinese Poker has become one of the most popular alternative poker games in the last few years, though it's not really poker at all, since there's no betting. But it is a lot of fun, fast-paced, and can be very profitable. I'm not making this post to teach you how to play well (sorry) but just to introduce you to the game and its rules.

OFC is played on a board of thirteen cards for each player, arranged in three-five-five, where the objective is to make a stronger poker hand than one's opponent in each layer of the board. In most games (I'll talk about 2-7 later) there's a strict rule that for a hand to be live, the bottom hand must be equal to or better than the middle hand, and the middle hand equal to or better than the top hand. Straights and flushes count in the five-card hands but not on top.

The first five cards are dealt as a starting hand, and the player can place them in any position on the board. Then five are dealt to the opponent, who does the same on his. Both players can see each other's cards; that's the "open-face" part of the game.

In original OFC, which is rarely played now, cards are then dealt one by one to the players in turn and they play them on their boards until they each have thirteen cards. A few years ago this game was supplanted by OFC Pineapple, in which each player gets dealt three cards at a time, not initially shown to the opponent, and must choose to play two of them openly to their board and discard the other without showing. This both added complexity to the game and made it play faster, which allowed it to become the dominant variant; all popular variants now are based on Pineapple.

Once both players have complete hands, they're scored against each other. Each layer of a player's hand is compared to the same layer of the opponent's hand, and the winner receives one point. A player who wins all three layers at the same time receives a three-point bonus. A hand which is invalid ("fouled") cannot win any layer. In addition there are extra bonus points, called royalties, for achieving certain hand levels on each layer.

Standard royalties for high OFC are:
Bottom layer: 2 points for a straight, 4 for a flush, 6 full house, 10 four of a kind, 15 straight flush, 25 royal flush.
Middle layer: 2 points for three of a kind. All higher hands get twice the royalty they would on the bottom.
Top layer: 1 point for a pair of sixes, increasing by 1 point for each better hand, so 77 is 2 points, AA is 9, and AAA is worth 22.

In addition to these bonuses, there's an additional bonus called Fantasyland, where achieving a certain quality of hand allows a player to get all their cards at once and play them without showing them to the other player. In original OFC this required QQ on top and gave the player in Fantasyland 13 cards. Pineapple has seen some diversity in approaches, but the most common game still requires QQ on top but gives 14 cards. A player in Fantasyland can get another Fantasyland hand the next hand by playing four of a kind or better on the bottom, a full house or better in the middle,¹ or three of a kind on the top.

All Fantasyland hands are considered part of the same hand as the one that started the sequence. Players are not allowed to leave in the middle, and the order of play does not change. One the full hand is over, the order of play switches so the player who acted first on the previous hand acts second.²

In addition to standard Pineapple, QQ/14 Fantasyland, which is the dominant game right now, there are two notable variants, 2-7 and Progressive. In 2-7, the objective for the middle layer changes. Rather than trying to make the best poker hand, you're trying to make the worst, as in a lowball game. Straights and flushes count, and the wheel (23457) is the best hand. 2-7 has different royalties in the middle: 8 points for a wheel, 4 for any other seven low, 2 for any eight low, and 1 for a nine low. A minimum of a ten low is required, or else the hand is dead. Since strong top hands are easier to make here than in regular Pineapple, the Fantasyland requirement on top is increased to KK, but it's also possible to make Fantasyland by making a wheel in the middle. Each of those conditions results in a 14-card Fantasyland, but reaching them both at the same time gives 15 cards. Returning requires four of a kind or better on the bottom or trips on top.³ Fantasyland still requires a ten low in the middle, meaning that it's very possible to get a Fantasyland hand which cannot be played legally.

Progressive OFC is played exactly as regular Pineapple for high, but the Fantasyland requirements are changed. QQ still results in a 14-card Fantasyland, but KK gives 15 cards, AA 16, and three of a kind 17. Repeating Fantasyland always gives a 14-card hand.

Cash OFC games are denominated by point value, so if you're playing $1 OFC, that means each point won or lost is worth $1. OFC is a great game and I hope you give it a shot, even if you're only playing for points and not for money.

1. Sometimes this also requires four of a kind. This is currently the most common difference in rules between platforms.
2. It's generally considered good form to play an equal number of hands with each player acting first, and some platforms enforce this by not allowing a player to leave in the middle.
3. Fantasyland is incredibly common in this game. It's not unusual to have a single hand of 2-7 go ten hands or more with one or the other player in FL.