The strategical evolution of Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC) is still in its infancy, and that is where my game is as well. But, as I continue to play and think about the game, I am starting to get a better feel for and understanding of the game, although overall I feel like my OFC game is at about the level I was at in Hold’em when I was playing the $40 Limit Hold’em tourney on Paradise Poker back when I first really started playing.

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Much of what I am figuring out and thinking about won’t stand the test of time, as both the game in general and my game personally evolve. But, almost everyone playing the game needs some building blocks and a starting point to get them moving down the path of developing strategies for OFC.

My topic for the day is one where I have seen a couple of players make mistakes. If your initial hand contains trips, you are almost always putting that hand on the bottom, but the mistake I have seen comes in what you do with your other two cards. For example, if you have J-J-J-K-2 and you set your hand first, it is intuitive to put the three jacks on the bottom. However, I have seen many people who were then dumping the 2 into the top just to get rid of it and putting the K in the middle.

Instead, put the 2 on the bottom to give yourself a chance to fill up right away. You can still make quads and it goes ahead and gives you three more outs from the get go to make a royalty on the bottom. (case jack plus the three remaining twos). Not only that, it lets you get value out of a card that would be wasted in any other spot on the board. J-J-J-2 on the bottom with a K in the middle is a strong starting hand that gives you a ton of potential to build a huge hand to scoop and gain multiple significant royalties.

If you are not setting first, then you can use the information of what is out there to help set your hand. What I generally look to do is put my lowest card that hasn’t been played by one of my opponents on the bottom with my trips. For example, if I have 9-9-9-7-4 and I see a couple of fours have been played already, I would put the 9-9-9-7 on the bottom to give myself a better chance of filling up.

I have also been using the strategy of putting a low card on the bottom when my starting set contains just a pair and doesn’t have three to a suit. For example, with J-J-A-K-4, I would put the J-J-4 on the bottom, the ace in the middle, and the king up top. This leaves me open to backing into a full house on the bottom while also giving me a reasonable shot at making a big royalty on the top. Worst case scenario if I have to play conservatively, I have still given myself some big cards in the middle and top to the point where it is unlikely I will get scooped unless my opponent makes a monster hand.

OFC is a fun and interesting game and I am enjoying the process of devising strategies and testing them both theoretically and in practice to see how things pan out.

Other OFC articles you might be interested in:
Open Face Chinese Poker: Don’t Forget The Top
My Intro to Open Face Chinese Poker