For decades, gin was the game of choice for players waiting around for a card game to start. It could be played with just a couple of players, as a hand or game doesn’t take that long and is a great filler while waiting on enough players to get the poker game going. A few months back, all the rage about Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC) caught my attention. I did a little research on the rules, shot Daniel Negreanu a text to clarify a couple of points, and off we went.

Editor’s Note: Play Open Face Poker with other players from around the world! Download the full version of the Chinese Open Face Poker App here.

Since then, OFC has taken off in my area and I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone play a hand of gin before a game. OFC fills the gap nicely. Each hand is quick enough that there is no delay once enough players arrive for a game and OFC is more than intriguing enough to hold players’ interest while waiting for a game to get going.

When we first started playing, I did some brief searches online to see what strategy stuff was out there and didn’t find much. Since then, I have had multiple people reconfirm that there isn’t much of anything out there beyond the basic rules. The game is complex and new enough that it seems wide open, with little published work on basic strategy.

So, my disclaimer here is that I am not, and don’t pretend to be, an expert OFC player. I fully expect many of my current thoughts and ideas about the game to change over the coming months as my understanding of it grows and OFC strategy begins to evolve. But, we need some building blocks to start with, so I’m going to write a couple of articles outlining some of the trends I see in OFC and my current thoughts on how to take advantage of common mistakes. I’ll also try to help you think critically about the game and develop your own personal styles and strategies.

In the OFC I have played so far, I have been able to be consistently successful. I think the reason I have been able to do well comes from a key mistake almost all of the people I am playing against are making: they sacrifice their top hand almost every time. They end up with nine-high up top and give themselves almost no chance to scoop.

With the 1-6 scoring method that is prevalent, the difference in winning just the top and getting scooped is 5 points, which is huge. On one website, a person giving some strategy tips for OFC even called the top hand something along the lines of a “garbage dump.” Using the top hand like this is a mistake.

Often when you see that you are going to have a weak hand, you can change your strategy. Work on getting a high card to the top to prevent getting scooped when you see that your opponents are most likely going to beat you in the other hands but have exposed their top hand.

I don’t start each hand playing to win the top, but I leave myself room to maneuver, sometimes sacrificing a little bit of potential in my other two hands, especially my middle hand, to give myself a chance to change course later to prevent getting scooped by winning the top.

Just jack-high to the top can win it for you, and with only a 3-card hand on the top, you can also usually get a good idea for what it will likely take to beat your opponents, especially if they are just using the top as a place to put trash cards they don’t want in their other hands.

Once your opponent has two cards in the top, you can make a very good assessment of what it will likely take to beat them. I have seen many times when a player will complete their top hand with 5+ cards left to go and have a hand like 9-4-2 up top. At that point, you know all you have to do is make sure to get a ten or better up top and you can’t get scooped.

My guess is focusing on the top hand will be one of the early strategies that evolves as players get more experience with the game, but as a flux of new people learn the game and start playing, it seems likely that a high percentage of them will, at least at first, undervalue their top hand and give away a ton of value there.

If you haven’t yet played OFC, you should check it out.