Many people, including some avid poker players, avoid OFC because it has such a complex set of rules. The time it takes to learn the game is often too big of an investment when you don’t really know what the returns will be. So, in this post I want to reverse engineer the game using the method of the 5 Whys.

Why should I learn OFC?

Because it is extremely fun to play.

Why is it extremely fun to play?

Because the concept of Fantasylandincreases the variance tremendously. For this essay, variance means the number of points or amount of money that can be won or lost in a session.

Why does the concept of Fantasyland increase the variance?

Because in order to get to Fantasyland you must place your high cards in the top row, which dramatically increases your chance of a foul.

Why does placing your cards in the top row increase your chance of a foul?

Because you don’t get to see all of the cards for your hand at once; they come in portions.

Why do the cards come in portions?

Because when the cards all come at once as they did in the original Chinese Poker, or as they do now in Fantasyland, the variance between hands is very low and not much is at stake.

I used to play the original Chinese Poker with my roommate every night. We each would get 13 cards and would have to set them in rows of 5, 5, and 3 cards from bottom to top. The bottom row of 5 has to have a poker value equal to or stronger than the middle row of 5, which has to be stronger than the top row of 3. Otherwise, the hand was considered fouled, which was very rare because we saw all 13 cards up front. If we fouled it was because of a brain fart.

In Chinese Poker, each hand is scored against every other hand on a row versus row comparison. You get 1 point for each row you win and 3 bonus points for a Scoop of all 3 rows.

Someone then realized that by dealing the hand in portions instead of all at once, the chance of a foul and therefore the variance would increase. Thus Open Face Chinese was born.

OFC is played with two to four players and a dealer button. Each player gets their first 5 cards and they take turns playing the cards face up, beginning with the player in front of the button. Then, the players get the rest of their cards 1 at a time. So the dealing pattern is 9 streets and looks like this: 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Then, two concepts were introduced into the game that skyrocketed the variance: Fantasyland and Royalties.

The Fantasyland rule allows a player to get all 13 of their cards on the following hand at once if they can make a pair of Queens or better in the top row of a legal hand. So, the rule encourages the player to play their highest cards in the top row, dramatically increasing the chance of a foul or a trip to Fantasyland as well as increasing the chance of a great payoff if successful. Imagine the advantage of getting all your cards while the other players get theirs one at a time.

Royalties already existed in Chinese Poker. They are bonus points for making extraordinary rows within a hand, but their values were changed for OFC to make the game even more exciting. For example, in OFC, 3 Aces in the top row nets 22 points in royalties for the hand. These points translate into dollars at the table collected from each opponent.

The Royalties and Fantasyland rules created a game that was really fun to play, but also took forever. Because the speed was so slow, people began playing different variations that gave you more cards per street. One popular version was Turbo OFC, which was dealt 5, 4, 4, so you got all your cards in 3 streets instead of 8 streets.

But, that version was quickly overshadowed by the Pineappleversion. In Pineapple, you still get the first 5 cards, but then each following street you get 3 cards and you must play 2 and discard 1. In essence, you see 17 cards, but you only play 13 and discard 4. This version only allows for 3 players to sit at the table, though, since each player is seeing 17 cards.

The deal looks like this 5, 3–1, 3–1, 3–1, 3–1, which is a total of 5 streets. In addition, if you make it to Fantasyland in the Pineapple variation, you also get an extra card for a total of 14 minus 1 discard.

Imagine the quality of hands you can build with that many cards! This is part of the reason that so far this game has mostly appealed to high rollers and poker pros because even at $5 a point it can get pretty expensive pretty quickly. Any less than $5 per point and it becomes impossible to beat the rake.

More recently, a new trend has developed where you get even more cards in Fantasyland based on the quality of the top row that got you there. It’s called Progressive Pineapple OFC in the local poker rooms here in Tampa. In this version, QQ in the top row gets you 14 cards, KK gets you 15 cards, and AA or better gets you 16 cards in Fantasyland. But, in my opinion, this version makes the variance too high and the game too lopsided. In our tournaments, we play Pineapple OFC.

If you want to understand the game better, we will be broadcasting our next tournament live via Meerkat. Tune in to this link and you can watch me play live. I will be explaining the game and my decisions to the audience step by step as I play.

Sand Farnia is a former Tournament Director, Supervisor, and current Poker Dealer at Derby Lane Poker Room in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is also the creator of Open Face Live ,  a live broadcast of an OFC poker shootout. Watch live with Meerkat as the contestants play for the $2,000 top prize!

Open Face Live World Premiere on Sunday, April 12 at 6:00pm Eastern