Open Face Chinese Poker Strategy: Opening with Fantasyland Cards!

One game that is becoming more and more popular is Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC). 2 – 3 players play against each other and have to form three poker hands with their cards. In the first round, they are dealt five cards each and then three cards each, of which two must be used.

Two poker hands with 5 cards and one with 3 cards must be formed. The hands are placed in a kind of pyramid, where the upper hand is not allowed to outbid the lower one. Each hand is evaluated in comparison to the other players, and a total score is calculated. If you want to know more about this, you can read it here.

A special goal is to get to Fantasyland, where you get all cards at once and thus have an advantage over your fellow players. To do this, you must have at least QQ in the three-card combination and therefore not outbid the underlying combinations.

In the blog of CoinPoker OFC “Progressive” World Champion Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier regularly gives tips to the still new game. In her latest issue, she discusses the opening opportunities with hands that have the potential for Fantasyland. For this, she gets the help of the German poker player Christoph Haller. To illustrate this, she talks about a hand she played against poker legend Antana’s “Tony G” Guoga at Coinpoker.

In the beginning, she receives the cards shown on the picture, and there are several possibilities to play them as a starting hand.

From the feeling, she thinks variant #2 is the best option, and Christoph Haller also goes with this starting possibility. With the opportunity on the flush and the king “on top,” you get the possibility on a strong hand and the Fantasyland. The second best option would be #3 because there is still the possibility to play on Fantasyland.

In the game, however, Isabelle Mercier decided on the worst option #4, according to Haller.

Her final hand looked like this:

Although it was enough for one point and the overall better hand against Tony G, she could have made a flush at the bottom, a straight in the middle and K-Q-10 at the top with the right opening and the same cards, which would have earned her 9 points.

With the right opening strategy, you lay the foundation for a successful game. This means, as in any other poker variation, learning and practising hard. Due to the increasing popularity, it is certainly possible to build an Edge. If you want to read more about Isabelle Mercier and OFC you can have a look at the blog section of CoinPoker, you can find the original here.