Let us talk about an exciting poker variant that has been around for quite some time now and is unique in more ways than one. OFC poker a.k.a. Open Face Chinese poker is a poker variant which follows the score based system to decide the winner and gets played with thirteen cards instead of the usual four cards the get dealt in any other poker variant.
Let us learn how to play Open Face Chinese poker so you can flaunt your skills at the next games night.
The basic rules to play this Chinese poker game is simple. Some key points to remember before you start playing OFC are-
You have the option of opting out of the game:
- All the players in the game should compare their hands.
- The top, middle and bottom hands will get compared in a clockwise round. You score based on how strong or weak your hand is.
- If you want to score the highest, you should aim at having your bottom hand be the strongest and then the middle and top.
Following are the card arrangement; all the players have to follow to set up their cards and make hands.
Divide your cards into three parts as follows -
-Top hand - 3 cards.
-Middle hand - 5 cards.
-Botton hand - 5 cards.
Since we were speaking of making the strongest hands, let us see the hierarchy of Chinese poker hand rankings:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a kind
- Two pair
- One pair
- High card
Steps to play OFC poker:
- Players decide on a fixed amount before the game starts.
- The rule of allowing a player to opt-out or surrender in a game needs to be pre-decided.
- The dealer begins dealing thirteen cards starting from the player sitting to the immediate next to him. The dealer keeps changing in a clockwise motion.
- All players get thirteen cards, whether it's two, three, or four players.
- Divide your cards between the top, bottom, and middle hands.
- The player to the dealer's immediate left will start the round by deciding whether they want to continue or surrender.
- In the same order as above, the players will announce their royalties.
- Then the cards get turned face-up, and the comparison of each hand will take place.
- Each player gets one point for having the winning hand. And if you win all three hands, then it is called a 'scoop.' Winning all three hands will get you three points.
- There needs to be a check done to determine whether a player made a foul or missed a set.
- Once the points get counted on the scoreboard, this hand comes to an end, and the dealer changes.
These are the simple rules you need to follow to ace the game of OFC poker, and you can only become good at it with playing poker regularly.