VIDEO: How to Set Your First Five Cards in Open-Face Chinese Poker
When it hit on the poker scene in 2012, some said that Open-Face Chinese Poker would be a fad �� at most, just a side event to ��real poker�� cash games and tournaments. And perhaps, they were right.
Niche or not, the 2015 World Series of Poker is just around the corner, and Open-Face is still going strong.
Tens of thousands of players are setting a million OFC hands a week, and that��s just on the ABC Open-Face iOS app. People are playing on their phones, on their laptops, and there are live and online cash tournaments. Later this month there will be a dozen tables at the Rio spreading OFC throughout the Series, charging players a few bucks a half-hour to deal them 13-card hands over and over again.
For those of us who love Open-Face, there��s always a game, always another hand. There��s always another move. A ��tough spot,�� or #standard.
Even so, there are thousands, if not millions of poker players who never caught the Open-Face bug. It��s easy for the rest of us to forget that the game can seem a bit inaccessible to the uninitiated. (Click here for a review of the rules for Open-Face Chinese Poker, and here for the rules to Pineapple OFC.)
When people ask me how to play Open-Face, the most common question I get is, as for any game, how to get started?
Over the past month, I��ve been recording some OFC sessions with some of my opponents on the ABC app (with their permission, of course). Out of these sessions, I compiled a video showing some ��first-five�� OFC Pineapple sets to help illustrate things to think about when setting your first five cards.
Every Open-Face hand is unique. These exact cards have never been played before. And yet, there are common themes. How you set the first five cards will determine whether you��re going for a Fantasyland hand or for an ace-high flush on the bottom. Or whether you��re going to gamble for a high-upside hand, or wait for your opponent to foul.
A Pineapple OFC hand only lasts five moves. To misquote Julius Caesar, the die is cast early. There is no ��limp and see a flop�� in Open-Face. And just as there is no raising, there is also no folding.
How should you set your hand, when your opponent is in Fantasyland? What do you do with a pair of aces? And how does one approach starting a round with a strong hand like trips in the first five cards?
Well�� to some extent, it depends. But here is how I set these hands. Take a look, play along, and let us know what you think. Would you have played some of these spots differently?
Good luck, and see you in Fantasyland.
Nikolai Yakovenko is a professional poker player and software developer residing in Brooklyn, New York who helped create the ABC Open-Face Chinese Poker iPhone App. For more OFC strategy advice click here and follow me on Twittter at @ivan_bezdomny.
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