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Johan Jan 13, 2020

NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Fantasyland offering multiple placements

Hello everyone! Welcome to my personal blog on OFC Pineapple (Open Face Chinese Poker). Week after week, I’ll go over the history of the game, some basic rules, and recommendations, anecdotes from the players, and finally, some more advanced strategies like Fantasyland.  Stay tuned and enjoy the Fantasy Ride! Over the last weeks, we studied NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Fantasyland offering multiple placements

Strategy

Hello everyone! Welcome to my personal blog on OFC Pineapple (Open Face Chinese Poker). Week after week, I’ll go over the history of the game, some basic rules, and recommendations, anecdotes from the players, and finally, some more advanced strategies like Fantasyland.  Stay tuned and enjoy the Fantasy Ride!

Over the last weeks, we studied different openings and we went through some real-life hand analysis. There are multiple different possible scenarios in OFC, and we will continue to observe what are the optimal plays according to each situation.

This week, we will focus on a classic Fantasyland that offers you multiple options. Which will be the best placement generating a maximum of points?

Let’s go over this scenario that presented itself to me recently while playing on CoinPoker. I received these 14 cards for my Fantasyland:

There are multiple choices here, some generating more points than others:

  1. This placement shown in the picture with Straight in the back (2 points), Trips in the middle (2 points), and Kings on top (8 points), for a total of 12 points.
  2. Flush Ace high in spades in the back (4 points), Flush King high in diamonds in the middle (8 points), and K64 on top, for a total of 12 points.
  3. Full Sixes and Kings in the back (6 points), Straight in the middle (4 points), 987 on top, for a total of 10 points.
  4. Flush King high in diamonds in the back (4 points), Straight in the middle (4 points) and pairs of 6s on top (1 point), for a total of 9 points.
  5. Straight in the back (2 points), Straight in the middle (4 points), KK on top (8 points), for a total of 14 points.

Obviously, scoring a maximum of points in OFC is your absolute goal. Therefore, options 3 and 4 will automatically be excluded from your choices. However, you can appreciate this example of how important it is for you to know all royalties by heart, otherwise, you will not be able to calculate quickly your most profitable options.

If the 9 was not in your hand, option 5 would not be available to you. In such a case, you would be forced to choose between the first two alternatives, that both offer you a total of 12 points royalties.

Which option is the best when the total points is the same in both cases? You will have to push your reflection a little deeper when you are faced with such a choice.

In this particular example and in most cases, you will have to figure out which placement offers you the best possibilities of scooping your opponents. If you decide to go with Flush-Flush, you will only have a King high card on the top row.

With such a low line, it will be difficult to scoop your opponents, especially with only one Ace in your hand and all Queens live in the deck.

Indeed, your opponents will easily make a hand such as Ace high on top or a pair of Queens on top, to prevent you from scooping them.

Always push your reflection as far as possible when making choices in this complex game. All these small steps are what will allow you to be a profitable player in OFC.

Which brings me to the best placement here, option 5, that allows you to score a maximum of points.

But, be aware of how you place these two straights. Indeed, 56789 will go in the back for sure. But many amateurs’ players will have a tendency to place A2345 in the middle as their second straight, leaving the pair of Kings with a 6 kicker on top.

Since the other 2 Kings are still live, there is a possibility that one of your opponents succeed in making such a pair on top as well, and if he does, it might very well be accompanied by a kicker such as a Queen or another big card. Therefore, it is very important that you realize that the incidence of a 6 high or 5 high straight in the middle is almost irrelevant, compared to the incidence that your Ace kicker might have on top!

That is the small difference that will allow you to scoop this hand! So in the end, the best play here would be a Straight 56789 in the back (2 points), a Straight 23456 in the middle (4 points) and pair of Kings with an Ace kicker on top (8 points), for a total of 14 points and a real chance to scoop!

Happy New Year 2020 to everyone and looking forward to seeing you all at the tables!

Meet me at the OFC tables on CoinPoker to practice your skills and enjoy the action. Open yourself a CoinPoker account today. Welcome to Fantasyland!

Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier

OFC “Progressive” World Champion

Johan