NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Learn all the royalties

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.  Stay tune and enjoy the Fantasy Ride!

Now that we went over the history of this fantastic game, let’s focus for a while on general advices and basic strategies. First, let’s remember that you will access Fantasyland when you successfully place a pair of Queens or better on the top line. You also have to know that when you are in Fantasyland, the only ways to stay there in Classic Pineapple will be to make Trips on top, or Four of a kind in the back. Let me guide you through some primary recommendations to help elevate your game if you are a new player!

First off, before you start playing OFC, you have to look at the points and bonuses and learn them by heart.  It might seem obvious to know the rules of the game, but I promise you that there are a lot of recreational players who play intuitively, not knowing how many points they will get at the end of the hand, and letting the computer do the maths for them.  This is kind of lazy, because according to the points and bonuses that we can make, we will set our cards in different ways… and that’s even more true when we are in Fantasyland! 

Indeed, in this special configuration, we will often have many possibilities and choices to make.  What options can make me scoop?  Which placement will give me the most bonuses?  What will allow me to stay in Fantasyland?  In order to make the best possible decisions, you absolutely have to know the royalties by heart! 

Let’s look at the following example. Let’s say you receive these cards in Fantasyland:

Very often, inexperienced players will quickly put their Quads in the back and their Full House in the middle, leaving the crappy cards on top:

In this particular case, the Quads royalty is 10 points, and the Full House in the middle is 12 points, for a total of 22 points.  Not bad…  Yet, it seems quite unlikely to scoop your opponent with this board, because of the K high on top.  That being said, let’s go back to the example, but this time we will place the same cards in a different manner:

This scenario seems less impressive, as the Flush royalty in the back is only 4 points and Trips in the middle is a mere 2 points. But, the bonus for trip 9s on top is 17 points!  That’s a slight difference compared to the first placement, as here we get a total of 23 points instead of 22 points.

Moreover, and most importantly, with a hand that strong on every line, there is a real possibility to scoop your opponents and win another 6 points on top of your 23!  You can make more money, simply because you placed your cards differently, thanks to your knowledge of the points and bonuses!  If you don’t want to memorize all the royalties that exist, remember at least one thing; when you can actually place trips on top, it’s probably the right play.  And it will also make you stay in Fantasyland for another round!

Meet me at the OFC tables on CoinPoker to practice your skills and enjoy the action. Welcome to Fantasyland!

Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier

OFC “Progressive” World Champion