NoMercy OFC Crash Course: How to Build Your Hand

Wrapping your head around the rules of OFC Pineapple can be a challenge. Luckily there are a few methods and strategies that can help you speed up the process, starting with the basics of building your hand.

How to Build Your OFC Pineapple Hand

In classic OFC Pineapple, your final hand will be displayed on three lines that must respect the following order, otherwise, your hand will be invalid:

• Bottom Line of 5 cards: The highest hand of the three lines
• Middle Line of 5 cards: Must be higher than the top line
• Top Line of 3 cards: Must be beaten by the two other lines

Three card straights and flushes are not valid on the top line, therefore the best possible hand you can make there would be trip Aces, which has to be beaten by the middle line, which in turn has to be beaten by the bottom line. 

Needless to say, it is extremely rare to actually be able to place trip Aces on the top line without fouling.

On the first draw, each player receives five cards to be placed anywhere on their boards, without being able to move the cards afterward. On the next four draws, each player receives three cards and they need to discard one card while placing the remaining two on their boards.

Remember that the goal of the game is to get to Fantasyland, which will happen when you successfully place QQ or better on the top row. When you successfully do that without fouling, you will receive 14 cards all at once on the next hand, allowing you to place 13 cards of your choice on your board. You can even remain in Fantasyland as long as you are able to place quads on the bottom or trips on top.

The reason why the game is so exciting is that you are trying to make a valid board without fouling, and at the same time you are trying to place a pair of queens or better on the top row in order to go to Fantasyland, so this is a great mix of risks and rewards.

How to Calculate Points at the End of a Hand

At the end of each hand, the players will compare rows with each other using a scoring system that includes points for the lines and extra points rewarded as royalties for special combinations on specific rows. Therefore, it is true that OFC can be a little bit scary at first because of the multiple factors that need to be taken into account when it comes down to counting the points:

• Royalties accumulated on your three lines
• Royalties accumulated by each opponent on three lines
• Points for the lines against each player
• Bonuses associated with a Scoop

I will introduce an easy 3 steps method that I have developed in order to count your points as fast and as easily as possible!

Step 1: Counting Your Royalties

When your board is all set, immediately count your own royalties on each of your three rows.  No matter what your opponents hold, the total score of your own royalties will not change and will stay the same during the calculation against each player.

Step 2: Counting Your Opponents’ Royalties

Once that you know what your total number of royalties is, you will look at your opponent’s board and count his or her royalties using the very same method. If your opponent doesn’t have any royalties, you get to keep all the royalties from your hand. 

If your opponent does manage to get some royalties, you will need to subtract these from your total to get the final number of points in favor for your opponent or yourself.

Step 3: Counting the Points for Each Row and the Scoops

Now that you know how much you are owed or how much you owe for the royalties against your first opponent, you will now need to look at who wins each row using following this system:

– Winning two lines out of three: +1 point
– Winning all three lines: +6 points (Scoop)
– Fouling / busting: -6 points

This total will always be plus or minus 1 point, or plus or minus 6 points. The only and very rare exception will arise if two players have the exact same line, for example, a Pair of Queens with an Ace kicker on the top line, in which case the final total will be 0, or plus or minus 2 points, depending on who wins the other two lines.

At this stage, you add or deduct the points for the lines from your Royalties final total.  And you move to the next opponent repeating the same process.

Meet me at the OFC tables on CoinPoker to practice your skills and enjoy the action and the Fantasy ride!

– Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier
OFC “Progressive” World Champion