3/26/2022»»Saturday

Open Face Chinese Poker Pineapple Rules

3/26/2022

OFC Pineapple Poker, or Open Face Chinese Pineapple, is a fun variation many poker pros like to play in their downtime. Pineapple OFC is basically a sped-up version of OFC with a maximum of 3 players instead of 4. Both games start with each player dealt 5 cards which they then set into their Top, Middle or Bottom Hands. How to play OFC (Open Face Chinese Poker) The game is usually played with all the standard 52 cards. The players in the game are dealt with thirteen hole cards, and they have to fill three cards in the front hand, five cards each in the middle hand and back hand. The game begins with the left of the dealer, in clockwise direction. With the popularity of Open Face Chinese poker, a new variation has been on the rise: Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker.Pineapple OFC has become the game of choice to many high rollers due to the increased action and variance, much like Pot-Limit Omaha did for many No-Limit Holdem players.

Pineapple Open Face Chinese If you're playing the Open Face variation Pineapple, the game is similar except for one major difference. On each street, each player is dealt three cards, opposed to one. Players must then decide where to place two of the cards, discarding the third. Fundamental Features of Open Face Chinese Poker. Unlike some other Chinese poker variants, Pineapple poker is two- to the three-person game. The each player’s hand consists of 13 cards, which are placed in three rows or boxes (three cards – in the front hand, five –.

“Am I making the right move?” This is what I ask myself before I take each and every turn in Pineapple OFC. According to my score on the rating system (that I helped create), the answer is: not every time. I only get about 70 percent of tough situations correct, and have an average error of .5 points / tricky spot. This means I probably give my opponent a free point every couple of hands. With that kind of error rate, how could I even be expect to win? Well, luckily, my opponents are making even more errors than me.

Poker

The truth is we are all making a lot of mistakes in this fairly new game and unexplored game. That’s great for the fast learners, but could cost you a pretty penny if you are a late-bloomer or haven’t yet put in the effort to learn advanced OFC strategy. Let me show you four of the biggest mistakes I see players just like you make in this game time and time again:

Not Gambling for FantasyLand Enough

Sometimes the fear and embarrassment of fouling convinces you to play it safe in spots where it is clearly “game on.” You have to remember, it’s not whether you hit 50 percent of the time or more, it’s whether you make more points on average or not. Most Fantasyland gambles only need 25 percent to be worth it, so stop waiting for the golden opportunity and just go.

Open Face Chinese Poker Rules

In this spot, gambling for Fantasyland is 2.6 points better on average than playing it safe. And it doesn’t particularly even matter that our opponent will foul a significant amount of the time because our hand is just plainly better on average if we make the gamble. If you aren’t making “risky” plays in Pineapple Open Face, you are making a mistake.

Completely Senseless Gambles

Open Face Chinese Poker Strategy

Just because you can improve doesn’t mean you should. I see this problem a lot when someone has set a rather ambitious flush draw or straight draw in the middle, but hasn’t developed their back at all. It’s especially true when you hit your trips card in the middle with just one, or even two pair, in the back. This is quite often a bad time to gamble.

In this situation, putting the ace up front forces you into a runner-runner situation, where you have to make a full house on the bottom and two pair or better in the middle. That is a dream my friend, and it’s a mistake of over seven points! Do not take a good hand and throw it away simply for a chance at “the big time.”

Bailing Too Early

If you are mid-game and thinking about breaking a three-flush for a single pair in the back, you better need a really good reason. A reason like, half your flush cards are dead, you can get to Fantasyland a lot easier if you pair the back, or you will scoop your opponent a lot even with such a weak hand. Most of the time, it’s just correct to wait it out for the flush, or bail on the next street. After all, there will be six more opportunities to hit something that helps you out, just be patient.

In this hand, it can be sometimes tempting to just play it safe and put the ten in the back, especially if there are more dead diamonds. But that is just way too safe, even with 3-4 additional dead diamonds! The correct play in this exact spot is actually to gamble for Fantasyland with the queen up front and ten in the middle (because of the three of diamonds…think about it). If you are playing it “super safe” you are making a mistake of over four points, yikes.

A bird in the hand…Don’t sacrifice a great card for the back to take a big risk in the front.

Open Face Chinese Poker Pineapple Rules

Now there are plenty of times to gamble in this game, but I have found that most of the time you are presented a made hand, you should take that before risking it all for Fantasyland or the like. This problem usually arises when you get three great cards for your hand and still have to throw one (or as I like to call it, “rich people problems.”) Generally speaking, you should build the bottom/middle in this situation and throw your “gamble” card. The main reason this holds true so often is because you are throwing away an out, thus reducing your chances, plus you will have another opportunity to hit that Fantasyland card on the next draw anyways. So think about those future opportunities before throwing a perfectly good hand away.

In this situation, we have to decide whether to take Fantasyland now or take quads now… #richpeopleproblems. We don’t even have to set ourselves all-in and Fantasyland is worth approximately 14.5 points (7 for queens and around 7.5 for the added value of being in Fantasyland next hand), while quads is only worth ten points. Seems like a no brainer right? Well, actually, since we have five outs to hit Fantasyland on the next draw (45%), its 4.7 points better to play quads!!! Am I blowing your mind yet?

If any of this helped you or if I was able to help you solve one leak in your game, please let me know by tweeting at @ofcstrategy. I truly hope I was able to give some quick pointers and valuable insight into errors that I see players making all the time. To see where you stand and how many errors you’re making on a regular basis, check out openfacesolutions.com and sign up for a free trial to use our tactics trainer, simulator, and the only Open Face Chinese ranking system on the web. ♠

Derric “SixPeppers” Haynie is the author of Quantum Poker and creator of OpenFaceSolutions.com and OpenFaceStrategy.com. Check out those sites for more articles, solutions, tactics, news and information on Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker.


The players in the game are dealt with thirteen hole cards, they have to fill three cards in the front hand, five cards each in the middle hand and back hand. The game begins with the left of the dealer, in clockwise direction. The players must also keep in mind that the back hand must be stronger or equal to the middle hand and the middle hand must be stronger or equal to the front hand. The front hand should be the weakest among the other two hands.

Firstly, the dealer distributes five cardsface up to each player. The players then have to fill the five cards in the empty boxes according to the proper order, so as to gain more points. After which, the players are then dealt three cards each face down where they get to make use of only two cards laid face up on the table and discard the other one card face down. The game continues until thirteen hands are made.

Pineapple Fantasy Land

The main goal of the game is to achieve more units/points than your opponent by winning more hands/rows by collecting royalties on premium hands without fouling. Also, if you get to win more than 222+ points in your top hand, you get 17 cards in the Fantasy land, which gives you more chances of winning.

The minimum possible hand to get into fantasy land is QQ where the players get 14 cards. Subsequently, the combination of KK will give you 15 cards and the combination of AA will give you 16 cards.

Fantasy land is more of a ‘bonus’ to the game. If you get to hit the Fantasy Land, you are dealt all thirteen cards at once, and you set your cards face down. This is a big disadvantage for the other players as they are dealt in normal hand without being able to see your cards.

Open face chinese poker pineapple rules 34

In order to stay in the Fantasy Land one must score 10-point royalty or higher in any sub-hand. the following conditions must be met:

Remain in Fantasyland
Row/HandStrength of hand
Front (and/or)Any three of a kind
Middle (and/or)Full house or higher
Back (and/or)Four of a kind or higher

Dead Hand/Fouling

When a player makes an illegal hand, the hand is forfeited and as a result, it is termed as dead hand/fouling. In this case, the player losses 6 points in total i.e, 1 point per row and 3 points for scoop bonus. Players who fouled can also lose additional units if the players with legal hands achieve royalties. Also, the players who fouled, loses all the royalties in his hand and no units are counted.

It is very much important for the players to keep in mind the basic rules of the game: to keep the back hand the strongest, the middle hand slightly weaker than the back hand and the front hand the weakest. Points are added to the winner and subtracted from the loser. therefore,avoid fouling plays


Legal hand structure
Row/HandStrength of hand
Front (3 cards)3rd / Weakest hand
Middle (5 cards)2nd / Stronger
Back (5 cards)1st / Strongest

Rules for scoring in OFCP

The scores are calculated by comparing the hands of the players as in, back hand with back hand, middle hand with middle hand and front hand with front hand. In certain cases where both the players have the same hands, none of the players get any units. The players get 1 unit/point for every hand they win. And if the players win 2 hands out of 3 hands or all three hands, they get additional 1 point.

Apart from the regular scoring, the players can also get royalties, which are given to the players for making certain combinations. The points are given as a result of the combination of the hands.

Scoring Table

Play Open Face Chinese Poker

Bottom Row Royalties
BottomUnits/Points
Straight2
Flush4
Full House6
Quads (four of a kind)10
Straight flush15
Royal flush25


Middle Row Royalties
MiddleUnits/Points
Three of a kind2
Straight4
Flush8
Full house12
Quads (four of a kind)20
Straight Flush30
Royal flush50


Front Row Royalties
Front (Pairs)Units/Points
661
772
883
994
10 105
JJ6
QQ7
KK8
AA9
Front (Trial)Units/Points
22210
33311
55513
66614
77715
88816
99917
10 10 1018
JJJ19
QQQ20
KKK21
AAA22