Best OFCP Poker Online

History of Open Face Chinese Poker

The attraction of the game is that it is almost universally played among high-stakes pros and is a good game to play in hotel lobbies in breaks between tournaments.

Some of the big Las Vegas casinos and cardrooms will spread big-money OFCP cash games in 2024 , and the WSOP is even getting in on the act, including an OFCP event in their new schedule.

In 2014, it reached the attraction of online poker. OFCP tourneys were held by TonyBet (albeit in a live casino in Prague) as part of the first World Championships of OFC. Norwegian player, Mikal Blomlie took down the world belt for €35,000.

How to Play

Working clockwise from a standard button, players are dealt five cards each. They must then assign the cards to three separate poker hands: a Front, Middle and Back. The Front Hand has three cards, and the Middle and Back hands have five cards each. The Back Hand must be better than the middle hand and the Middle Hand must be better than the Front Hand.

Once players have assigned their first five cards, they are dealt one card each until they have completed their three hands. (Note: this is very different to traditional Chinese Poker, in which each player is given their 13 cards all at once and must make three hands before showdown.)

Depending on how strong your hands are compared to your opponents, you will score points. The more hands (or rows) you win, the more points (units) you acquire.

Scoring In OFCP Online Poker

If you beat a player's corresponding hand (e.g. your front hand beats another player's front hand) you win a point. If you "sweep", or win, all three hands you bag yourself a 3-point bonus.

Players "foul" if their three hands don't follow a best-to-worst sequence from Back to Front. Fouling, or "mis-setting", means your hand is forfeited and you lose six points to every player who doesn't foul.

Royalty bonus points work generally as follows, so it's a good idea to print off a "cheat sheet" and keep it by your keyboard:

Bonus Points

Back Hand Royalties (5 cards)

 2pts Straight

 4pts Flush

 6pts Full House

10pts Quads (4 of a kind)

15pts Straight Flush

25pts Royal Flush

Middle Hand Royalties (5 cards)

4pts Straight

8pts Flush

12pts Full House

20pts Quads (4 of a kind)

30pts Straight Flush

50pts Royal Flush

Front Hand Royalties (3 cards)

1pt 6-6-x

2pts 7-7-x

3pts 8-8-x

4pts 9-9-x

5pts 10-10-x

6pts J-J-x

7pts Q-Q-x

8pts K-K-x

9pts A-A-x

10 pts 2-2-2

11 pts 3-3-3

12 pts 4-4-4

13 pts 5-5-5

14 pts 6-6-6

15 pts 7-7-7

16pts 8-8-8

17pts 9-9-9

18pts 10-10-10

19pts J-J-J

20pts Q-Q-Q

21pts K-K-K

22pts A-A-A

An alternate scoring system sees a straight 20 points awarded for three-of-a-kind in the Front hand. You can also win 20 points from every other player for "shooting the moon", or making a jack-high hand in the Back and NOT fouling.

Making "Fantasyland"

Fantasyland is a popular rule sometimes played in OFCP where a pair of queens or higher in the Front hand is awarded bonus points. On the next hand, that player can choose to have their 13 cards dealt to them all at the same time.

For Exciting Poker Online, OFCP Rocks

While you may not be gambling the kinds of stakes Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth bet without blinking, there are still games to be found on the net at friendly stakes.

The OnlinePoker.com team loves its side action, and OFCP online poker offers the best action on the web. That's why we are careful in selecting only great sites with a good range of games and solid software that can handle all the moves.

OFCP in 60 Seconds

Played for real-money in home games and casinos for years, the game is now available online.

A turn-based game in online poker, OFCP players are dealt five cards each which they must assign, FACE-UP and in full view of other players, in order to help form three separate hands: a Front Hand (with 3 cards), a Middle Hand (formed of 5 cards) and Back Hand (also formed of 5 cards).

After assigning their cards, eight more cards are dealt out to each player until they have formed three face-up hands. Points are then scored between opponents depending on the strength of their comparative hands.

Bonus points can be awarded for hitting certain hands (Flush, Royal Flush, etc) which are called 'royalties'. Sessions can go on for hours, with final points totals tallied up at the end with a cash-per-point amount calculated beforehand.

Top Tip: Don't Foul Your Hand

You don't win any points at all for fouling, and you'll forfeit far too many to other players to make it a viable option. This is where the gambling comes in: do you sit tight and form three mediocre hands that are legal, or do you risk a foul by going strong in your Back Hand but failing to hit anything useful for your Middle and Front?

To avoid a foul, make sure you have higher hands in your Back Hand, slightly lower ones in your Middle and the lowest cards in your Front Hand. Remember your Royalty Points; hitting a good Back Hand is important, but hitting a REALLY good Middle Hand is even better.

Top Tip: Pay Attention To Other Players

Look at where your opponents have placed their up-cards. Remember, it's called 'Open Face' for a reason: on the turn of every card you can see what your opponent is up to. So you need to be altering your strategy every step of the way.

There's little worth in chasing a heart flush in the Back if your two opponents already have hearts there, so maybe you need to work on a different kind of hand.

You also need to work out your 'outs' (the cards left in the deck which can help you). Just like other forms of online poker, OFCP is played with just the single deck, so you need to be working out the odds of hitting ALL THREE of your hands and having them rank in order. At the same time, you want to make sure you're not drawing to lots of low cards which will almost certainly foul your hands.