Open Face Chinese Poker Scoring Chart

Free Open Face Chinese Poker
Open Face Chinese Poker

Open face chinese poker scoring usually one of the most frequented parts of a casino. Allowed with open face chinese poker scoring limitationsGoogle allows government-controlled gambling (horse, motorboat, bicycle and auto racing), but only announcements from the event organizers. Learn more about our other exciting table games, slots, and more!

A variation of Chinese Poker called Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC) has been spreading wildly across the world. In OFC the basic gameplay is as follows:

Each player is dealt five cards initially.
These cards are set in either the front, middle or back hands in any way the player sees fit.
Play continues in rounds with each player being dealt one card at a time and placing that card in any available hand.
Play rotates clockwise with the ‘under the gun‘ player always revealing his cards first. This process is repeated until all players have been dealt 13 total cards.
The hands and royalties are scored and each player settles with the other players. Rules for fouling a hand are the same as traditional Chinese Poker.

General rules:

A 52-card deck is used (2 to Ace, excluding Jokers). The card suits are equivalent.
The maximum 3 number of players at a table
17 pocket cards.
13 of 17 cards must be laid out into 3 boxes.
The remaining 4 cards must be discarded.
No community cards.
No betting rounds (no blinds, ante, etc.)
Every player at a table takes one seat with 3 boxes to lay 13 cards out into (5 cards into the middle and back (the lowest) boxes, 3 cards into the front box (the highest). At the end of a hand, the back box hand must be stronger than or equal to the middle box hand, and the middle box hand must be stronger than or equal to the front box hand.
The game is played for points. The goal of the game is to achieve more points than your opponents by winning more hands and/or by collecting royalties on premium hands.
Point score is the cost of one point (for example, 1 cent for 1 point). The calculation is made at the end of a match.
Cap – the maximum limit of loss in one match. Thus, over a match, a player can lose the maximum amount of money equaling to that specified in Cap.

Hand Structure in Open Face Chinese

In both traditional Chinese Poker and Open Face, players will look at their cards and begin setting up three different poker hands,

A three card hand, known as the Front
A five card hand, known as the Middle
Another five card hand known as the Back

For a hand to be valid, the back hand must be the strongest of the three hands in accordance with traditional poker hand rankings. The middle hand must be of a lower rank than the back hand, but higher than the front hand. The front hand must be the lowest strength. A valid hand would look like:

Front – 2 2 7 (Pair of Twos)
Middle – A A 4 4 J (Two pairs: Aces & Fours)
Back – 8 9 T J Q (Straight)

Fouling in Open Face Chinese

If the order of strength does not go front to back, weakest to strongest, it is called a fouled hand.

For example,

Front – 2 2 7 (Pair of Twos)
Middle – K K 3 3 9 (Two Pairs: Kings & Threes)
Back – Q Q 8 8 J (Two Pair: Queens & Eights)

Scoring in Open Face Chinese

Once all three hands have been set, players will compare front, middle and back hands. Each hand is worth one point. If one player has won two of the three hands they will score 1 point (winning two points and losing one for a net of +1 points). More points can be earned if the player wins all three hands, known as scooping. Players can also earn points by making high ranking hands known as royalties.

A player scoops the hand by winning all three showdowns with their front, middle, and back holdings. The player is awarded one point for each showdown won, and three bonus points for scooping for a total of six points.

When a player has fouled their hand, it counts as an automatic scoop and is worth six points. If both players have fouled their hand, the game is considered a tie.

Royalties Chart

Front, middle and back rows may earn points for making certain hands as long as the hand does not foul. The type of royalties and how much they are worth varies from game to game. Below is one common scoring chart:

Multi Player Scoring

In a game with more than two players, scores are settled by position. The player under the gun will settle with each player in a clockwise order. The player to the left of the under the gun player will then settle their debts. This continues until are players have paid.

If a player fouls in a multi-player game, that player will pay 6 units to each player plus any royalties on hands that have not fouled.

Fantasyland

Fantasyland is a type of ‘bonus round’ in Chinese Poker. A player may enter Fantasyland when they have made a pair of Queens or better in the front hand without fouling.

Entering Fantasyland means that on the next hand, they receive all 13 cards at once. They make all three hands at once, a huge advantage as they’ll be able to see if they hit any straights or flushes in advance, and lay cards perfectly without any risk of fouling.

Other players play as normal, with just one card dealt at a time. The button does not move during Fantasyland – this is considered a continuation on the previous hand.

A player may stay in Fantasyland (and receive the same advantage next hand) if they make any of the following hands:

Three of a kind in the front
Full House or better in the middle
Four of a Kind or better in the back

Related Topics:

One card game that has seen its popularity increase substantially over the past few years is open-face Chinese poker. Its popularity has been aided by the unique Chinese poker scoring system that allows players to win part of a round and, therefore, lower the variance experienced.

It is a game that made its way to the United States during 2012 and since then has seen major card rooms such as Bellagio and Wynn casinos in Las Vegas spread Chinese poker at its poker tables, and TonyBet Poker open the only real money open-face Chinese poker online site.

The relative simplicity and the fact a single round can be over in five-to-ten minutes have helped the game spread around the world faster than any other card game played today. All you need are a deck of cards and at least two players, and you’re ready to go.

Like its rules, open-face Chinese poker scoring is also easy to understand. While there are several variations of the Chinese poker scoring system, the most commonly used is known as the 1-6 method, and it is this that we will look at today.

Before you can work out how to calculate points in Chinese poker, you have to complete a round of it, meaning that you and your opponent will have a board that looks similar to the one shown in the image below, one that has all 13 cards of the players face-up.

Free Open Face Chinese Poker

In the popular 1-6 Chinese poker scoring, players receive a single point for winning each row: 1 point for winning the top (or front) row, 1 point for winning the middle row, and 1 point for winning the bottom (or back) row. Should a player win all three rows, that player wins three bonus Chinese poker points and is said to have “scooped.” However, if you only win two of the three rows, you win 1 point overall.

In the example above, Thomas won all three rows — helped by the fact that Tony fouled his hand — and was awarded a total of 6 points.

Chinese Poker Scoring: Bonuses

To encourage players to try and make big hands, there are a number of ways to earn bonus Chinese poker points. These bonus points are awarded regardless of the player winning or losing the hand.

We’ll use an actual example of a hand to show how to calculate Chinese poker points.

Thomas loses the top line because his jack-high is weaker than Tony’s queen-high, so he loses a point and Tony wins a point. Thomas then wins the middle because he has a pair of sevens to beat Tony’s ace-high.

The bottom line is where things become interesting because Thomas has a higher straight and wins. As he has made a straight at the back, he should receive 2 points, but because Tony also has a straight (albeit a weaker one), the bonuses cancel each other out.

Bonus points are awarded based on the strength of the hand and its location on the board.

Having a pair of sixes on the top line gives a +1 bonus and this increases by one as the hand increases in strength, up to a maximum of +22 should you manage to have at the top.

Meanwhile in the middle three-of-a-kind awards +2, a straight +4, a flush +8, a full house +12, quads +20, a straight flush +30, and a Royal Flush +50.

There are also bonus Chinese poker points awarded for strong hands on the bottom line in the 1-6 Chinese Poker scoring method. There a straight gives +2, a flush +4, a full house +6, quads +10, a straight flush +15, and a Royal Flush +25.

Chinese Poker Scoring: Fantasyland

Those of you who have been researching open-face Chinese poker will no doubt have heard of the term Fantasyland. While it may sound like a theme park opened by a pop star, it serves as a bonus round in Chinese poker.

To enter Fantasyland, you need a pair of queens or better on top. Making a pair of queens on the top line itself nets you a +7 bonus, but getting to Fantasyland can prove even more profitable.

Once in Fantasyland, the usual Chinese Poker scoring system still applies except here you receive all 13 cards at once instead of the starting five and then one at a time. You are able to set your cards all at once, then wait for your opponent to play his or her hand according to the standing rules.

Being in Fantasyland gives you a massive advantage over your opponent because you can quickly see if it is possible to make strong hands in each row and therefore potentially win large bonuses.

You can stay in Fantasyland for another round by making at least three-of-a-kind deuces on top, or a full house in the middle, or quads at the back. Do this and you’ll soon see the Chinese poker points rack up and earn you big wins at the table.

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