NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Opening with a pair of Queens (Part 3)

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 tuned and enjoy the Fantasy Ride!

Over the last OFC Crash Course tips, we reviewed different openings and we went through some real-life hand analysis. There are multiple different possible scenarios in OFC, and we will continue to study what are the optimal plays according to each situation. At the moment, we are continuing our deep study about opening with Queens and all possible scenarios when receiving such a pair to start your hand.

After reviewing all possible best strategies, we will move on to opening with Kings, Aces, 3-Flush, 2 Pairs, Open-ended straight draw, and so on.

Remember that OFC is a mastermind complex game and there will ALWAYS be exceptions if you are second or last to act or depending on the format you are playing: Heads-up or three-handed. 

For the simplicity of these series of tips about openings, we will assume that we are first to act in a Heads-Up play.

We already covered a few different cases about opening with Queens, such as opening with Queens and an Ace and opening with Queens and 3-Flush draw.

What about opening with Queens and another pair?

As most of OFC scenarios, there is not a black or white answer for this, and it will all depend on the pair that you receive with your Queens, but most importantly, it will depend on the 5^th card that you receive with your initial five cards.

Let’s suppose that you receive these 5 cards to start your hand:

Remember the optimal strategies that we studied over the last series of tips and try to identify how you would open with this?

Which above option would you choose?

If you decided to go with option number #1 or number #2, you made the wrong choice. Indeed, these are not optimal openings in this particular case, and most of the time, you will end up fouling your hand.

The risk is not worth the reward in such a case, as even with a valid board, QQ on top will only be worth 7 points, and the average Fantasyland score, in the long run, will give you 8 points. These points do not compensate for the number of times that you will end up busting out, because you rushed to place your Queens on top in the opening, without proper support such as an Ace or a King, as we saw previously.

Therefore, the correct play here will be option #3, even if that means forsaking those two Fantasyland’s cards that you received to start your hand.

Moreover, remember that placing QQ in the back does not mean that you will not access Fantasyland!

Indeed, you can also succeed in making a pair of Aces or Kings on top. They will do the job just fine, will be worth more royalties than Queens, and will give you a serious opportunity to scoop your opponent with a strong back starting with big cards such as QQ.

On that note, and to conclude these strategies about opening with a pair of Queens accompanied by another pair, look at the following initial 5 cards and reflect on what would be the best play here?

Rendezvous next week to find the answer!

Meet me at the OFC tables on CoinPoker to practice your skills and enjoy the action. Open yourself a CoinPoker account today. Welcome to Fantasyland!

Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier

OFC “Progressive” World Champion