NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Take Your Time

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 tune and enjoy the Fantasy Ride!

Now that we went over the history of this fantastic game, let’s focus for a while on general advices and basic strategies. Let me guide you through some primary recommendations to help elevate your game if you are a new player!

We already saw how important and valuable it is to learn all the royalties and to know them by heart, as well as to know your opponent in order to maximise your profits in OFC. My next advice is to take your time. I know it may sound silly, but believe me, too often we tend to play too fast, inevitably making some mistakes in the process. 

When playing OFC on CoinPoker, you will have a decent time bank allowed to play your hand, so my advice is to use it wisely and to double-check your board before clicking on your mouse. I have made in the past a straight flush in the middle by mistake, obviously not beating my “regular” Ace high flush in the back. That made me bust out of the hand by my own fault.  It’s a grotesque example, nevertheless true, but let’s take deeper look at this concept with the following example:

Instinctively, players tend to try to make the best hand possible, by positioning the King in the middle to make two pairs, leaving the garbage “8” on top.  However, in this particular case, if you take some time to look more closely, you will see that the King in the middle will do no good for you, as your pair of Aces is already bigger than your opponent’s pair of Jacks in the middle. Moreover, two pairs won’t give you any royalty for that line, so there is really no point in that placement. Plus, your Q85 on top will end up being beaten by your opponent’s Q97. 

However, if you place this King on top instead, it will make you win both of those lines! Overall, instead of losing the top line as you would by placing the King in the middle, you will actually Scoop your opponent by placing it on top!  This is a huge difference, making you win 5 extra points with this placement versus the previous one, so this is definitely the right way to play this hand. 

Remember to take your time and do not forget that the goal is not always to make the highest hand on each line, but to take a maximum of points!

Meet me at the OFC tables on CoinPoker to practice your skills and enjoy the action. Welcome to Fantasyland!

Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier

OFC “Progressive” World Champion