NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Opening with Flushes (Part 5)

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. Today it’s opening with Flushes. Stay tune and enjoy the Fantasy Ride!

As explained earlier we are now covering a crucial subject in OFC: your openings. And this is a part five of blog about opening with Flushes.

Indeed, the way you will chose to place your initial 5 cards will be the foundation of your hand and it therefore represent one of the most important decision you will have to make in Open Face Chinese Poker.

We are studying all the best openings in order of the highest starting hands by ranking, until we reach the very worst opening hand with 5 rags such as 10-7-5-4-3 in 4 different suits.

Remember that one of the ultimate goals in Chinese Poker is to reach Fantasyland (FL), so starting with the most effective placement will greatly help you get there!

We already covered some of the best poker hands as we went over the possible scenarios and draws that concern a Royal Flush, a Straight Flush, Quads and Full Houses.

Let’s look at the next category in order of ranking hands: Opening with Flushes and Flush Draws.

We covered in the last blog posts situations involving 5 cards flush, 4 cards flush draws, and 3 cards flush draws served in opening and we discovered when we should keep it versus when we should split it in order to have more chances of accessing Fantasyland.

Let’s continue with the next category, where you will receive 3 cards to a flush draw, but where it will be better not to play this opening as a flush draw.

3 Cards Flush Draws in Openings that should not be played as Flushes

Case Scenario #1: If you receive 3 cards to a Flush in opening with a pair from 22 to JJ that is part of the flush draw.

In such a case, then you should play your 3 flush like you would play such a pair, and we will study these recommendations in detail in later posts when we get to the chapters on starting hands with pairs.

But in short, you will keep your pair together on the bottom line, that’s for sure.

Case Scenario #2: If you receive 3 cards to a Flush in opening that contain 2 or more Fantasyland cards (Ace, King or Queen).

In such a case, this starting hand is not played as flush but rather as an opening with 5 different cards with 2 or more Fantasyland cards.

We will study that in a later chapter about this range of openings. Indeed, as we will see and as a general rule, when you receive 2 or more Fantasyland cards in a 3 cards Flush draw, you should optimise the Fantasyland opportunity and put these cards in the middle and on top.

It is more important to focus on this FL possibility, and as such, you can dismiss the flush draw and play these cards as if they were off-suit.

Note that this rule would also be true if you received 3 cards to a Royal or Straight Flush such as A-K-Q of spades with 2 rags.

You should play these huge cards as if they were off-suit by placing the King and Queen on top, the Ace in the middle, and one or two of the other cards in the back, according to their connecting possibility.

Be aware of the reasons why you make every single decision in OFC. That’s how you will become a winning player!

Rendezvous next week for the continuation of these series of tips on Open Face Chinese Poker!

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!

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Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier

OFC “Progressive” World Champion

Jump to the next part: Opening with Flushes (Part 6)