{"id":2132,"date":"2019-12-02T10:29:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T10:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.coinpoker.com\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2019-12-02T10:29:47","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T10:29:47","slug":"nomercy-ofc-crash-course-opening-with-4-cards-flush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/nomercy-ofc-crash-course-opening-with-4-cards-flush\/","title":{"rendered":"NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Opening with 4 cards Flush"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello everyone! Welcome to my personal blog on OFC Pineapple (Open Face Chinese Poker). Week after week, I\u2019ll 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!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over\nthe last weeks, we saw how important it was to keep a pair on the same line\nwhen you receive it. The examples we saw were cases where you had a choice\nbetween going for a flush in the back with 3 cards, while splitting your pair,\nor keeping the pair on the bottom line and forgetting about trying to make a\nflush. In most cases, not splitting your pair will be the correct play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nwhat if you receive a pair and 4 cards flush draw in your opening?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go over an analysis of a hand that presented itself to me recently while playing on CoinPoker. I received these five cards to start my board, and I was on the button, which means I got to see 10 cards before making my decision:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With these precise 5 cards, I regularly see players choosing to open in 2 different ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\nare many things to take into consideration here. First of all, one of our opponents\nalready shows a King, which mean that there are only 2 Kings left in the deck\nto access Fantasyland, should we choose to place our King on top. Second of\nall, our other opponent shows 3 cards in clubs on his bottom line, so that\nleaves us with only 6 clubs, should we decide to draw to the flush as well.\nThird of all, no one has exposed a 10 yet, so that makes 2 live cards for us to\nmake a pair in the middle with our 10 of diamonds. For all these reasons, the\nbest play here would be to go for the 4 cards flush draw in the back, and to\nsplit our pair of 10s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\naware that every situation is different and that is what makes this game so\nbeautiful and stimulating! Receiving 4 cards to a flush in opening will often\nresult in going for the flush in the back, but this is not an automatism that\nyou should have. Always look out for the pros and cons in every situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the next draw, I received very interesting cards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I say interesting cards, I mean that all my 9s are live, and all my Aces are live, which is quite rare after there are 19 cards exposed out there. Therefore, I could go in two different ways, and both would somehow be defendable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst option here is the classic way to go: Flush in the back, Aces in the\nmiddle, Queens on top. This would be an automatic placement if the Queens were\nall live. But as you can observe in one of our opponent\u2019s board, the Queen of\nclub is now dead, which leaves us with only 2 Queens to access Fantasyland.\nMoreover, it will be really difficult to access it with a pair of Kings, since\nonly 2 Kings are still live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond option is less conventional but offers a creative way of play, a little\nbit like thinking out of the box. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed,\nwith this option, all our 9s are still live to make two pairs or trips, and we\nstill have two 10s that are also live. All the Jacks are live, and two 8s, two\n7s, two Queens and two Kings still remain in the deck, which means we could\neventually make a straight there. Plus, all the Aces are live to access Fantasyland\nwith that pair on top, not to mention that even without that pair, a sole Ace\nmight make us scoop everyone else with a high card on top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas a difficult choice, but without an AI solver such as Pluribus beside me, I\nhad to go for one option or the other, and I chose the conventional way with\nthe Ace in the middle and the Queen on top. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is\nat least one considerable advantage with this play, in the sense that if I\ncomplete my flush in the back, my board is already valid as my middle line\nbeats my top line, which would not have been the case, if I had chosen to place\nmy 10-9 in the middle and my Ace on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s see the next draws on this hand to observe how things evolve. The next cards that I received were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At\nfirst sight, it is very tempting to place the Ace in the middle right away. But\nby taking a closer look, you can count all the clubs out there and you will get\nto an incredible total of 12 clubs. You know what that means? It means that\nthere is only one club left in that deck. It also means that you have better\nchances to hit an Ace than a club here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover,\nplacing the Ace in the back will guarantee you to win that line over those two\nopponents, as none of them will be able to make a higher flush. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the Ace will go on the back for sure. But what about the 9 or the 8? In this case, you can see that there is only one 8 remaining in the deck, as opposed to two 9s, so that card will go in the middle as it is more live. On the next draw, I received the following cards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At this\npoint and with two Kings and two Queens still in the deck, we want to keep our\ntop line open and beat at least one of our opponents in the middle with two\npairs Aces and 10s. Since there is only one Ace live in this deck, it wouldn\u2019t\nprobably be the best play here to place the 10 in the middle and the Ace on\ntop. Keep in mind however that this Ace could get you to win the top lines,\nwhich should be a non-negligible aspect of your decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the quick conclusion, after placing my A-10 in the middle, I did receive these cards on the next draw:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you\ncan see, this is\u2026 JACKPOT! My board is now valid, and I am ready to go in\nFantasyland! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But,\nremember the thinking out of the box option? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\nhad chosen to place the 9 in the middle and the Ace on top, we would have\nplaced our Ace of club in the back and our second 9 in the middle on the\nfollowing draw. After that, we would have placed our 10 of spade in the middle,\nand our Ace of spade on top, meaning that we would have been all cleared to\naccess Fantasyland with one draw remaining! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, instead of making a mere 4 points as this is the case with our Queens on top, we would have made 7 points against our left opponent (1 for the Royalties and 6 for the scoop) and 6 points against our right opponent (5 for the Royalties and 1 for the lines), for an amazing total score of 13 points instead of 4! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just\nlike in NLH, you shouldn\u2019t be result oriented. However, in order to always\nimprove your game and get better, try to think back and see what would have\nhappened if we had done things differently. Remember your previous choices and\nhow it would have affected the entire rest of the hand. By doing this\nregularly, you will develop a feel for the game, and you will get better and\nbetter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet me at the\nOFC tables on CoinPoker to practice your skills and enjoy the action. Welcome\nto Fantasyland!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabelle \u201cNo Mercy\u201d Mercier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OFC \u201cProgressive\u201d World Champion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone! Welcome to my personal blog on OFC Pineapple (Open Face Chinese Poker). Week after week, I\u2019ll 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! Over the last weeks, we saw how important … NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Opening with 4 cards Flush<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[189],"tags":[62,75,92,93,95,96,97,98,106,130],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy","tag-fantasyland","tag-isabelle-mercier","tag-nomercy","tag-ofc","tag-ofc-pineapple","tag-ofc-pineapple-strategy","tag-ofc-rules","tag-ofc-strategy","tag-open-face-chinese-poker","tag-poker-strategy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}