{"id":2153,"date":"2019-12-09T10:37:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T10:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.coinpoker.com\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2019-12-09T10:37:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T10:37:27","slug":"nomercy-ofc-crash-course-opening-with-fantasyland-cards-and-lots-of-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/nomercy-ofc-crash-course-opening-with-fantasyland-cards-and-lots-of-options\/","title":{"rendered":"NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Opening with Fantasyland Cards and lots of options"},"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.\u00a0 Stay tune and enjoy the Fantasy Ride!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now\nthat we went over the history of this fantastic game, let\u2019s focus for a while\non general advices and basic strategies. We already went over a list of\nelements such as knowing your royalties, taking your time before you act and\ncounting your live cards. In the latest blog posts, we studied a frequent\nsituation where you must choose between scoring more points or remaining in\nFantasyland. We also quickly went over a valuable concept about setting up your\ninitial cards, and we are now going deeper into that subject with multiple\nexamples of real-life openings and complete hand analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s\nhave a look at this hand that was played on CoinPoker with the one and only Tony\nG<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I received these five cards to start my board:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This is a funky opening that offers various plays, which are all debatable, especially if you are first to act. Look at the following suggestions and try to identify what you think would be the best play here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I\npersonally really like openings #2 and #4 here, but honestly, I was so\nchallenged by this opening that I consulted my dear friend, fellow poker\nplayer, amazing mathematician and OFC genius, Christoph Haller<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nChristoph confirmed, the best opening here is #2, with 3 cards flush and King\non top, so my instincts were good on this one. As he explained, this is a\npretty good start and an easy board to develop. Completing your flush in the\nback here is doable, so as paring the 10 and the King, not to mention that you\nwill have opportunities to make a second pair in the middle. You could even end\nup with 2 pairs in the back and 2 pairs in the middle with high cards such as\nQueens or Jacks in the back, that would cover your middle row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsecond best opening according to him is not far behind this one; opening #3\nwith Jack-10 in the back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreasons behind this is because of the Fantasy cards that you are holding in\nyour hand. Indeed, the King and the Queen are two precious cards, so you really\nwant to maximise these cards on the top two lines, even if that means breaking\nup a 3 cards\u2019 flush draw. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nare important concepts to remember, especially in a case where you would be\nlast to act. Indeed, if your opponents had revealed tons of hearts before it\u2019s your\nturn to open, you could decide to go with this J-10 opening on the back, instead\nof trying to draw to a dead flush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christoph\u2019s\nthird choice was opening #1 with 3 cards flush in the back and King-10 in the\nmiddle. The problem with this opening is that you really want to place one\nFantasy card on top, when you have one or more of these gold cards in your hand\nat the start. Therefore, the King in the middle here is a kind of waste,\nespecially with all the Aces being live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, and I was way off on this, as this is the opening I decided to execute in this hand; the open-ended straight opening #4 is really weak. Indeed, it gives away good Fantasyland potential, and it limits my royalties in the back at 2 points. Moreover, at least one of my live Aces might also be needed in the back.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember\nthat every situation is different! Placing in the back another 4 cards\nopen-ended straight draw that doesn\u2019t imply all these Fantasy cards might very\nwell be the best opening in lots of cases. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the hand was pretty straightforward, and for the little conclusion, here is the final score of the hand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I did\nmanage to complete my straight in the back without having to use an Ace, as I\nreceived a 9 on the same draw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nas we saw last week and just like in NLH, you shouldn\u2019t be result oriented.\nHowever, in order to always improve your game and to get better, try to think\nback and see what would have happened if you had done things differently.\nRemember your previous choices and how it would have affected the entire rest\nof the hand. By doing this regularly, you will develop a feel for the game, and\nyou will get better and better.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did\ngo through the hand all over again by studying what would have happened if I\nhad chosen optimal opening #2 to start my board. Well, as it turns out, I would\nhave ended up with a flush in the back, a straight in the middle and K-Q-10 on\ntop. With such a board, my final score against Tony would have been 9 points,\ninstead of a mere 1 point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open\nFace Chinese Poker is all about grinding, one point at the time. So, don\u2019t be\nlazy, study your openings, and invest hours of practice to start mastering this\nfantastic game!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A special thanks\nto Christoph Haller for bringing in his valuable views on these opening\noptions. You can play with him on CoinPoker under username Yoyo88. <\/em><\/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.\u00a0 Stay tune and enjoy the Fantasy Ride! Now that we went over the history of … NoMercy OFC Crash Course: Opening with Fantasyland Cards and lots of options<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2157,"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-2153","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\/2153"}],"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=2153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpoker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}