Open-Face Chinese Poker
A very different kind of poker: no betting rounds at all. Thirteen cards are arranged into three hands (top, middle, bottom), scored against each opponent's three hands.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Open-Face Chinese Poker (often shortened to "OFC") doesn't use betting rounds, a pot, or antes the way other poker variants do — instead, players score points against each other head-to-head (or across the table in a multi-way game) based on how well they arrange thirteen cards.
Setup: each player is dealt five cards to start and must place all five, one at a time, into three face-up rows: a 3-card "top" hand, and two 5-card "middle" and "bottom" hands, without being able to move a card once it's placed ("open-face" — everyone can see everyone's rows building in real time). After the initial five, players receive one card at a time (typically thirteen total, so eight more cards one at a time) and must place each immediately into one of the three rows before seeing the next card.
Critical constraint: the bottom hand must rank equal to or stronger than the middle hand, and the middle must rank equal to or stronger than the top hand. If a player's finished rows don't satisfy this (a "foul" or being "dead"), they typically score the worst possible result against every opponent for that hand.
Scoring: at the end, each player's top, middle, and bottom hands are compared individually against each opponent's corresponding row; the better hand in each row wins an agreed number of points (with bonus points, or "royalties," for especially strong hands like trips on top or quads on the bottom). Total points across all three rows (net of royalties) determine chips won or lost between each pair of players.
Strategy notes: Because every card is placed permanently and visibly as it's dealt, OFC is entirely a game of real-time hand construction and risk management (balancing strong rows against the constant threat of fouling) rather than betting-based bluffing — it plays very differently from every other game in this library and makes a great change-of-pace round at a dealer's-choice table.
Common house rules
Pineapple OFC (deal three, discard one)
The most popular modern variant deals three cards at a time (instead of one) after the initial five, requiring the player to place two and discard one each round — this speeds up the game and adds a meaningful discard decision every turn.
Fantasyland bonus round
A well-known bonus rule: a player who makes a strong-enough top hand (commonly a pair of queens or better) without fouling earns 'Fantasyland' next hand — all thirteen cards are dealt at once and placed simultaneously, a much easier and often more profitable round.
Royalty bonus scale varies by table
The exact bonus points awarded for strong hands in each row (royalties) vary considerably by house rule and should be agreed and written down before playing, since they meaningfully affect optimal placement strategy.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Chinese Poker
The original, simultaneous-deal version of Chinese Poker: all thirteen cards dealt at once, then arranged into three hands (top, middle, bottom) and scored against every opponent.
Learn the rules →Pusoy
The Filipino take on 13-card poker: all cards dealt at once and sorted into a 5-5-3 arrangement, with its own suit-ranking conventions distinct from the Chinese original.
Learn the rules →Pai Gow Poker
A banking card-table adaptation of the ancient Chinese tile game Pai Gow: each player splits seven cards into a five-card hand and a two-card hand, both of which must beat the banker's.
Learn the rules →Cheat
Also called I Doubt It or Bullshit — a pure bluffing game where players discard face-down while lying about what they played, and others may call the bluff.
Learn the rules →