2-7 Open-Face Chinese Poker Rules
Introduction
Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7 in the
Middle — a.k.a. “2-7 OFC” or “Deuce Pineapple” — 7️⃣ is a turn-based card game that is
played heads up, or sometimes three-handed. Players take turns, drawing cards and
placing 7️⃣ them into three separate poker hands. Each of these hands is played face up,
meaning that players can see all 7️⃣ of the cards that have been played, and these cards
can’t be moved between each player’s three poker hands once 7️⃣ they have been placed.
The
“Deuce” designation means that the middle poker hand is played according to the
rankings used in 7️⃣ 2-7 lowball, while the other two hands are played as regular “high”
poker hands. The game might sound complicated, but 7️⃣ it really isn’t.
Here we go over the
poker rules for 2-7 Open-Face Chinese.
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Objective
The
objective of 2-7 Open-Face Chinese is to 7️⃣ place 13 cards into three hands: a five-card
bottom hand, a five-card middle hand, and a three-card top hand.
As noted, 7️⃣ the game
plays just like high-only Pineapple OFC, except with the middle played as a 2-7 lowball
hand. This means 7️⃣ that your bottom hand is a regular five-card poker hand (with flushes,
straight and full houses), the top hand is 7️⃣ a three-card high hand (including pairs,
trips, but no three-card straights or flushes), while the middle hand must contain five
7️⃣ low cards with no pairs, no straights, and no flushes. The lower these cards the
better.
Poker Face Meaning – What 7️⃣ Is a Poker Face and How to Get a Good One?
Taking
Turns and Discarding
The game is called Open-Face Chinese Poker 7️⃣ (or OFC for short)
because you’re building these three hands face up a few cards at a time.
As with all
7️⃣ Open-Face games, you start by getting dealt five cards and place them all. On
subsequent turns (following the procedure used 7️⃣ in Pineapple OFC), you get three cards
face down and place two of them in any of the available rows 7️⃣ (bottom, middle or
top).
The unused card then gets discarded face down. Discards are out of play, and not
shuffled back 7️⃣ into the deck, and your opponents are not allowed to see your discards.
Therefore there are only enough cards in 7️⃣ a deck to play Deuce Pineapple OFC either
heads-up or three-handed.
Fantasyland and "Super Fantasyland"
If you make a qualifying
hand with 7️⃣ kings or better up top, or a wheel — 2x3x4x5x7x — in the middle, then on the
next hand you 7️⃣ enter Fantasyland. Just like in high-only Pineapple OFC, in Fantasyland
you get 14 cards right away and set 13 of 7️⃣ them into three rows face down while
discarding one. Your opponents then play out their hands normally, and the result 7️⃣ is
scored against your hand.
You can stay in Fantasyland, earning another round in this
advantageous position, by making a big 7️⃣ enough bonus. For Deuce Pineapple you need
either trips (three of a kind) on top, a wheel low in the 7️⃣ middle, or quads (four of a
kind) or better on the bottom to remain in Fantasyland.
Meanwhile, in a twist from
7️⃣ high-only Pineapple OFC, you can also earn a 15-card “Super Fantasyland” round by
qualifying for Fantasyland twice in the same 7️⃣ normal hand. Here, for example, the player
qualifies for Super Fantasyland by making both aces on top and a wheel 7️⃣ in the
middle:
This double-bonus is rare, but well worth it. If you stay in Fantasyland,
“Super” or otherwise, you get 7️⃣ a normal 14-card Fantasyland hand.
Qualification and
Scoring
To make a qualifying hand, your top hand must be no better (as a 7️⃣ normal poker
hand) than your bottom hand. And your middle low hand must be at least a ten-low,
meaning that 7️⃣ your biggest card is no higher than a ten without a pair, a straight, or a
flush. As with other 7️⃣ Chinese Poker variants, a disqualified or “fouled” hand
automatically loses every row.
The three rows are scored against your opponent with 7️⃣ the
winner of each row getting +1 point. If you win all three rows, this also results in a
+3 7️⃣ scoop bonus. In addition to winning, scooping, and possible Fantasyland
qualification, you also get points for any bonuses earned by 7️⃣ a qualifying hand, even if
that hand loses the row.
Bonuses for the bottom hand start with a straight, the low
7️⃣ middle hand with a nine-low, and the top row with a pair of sixes. Full bonuses are
listed here:
Conclusion
There you 7️⃣ have it. Welcome to Open-Face Chinese Poker with 2-7
in the Middle — or “Deuce Pineapple”.
OFC rules have been contributed 7️⃣ by Nikolai
Yakovenko. Known as "Googles," Yakovenko is originally from Moscow, Russia and is now a
poker player and software 7️⃣ developer residing in Brooklyn, New York. Yakovenko has made
both World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour final tables. 7️⃣ Meanwhile after several
years at Google New York working on ranking algorithms, he's been developing
independent software projects ever since. 7️⃣ He also helped create the ABC Open-Face
Chinese Poker iPhone App. You can follow Yakovenko on Twittter at @ivan_bezdomny.
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