Open-face Chinese
Also: OFC, open face Chinese poker, Pineapple OFC
A poker variant in which players build three hands — a five-card bottom row, a five-card middle row and a three-card top row — placing cards face up one at a time as they are dealt, with every placement final. Rows must rank in descending order from bottom to top, and a hand that breaks that order is fouled and scores nothing.
How a hand plays
Each player receives an opening batch of cards, sets them into the three rows, and then takes further cards one or a few at a time, placing each before seeing the next. Nothing can be moved once it is down. Because every card is placed face up, you are building your own board in full view of the table while watching theirs — which cards are already dead is public information, and reading it is most of the skill.
Scoring, and why it is not a pot game
Open-face Chinese does not play for a central pot. Players compare rows pairwise — bottom against bottom, middle against middle, top against top — and settle the difference in units, with a bonus for winning two of the three rows or all three. Strong holdings in particular rows earn royalties on top, which is where the real money moves: trips in the top row or a made hand in the bottom row can be worth more than the row comparisons themselves.
The Pineapple variant, now the more commonly played form, deals three cards at a time and discards one, which speeds the game up and sharply raises the chance of fouling.
The fouling discipline
Fouling is the characteristic beginner error and the reason the game rewards patience. The order of the rows is a hard constraint, not a guideline, and a player chasing royalties in the middle row will foul a perfectly good hand and lose every unit on the board. Experienced players set a conservative bottom row early and keep their options open, treating the top row as the place where awkward cards go to die.
Where it is played
Rarely as a main event; commonly as a side game, in dealer's choice rotations and in the mixed-event programmes of national championships — the Norwegian championship, for instance, runs an open-face Chinese event alongside its Hold'em and Omaha schedule. It has a strong following as an app and home game.
Related terms
Full glossaryFrequently asked questions
What does it mean to foul a hand in open-face Chinese?
To end with rows that do not rank in descending order from bottom to top — for example a middle row that outranks the bottom row. A fouled hand scores nothing and loses every unit on the board, which is the game's characteristic and most expensive mistake.
Can you move a card after placing it?
No. Every placement is final, which is what makes the game a sequence of irreversible decisions taken on incomplete information rather than a hand you can reshape at the end.
What is Pineapple OFC?
The more commonly played variant, in which cards arrive three at a time and one is discarded. It is faster than the original and fouls far more often, because you place two cards per round instead of one.