Fantasyland

An extra goal in the Chinese Poker game is to make it to Fantasyland. Making it to Fantasyland is done by forming a valid hand and placing a pair of Queens (or better) on top. If you manage to do that, you get to go to Fantasyland. Good luck!

Welcome to Fantasyland

In Open Face Chinese Poker you try to beat your opponent by forming better poker combinations and creating better hands. You score points that will help you to beat your opponent. Another way to almost ensure that you win a lot of points is by getting in Fantasyland. Fantasyland is a term that is used to describe a hand in which you receive all your cards all at once. This gives you a great advantage to your opponent. You can immediately see all the options you have and thus choose the best possible combination.

How do you get in Fantasyland?

To get in Fantasyland, the rules are simple. You have to fulfil two conditions:

• Create a valid hand
• Place a Pair of Queens (or better) on your top line

Only by creating a valid hand can you go to Fantasyland. When your hand is declared dead, even if you have Q–Q on top, you will lose that entire hand. Better luck in your next hand!

How does Fantasyland work?

In Fantasyland you get 14 cards all at once. 13 out of those 14 cards need to be distributed on your playing field, 1 is mucked. This gives you as a player an enormous advantage: you can pick out the best possible combination. Like this you will win more often.

Staying in Fantasyland

It’s also possible to stay in Fantasyland. The conditions to qualify for Fantasyland are more difficult. To receive another Fantasyland hand you will need to place:

• either a Three of a Kind on top (any Trips will do)
• or a Four of a Kind on the bottom line

We will illustrate this with an example.

1. How to get to Fantasyland

In the hand above, the two conditions for going to Fantasyland are met. The hand created is valid. The Two Pair on the bottom line (10‘s and 8‘s) are better than the Two Pair in the middle (9‘s and 2‘s). On top Q–Q will qualify you for Fantasyland.

2. Your received cards in Fantasyland

3a. Stay in Fantasyland

Muck

3b. Score more points

Muck

In Fantasyland you have multiple options for creating valid hands. Depending on the cards you receive, you’ll have to take into consideration whether you want to stay in Fantasyland or score more points.

Option 3a: Staying in Fantasyland

For staying in Fantasyland you have to place Trips on top or Four of a Kind (or better) on bottom. In the example above there’s A–A on top (9 points), Straight in the middle with 3–4–5–6–7 (4 points), Full House on the bottom with K–K–K–Q–Q (6 points). This totals to 19 Royalty points and you’ll stay in Fantasyland in the next hand.

We’ll explain the Royalty points in detail in Lesson 7.

Option 3b: Score more points