Terminology and design

Before starting with OFC Poker you have to learn some denominations. It’s important to know what the playing field looks like. We will give an overview of the terminology and design of OFC Poker. This will make it easier to learn Open Face Chinese Poker.

First things first

You can’t start playing Open Face Chinese Poker if you’ve never seen the game before. In order to make things a bit easier for new players we will guide you through the entire set-up of a game of Open Face Chinese Poker.

Playing field:

Top

Mid

Bottom

Muck

current turn

Current turn

Terminology and design

Your playing field consists of 13 positions that have to be filled by the end of a hand. This playing field is divided in 3 lines:

• a top line (indicated in the playing field above with Top)
• a middle line (indicated in the playing field above with Mid)
• and a bottom line (indicated in the playing field above with Bottom).

On the top line there’s only room for 3 cards. On the middle and bottom line each have to go 5 cards.

In the example above you can see a hand that has already been filled in with a starting turn (5 cards) and the next turn (2 cards and 1 in the muck). More about how the Game play works will follow in Lesson 4.

Current turn

In an active turn, you receive 3 (or 5 in your starting turn) cards that are placed below your playing field. These cards are yet to be placed on your playing field. Only you can see these cards. Your opponent will only be able to see your cards once they are placed on your playing field (and in the app after you have validated that you want to put them there).

“Muck”

The “muck” is also visible. Cards that you don’t use, you put aside. That is called mucking. When you muck a card, you put it away face-down so that your opponent cannot see this card. In the Days of Poker app, it’s possible to take a look at your mucked cards by clicking the eye-icon in the middle of the screen.

2 or 3 players

In this example there are 2 players. The Open Face Chinese Pineapple variation can be played with 3 players as well. An extra playing field will be there for the third player.