Origin | Finland |
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Alternative names | Open Face Chinese, OFC, OFCP |
Players | 2–4 |
Skills | Tactics, strategy |
Cards | 52 |
Deck | French |
Rank (high→low) | A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 |
Play | Clockwise |
Playing time | 5 -10 min. per round |
Chance | Medium to High |
Related games | |
Chinese poker Pai gow poker |
Open-face Chinese poker, OFCP, commonly known as Open Face Chinese or OFC, is a variant of Chinese poker where players receive five cards to start and then one card at a time until each player has a 13 card hand legal or not. The game originated in Finland during the mid-2000s and spread to Russia a few years later. Professional poker player Alex Kravchenko, who is credited with introducing the game to the Russian high-stakes community, describes the game as "spreading like a virus".[1] The game was introduced to the United States in 2012.[2]
In December 2014, TonyBet hosted the first-ever World Championship of OFC where Jennifer Shahade won the High Roller and Mikal Blomlie won the Main Event.[3][4] On Monday, Dec. 7th, 2015, TonyBet Poker Ambassador Isabelle Mercier became the first Open-Face Chinese Poker Progressive Pineapple world champion.[5]