Back in February of this year, Phenom Poker Tournament Director Andrew Yeh told PokerOrg that one of the site's goals was to build a platform "where everyone can play every game imaginable."
Yeh wasn't bluffing.
After a beta testing period to iron out the kinks, the site has unleashed yet another poker variant on its player base: Open-Face Chinese Poker.
Phenom teased out the game's release in its April State of the Game report (linked above) – and now it's here.
Learning the basics
Open-Face Chinese Poker is a set-building poker game. If you're unfamiliar with the rules, we'll run through the basics below.
Each player builds three poker hands from the cards they are dealt, arranged in rows.
- Top (Front): 3 cards
- Middle: 5 cards
- Bottom (Back): 5 cards
The goal is simple: arrange your hands in order from weakest (Top) to strongest (Bottom) without breaking that order.
Unlike most poker variants, there is no betting of chips involved in Open-Face Chinese Poker. Instead, players battle for points based on hand strength and bonuses.
The Initial Deal sees each player receive five cards which they then place face up in any of their three hands. The Placement Rounds sees players receive three new cards each turn – they choose two to play and one to discard and continue in this fashion until all hands are full, a total of 13 cards per player. Once each player completes their board, the hands are compared by row/line and points are awarded for each row won, along with any bonuses.
For each row you win, you gain a point. For each row you lose, you concede a point. If any player manages to win all three rows, you gain a 3 point Sweep Bonus.
A sample hand from Phenom Poker's newest addition to the site: Open-Face Chinese Poker. That's the basics, but there are more specifics – and further variants within the game – outlined on the Phenom Poker Open-Face Chinese Poker rules page.
