The rapid popularity of Open-Face Chinese poker has grown so quickly that there’s a tournament scheduled at the upcoming PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
Lee Jones made the announcement today on 2+2.
“All the cool kids are playing it,” Jones wrote. “It’s sufficiently popular that we’re going to have a seminar about it and a tournament ($2K+$150 buy-in) at the PCA.”
He did not indicate who would give the seminar or when it would be held. The re-entry event is slated for 1 p.m. on January 7.
Jones said he did not expect whether PokerStars would start offering Open-Face Chinese games online. “But then again, I never thought we’d offer Badugi,” he added.
Open-Face Chinese maintains the familiar poker hand rankings but otherwise has little in common with other poker games. It is typically played with 2-4 players and a rotating dealer button. A player receives 13 cards, and each player must break them into a pair of 5-card hands and a single 3-card hand.
In standard Chinese poker, the lowest value hand is placed up front with the 3-cards, the middle 5-card hand is the second strongest and the back 5-card hand the strongest. In Open-Face Chinese, however, the distribution is altered and players must make their hands without knowing all 13 at once.
Each player is initially dealt 5 cards, placing them in whatever formation they choose for the 3 separate hands. Then everyone gets one card at a time, placing each of the consecutive 8 cards accordingly, until all 3 separate hands are made.
If a player fouls his hand, meaning the ranking order is off, he pays out to others as if scooped. Once the hands are complete, the payouts are decided by hand ranking.
A player earns 1 unit for winning 2 out of 3 hands and 6 units for scooping. There are also “royalties,” a bonus for certain hand values.
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is one of the largest stops in the annual PokerStars live tourney calendar. The 10th anniversary PCA runs January 5-14 at the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island in The Bahamas.
