Going for Fantasyland in Open Face Chinese Poker

In the hot game of Open Face Chinese (OFC) poker, fantasyland is just what it sounds like: a poker player’s wildest dreams come true. By removing a good portion of the luck of the draw while simultaneously giving you tons of options, fantasyland may be the key to winning big in your next game of OFC.

Although aggressively going for fantasyland can put you at increased risk of fouling your hand, it pays off big time when you do hit it. Here’s how to boost your odds and make it happen.

How it Works

Basically, fantasyland lets you put out all your cards at once, instead of only getting a few at a time. This means that you can arrange them in the optimal configuration and not have to worry about whether or not you’ll hit the card you need. You know what you’ve got, and you get to make the most of it.

To get the fantasyland, you need a pair of queens or better (kings, aces, or the rare set of trips) in the top row, and of course you can’t foul the hand. If you want to stay there, you’ll need to have either quads or better on the bottom, a full house or better in the middle, or trips on top.

It’s not easy to get there or stay there, but it’s hard to beat once you do make it.

The Queen’s Gambit

One of the best moves you can make to optimize for fantasyland is putting queens on the top row. That way if you get a single other queen, then you have the pair of queens, and you only need kings or better on the middle row to prevent a foul. It can also be good to put a king on top if you don’t get queens, and for that reason aces are always good in the middle because a single pair will beat the queens or kings.

This play is much more conservative than putting the aces on top and then forcing yourself to get at least two pairs in the middle. Of course, if you do manage to pull it off, you’ll probably win more points, but remember that making it to fantasyland in the first place is the big payoff you want, not just to win as many points as possible in the hand.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you’re playing against people who are already in fantasyland, you want to make high-risk high-reward plays. Since fantasyland gives them such a big edge, you need to either play to make monster hands or do everything in your power to make it to fantasyland on the next hand. A mediocre hand simply won’t cut it since your opponents are almost never going to foul in fantasyland.