Poker guide
Open face chinese poker sets cards in the open, row by row
Open face chinese poker deals you cards face up and makes you place each one into a 13-card layout before you see the rest. The top row holds three cards. The middle and bottom hold five each. Bottom must beat middle, and middle must beat top, or the hand fouls. Royalties are extra points for strong rows, and the point values belong on your written sheet. This is not Hold'em.
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9 min readPublished by PVPspinArena · Updated
Part of our Poker series. New to the topic? Start with How to play poker: blinds, streets, showdown and rake.
A layout you build in public
Open face chinese poker is a setting game. You are not betting streets against a board.
You are filling three rows while opponents watch every card land. In the common deal you set five cards first, then one card at a time until thirteen cards are placed.
A house that deals different counts must say so before the first point.
The top row is three cards. The middle is five.
The bottom is five. Poker rankings apply inside the five-card rows.
The three-card row is usually scored as a pair, three of a kind, or high card. A house that scores a three-card straight should write that exception down, because many sheets do not.
Once a card is set, the common rule says it cannot move. That is the entire tension. A queen you park on top to chase a royalty may be the queen you needed in the middle.
How to play poker teaches Hold'em streets. Those streets do not place a card into a row. Treat them as a different sport that happens to share ranks.
In the common opening, the first five cards are the layout's foundation. Park the strongest unfinished structure on the bottom, a middle that can still grow without passing the bottom, and a top that does not already beat the middle. Queens on top from that first fan look like a royalty and often become the foul you cannot slide away.
A later card is a one-way door. When it fits two rows, choose the row that stays legal even if the next card is a brick.
If no legal slot remains, set the card and score the foul. Hiding the layout until the end only makes the sheet louder.
Write the score after every hand, and have both players see the total. A royalty you cannot explain does not get a number. The sheet stays short so the argument stays inside one layout.
Open face chinese poker rules for the three rows
Open face chinese poker rules
At the end, compare your top with their top, your middle with their middle, and your bottom with their bottom. Winning a row scores the unit you agreed, often one point.
Sweeping all three rows may carry a bonus if your sheet says so. The sheet is the authority.
This article will not pretend one app's bonus is global.
Bottom must be stronger than middle. Middle must be stronger than top.
If either test fails, you foul. A fouled hand does not win rows.
It pays the foul settlement your sheet names. Some sheets charge a flat number.
Some charge the opponent's royalties plus row points. Write which one you mean.
| Row | Cards | Must beat | Common royalty idea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 3 | nothing above it | a high pair, often queens or better, if the sheet says so |
| Middle | 5 | the top row | trips or better, points not published here as a universal number |
| Bottom | 5 | the middle row | a strong five-card hand, points not published as one chart |
There is no flop. Texas Hold'em rules will not tell you where to put the fourth card. The poker topic still helps if you need ordinary five-card rank order for the middle and the bottom.
Points, a house game, and a Hold'em fee that is not yours
Home open-face is usually scored in points and settled at a dollar per point the players named. That price is your agreement.
A casino or an app may charge a fee per hand. That fee is not published here.
A house-banked table game, if a pit offers one, has an edge that is also not published here.
We do not list a promo code for an open-face app. PVPspinArena does not deal this game. The poker it deals is six-max No-Limit Hold'em, and the fee is 5% of the pot only after a flop.
| Open-face sheet | House-banked casino | PVPspinArena | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you play | three rows, face up | not published | six-max No-Limit Hold'em |
| Score | points on your sheet | not published | a pot between players |
| Price | dollars per point you wrote | not published | 5% of the pot only after a flop |
| Promo code | not a brand deal | not published | we do not list a promo code |
| Account | cash at the end of the sheet | not published | US dollars from Bitcoin, or USDC or ETH on Base |
Video poker paytables is another place people confuse a fixed pay schedule with a player-versus-player pot. Open-face royalties are closer to a sheet you wrote than to a slot paytable.
A kitchen point sheet, then a post-flop Hold'em pot
Dollar example 1, a home sheet. The group set the unit at $1 a point.
You win all three rows, which is 3 points on this sheet, and the sheet awards 2 extra points because the top row is a pair of queens. You collect $5.
Those 2 royalty points exist because this group wrote them. Another kitchen can write 1, or 4, or zero.
Do not export this $5 as the game's official price.
Dollar example 2, the Hold'em contrast. A six-max pot on this site reaches $80 and a flop is dealt.
The fee is 5% of $80, so $4. The winner receives $76.
Open-face points do not enter that pot. A Hold'em hand with no flop pays no poker fee.
Leave the $4 off your point sheet.
If you foul, you do not collect the $5. You pay whatever the foul line on the same sheet says. Read that line before you chase queens on top.
Open face chinese poker tips before the first card sticks
Open face chinese poker tips
- Write top, middle, and bottom on a card so newcomers see the shape.
- Agree the unit price per point before anyone sets a card.
- List which rows earn royalties, without inventing a second sheet mid-game.
- State the foul penalty in one sentence.
- Confirm whether the first street is five cards or some other count.
- Confirm that a placed card cannot move, if that is your rule.
- Set the bottom strong enough before you decorate the top.
- Say the hand fouled as soon as the order breaks, not after an argument.
- Keep score on paper both players can see.
- Stop the session at a point cap you chose while calm.
- Remind the table this is not Hold'em and there is no board.
Seven-card stud is another game with upcards and memory. It still will not place thirteen cards into rows for you.
Fouls, fantasyland stories, and royalty chasing
Open face chinese strategy
Open face chinese strategy is mostly foul avoidance. A monster bottom is useless if the middle is weaker than the top.
Build from the bottom's strength requirement upward. The royalty on top is a bonus, not a reason to strand the middle with junk.
Fantasyland, in apps that use it, is a special next hand awarded for a very strong top, often queens or better. Not every home sheet has it.
If yours does not, do not play as if a fantasy draw will refund a foul. If yours does, write the entry condition and how many cards the fantasy hand receives.
This page does not publish one official fantasy payout.
Chasing royalties with early cards is how layouts foul on card eleven. Leave room in the middle for a hand that can legally sit under the bottom and over the top. A pair of kings on top feels clever until the middle is a pair of sixes and the bottom is two pair.
Because every card is visible, opponents can see the foul coming and play safely against you. There is no hidden trap in the way Hold'em has hidden hole cards. Your layout is the tell.
Adults, a point game, and a lobby that deals something else
Play for points that mean money only with adults. If the local age is above 18, follow the higher age.
This is not legal advice. A scored home game can still be restricted where you live.
Read the regulator. No statute section is cited here.
PVPspinArena does not deal open-face Chinese poker. Do not look for a row-setting table in that lobby. The poker button opens six-max No-Limit Hold'em.
The responsible gambling page is the right stop before a "dollar a point" game becomes ten dollars a point because someone is stuck. Royalties multiply the swing. A cap on the session, written before the first layout, is part of the sheet.
We are not an affiliate of any open-face site, and we do not list a promo code. If an app's royalty chart disagrees with your kitchen, the app's chart governs only inside that app.
Leave the rows on paper and open Hold'em if you want this site
How PvP compares: open-face is a face-up layout scored in points. Poker is two hole cards, five community cards, and no-limit betting between players.
Fairness explains the seed you can recompute after a Hold'em hand. Should the page show a live block, it updates from settled play.
Nothing here recaps a recent layout or a recent pot.
The same lobby does not deal Big O, short deck, razz, or 2-7. Saying that plainly saves a search for a variant button that is not there.
Set the three rows in order, pay the sheet you wrote, and foul early in your head before you foul on the paper. Hold'em, when you want it from us, is a different deal with a 5% post-flop fee.
Face-up rows are not a trap in hold'em. Checking a monster in hold'em is that other choice, on a game this site actually spreads.
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