The games · Coolhand Poker

Open-Face Chinese Poker

Chinese Poker played one card at a time, face up, and once a card is placed it never moves. Rows out of order score nothing. Big hands earn extra.

18+ · Nothing to win but the hand.

Players: 2 to 3
Family: Chinese Poker
App: Coolhand Poker · iOS and Android, soon

How it goes

You start with five cards and place them one by one, face up, into a front of three, a middle of five and a back of five. Then you place one card at a time until all thirteen are down. A placed card stays for good. The rows must finish in order, the back strongest and the front weakest. If they don't, that's a foul: you score nothing and pay for a scoop, as if the other player had won every row, plus the other player's royalties. Rows in order settle a unit each, and big hands earn royalties, extra points on top, counted for both players. A pair of queens or better in the front, without fouling, sends you to Fantasyland: next hand you get all thirteen cards at once and set them in peace.

A good hand

Rows that can still finish in order whatever the deck sends next. That means a high pair or better at the back early on, and a middle built to beat the front by a clear margin, not by a single card. Royalties are where the real scoring is: a flush at the back, a full house in the middle, a big pair in the front. But a royalty only counts for a hand that doesn't foul, so a dull arrangement that stays in order beats a fancy one that falls apart on the last card.

The usual mistake

Placing a strong card in the front early. A pair of kings in the front is worth eight royalty points, which looks good until the middle fails to beat it. Then it's a foul, and with eight cards still to come, the middle often fails. Build the back first, then the middle, and let the front stay weak until the other two rows can carry it.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Open-Face Chinese Poker goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.

The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.