Jason Mercier Wins ?2K Open-Face Chinese Poker Event at EPT Grand Final

[Bonghead]

As in standard Chinese Poker, each player will construct three hands: a 5-card back hand, a 5-card middle hand and a 3-card front hand. However, initially, just 5 cards are dealt face down to each player, and the remainder of the deck is stacked face down. The players decide how to allocate these cards to their three hands, and when all are ready, all simultaneously expose their cards.

Play now continues clockwise, starting with the player to the dealer's left. Each player in turn draws the top card of the stock, exposes it, and adds it to one of his or her three hands. Once played, cards cannot be moved from one hand to another, and when a hand has its full complement of cards (5 in the back or middle, 3 in the front), no more can be added. When everyone has 13 cards, the hands are compared and scored as in the standard game.

In order to qualify to win, a player's back hand must be better than their middle hand, which must be better than their front hand. If these conditions are not met, the player's hands are 'foul', and all three hands lose to any other player whose hands are not also foul. (In standard Chinese Poker, foul hands never occur unless the player makes a mistake. In Open Face Chinese Poker, a player may easily get into a situation where a foul is unavoidable, if the last few cards are not what the player hoped for.)

Any of the scoring variants described above could also be applied to the open face game.

[Wiresunderneath]

Thank you so much!