Chinese Poker Rules — Scoring, Royalties and Fantasyland

Which game this page describes

Chinese Poker exists in two families and mixing them up is the most common source of confusion. Classic Chinese Poker: all 13 cards are dealt at once, each player arranges them privately, then everyone reveals. No drawing, no royalties in the basic form. Open Face Chinese (OFC): cards arrive gradually and are placed face up one at a time, and once a card is placed it cannot be moved. This creates the whole game — you commit to a structure before you know what is coming. This page describes Open Face Chinese, including the Pineapple variant, because that is the version played in almost every online club today. Where classic rules differ, the difference is noted.

The three rows and the golden rule

Every player builds three hands, called rows, from 13 cards. Back (bottom row): 5 cards. Middle: 5 cards. Front (top row): 3 cards. The golden rule: back ≥ middle ≥ front in poker strength. Your bottom row must be at least as strong as your middle, and your middle at least as strong as your front. Break this and your hand is fouled (also called mis-set) — you score zero and lose to every opponent who set legally, plus their royalties. The front row uses only three cards, so it can only ever be high card, one pair, or three of a kind. There are no straights or flushes in a three-card front row.

How the cards are dealt

Standard OFC: you receive 5 cards to start and place all five, in any arrangement across the three rows. Then you receive 8 more cards, one at a time, placing each immediately before seeing the next. Total: 13 cards, 13 placements. Pineapple OFC: you receive 5 cards to start, then four rounds of 3 cards in which you place 2 and discard 1. Total placed: 5 + 8 = 13, with 4 cards discarded. Pineapple is faster and gives more control, which is why it dominates online play. Because a placed card is frozen, the sequencing is the skill. Placing a queen in the front row on the first street is a commitment you cannot undo six cards later.

Scoring: the 1-6 method

The most common scoring system compares rows pairwise between each pair of players. Win a row: +1 point. Lose a row: −1. Tie a row: 0. Win all three rows: a scoop, worth a bonus. Under the 1-6 method you score 6 total instead of 3 (3 for the rows plus 3 for the scoop). Worked example between two players. You win the back and the middle and lose the front: +1 +1 −1 = +1 point. If you also win the front it becomes a scoop: 6 points. Royalties, described below, are added on top and are also compared pairwise — you only collect the difference against each opponent. Some home games use the 2-4 method (a scoop pays 4 rather than 6). Agree the scoring before dealing.

Royalties

Royalties are bonus points for strong hands, and they are the reason players take risks in OFC. The same hand pays more in the middle than in the back, because the middle is harder to fill while respecting the golden rule. These are the standard values used in most online implementations — check your room, since a few use slightly different scales.

Fantasyland

Fantasyland is the biggest single edge in the game. Qualify for it and on the next hand you receive all 13 cards at once and set them privately, without the street-by-street commitment that constrains everyone else. Entry: a pair of queens or better in the front row, set legally — a foul does not qualify. Many rooms use progressive Fantasyland, dealing 14 cards for QQ, 15 for KK, 16 for AA or a front-row set. Staying in Fantasyland requires a strong repeat: four of a kind or better in the back, a full house or better in the middle, or three of a kind in the front. Under normal rules those thresholds are the standard set. The strategic weight of this rule is enormous. Placing QQ in the front is a high-variance decision: it risks fouling because your middle and back must then both beat a pair of queens, and it pays off with a hand where you are far less likely to foul and far more likely to collect royalties.

• Entry: QQ+ in the front row, set legally
• Progressive dealing (common online): 14 cards for QQ, 15 for KK, 16 for AA or trips
• Stay: quads+ in the back, full house+ in the middle, or trips in the front
• Fouling while in Fantasyland ends it immediately

Fouling — the mistake that defines beginners

A foul is not a small penalty. You score zero rows, you pay every opponent, and you collect none of your own royalties even if you built a straight flush in the back. The classic foul: you get a good pair early and place it in the middle, then the following cards force a weaker back row. Two aces in the middle with king-high in the back is a foul, and the aces are worthless. The practical defence is to build from the bottom up. Early cards belong in the back row unless you have a concrete reason, because the back has no hand above it to satisfy. The front row is where you place your weakest cards until late in the hand, and the middle is the row that most often traps players.

• Default early placements to the back row
• Treat the middle as the row that must be filled last, not first
• Before placing a pair in the front, count how many cards remain to fix the middle and back
• Count dead cards — in OFC every opponent's board is face up, so your outs are literally visible
• When a hand goes badly, abandon royalties and set legally: 0 beats a foul by a wide margin

A hand from start to finish

Opening five cards: A♠ K♠ 8♦ 7♣ 3♥. A reasonable set places A♠K♠ in the back — they are suited and high, keeping flush, straight and top-pair possibilities open in the row with no constraint above it. 8♦ and 7♣ go to the middle as a flexible base. The 3♥ goes to the front, where a low card costs nothing and keeps the front weak, which is exactly what the golden rule wants early on. A common beginner alternative places A♠K♠ in the front for "high card strength". That is a trap: it forces both the middle and the back to beat ace-high, which the remaining eight cards frequently cannot do, and ace-high in the front pays no royalty at all. As the hand continues, each incoming card is judged by one question: which row can accept this card without endangering the golden rule? Only when that answer is comfortable do you start optimising for royalties.

How OFC differs from classic Chinese Poker

If you learn OFC first, three differences matter when you sit in a classic game. Information: in classic Chinese Poker all 13 cards arrive at once and you set privately, so there is no dead-card reading and no placement sequencing — the skill is purely in the arrangement. Fouling: still possible, but it is an arrangement error rather than a risk you were forced into. Royalties and Fantasyland: these are OFC features. Classic games may use bonus schedules by agreement, but there is no Fantasyland, because there is no street-by-street structure for it to reward.